Sydney businesswoman found guilty of defrauding NAB of millions as jury deliberations continue
A Sydney businesswoman has been found guilty of defrauding the National Australia Bank of millions of dollars and paying kickbacks to a senior bank staffer after a jury returned a verdict to some of the charges against her.
Helen Rosamond, owner of North Sydney-based event management company Human Group, stood trial in the NSW District Court on 60 counts of giving a corrupt benefit to former senior NAB staffer Rosemary Rogers and 32 counts of dishonestly obtaining, or attempting to dishonestly obtain, a financial advantage by deception.
Helen Rosamond leaving the NSW District Court in Sydney last month.Credit:Dean Sewell
The trial started on August 15 and the jury began deliberations last week on Tuesday, November 15.
On Wednesday, the jury indicated it could deliver verdicts in relation to 70 of the charges, with deliberations continuing in relation to the remaining 22.
It found Rosamond guilty of 59 charges of paying a corrupt benefit and 10 charges of obtaining or attempting to obtain a financial advantage by deception. She was found not guilty of one charge of giving a corrupt benefit.
The Crown had alleged Rosamond defrauded NAB of millions of dollars between 2013 and 2017 by billing it for extravagant personal expenses and kickbacks to Rogers. The total value of the charges was $15 million, the jury was told. Human Group had organised a series of events for the bank including leadership retreats.
Rogers, who was chief of staff to former NAB chief executives Cameron Clyne and Andrew Thorburn, was a trusted and longtime bank employee who was authorised to approve payments of up to $20 million.
Among the personal expenses the jury found Rosamond charged to NAB were $228,747 for an interior designer to furnish her Potts Point terrace, almost $100,000 in rent, $372,611 to landscape her former marital home in Mosman, $86,413 for renovations and $17,888 on artworks.
The jury also found she obtained some $2.2 million by billing NAB for expenses that were fraudulently designated as relating to “Project Eagle”, the codename for a confidential plan to recruit former NSW Premier Mike Baird to the bank in 2017.
Rogers gave evidence that she approved inflated invoices from Human Group as part of a fraudulent arrangement with Rosamond. The kickbacks were designed to ensure Human Group’s lucrative contracts with NAB continued and that Rogers rubber-stamped Rosamond’s invoices, the Crown alleged.
Former NAB staffer Rosemary Rogers. Credit:Sam Mooy
The jury found Rogers received a string of big-ticket gifts from Rosamond, including $1.5 million for a house and a further $380,000 for a deposit, a $159,490 European holiday for six people, a $620,000 US holiday for eight including a private jet, a $29,377 holiday to the Saffire Freycinet resort in Tasmania, a $115,000 boat, a $172,000 BMW and $6,398.86 for her nanny to fly to Chile.
But it found Rosamond not guilty of one charge of giving Rogers a corrupt benefit in the form of a $26,515.44 holiday to Western Australia.
Rogers told the court it was “obvious” to her that NAB was ultimately picking up the tab for her own gifts. She had indirect discussions with Rosamond about particular purchases, she said, and “Helen would have given it … a reference to a [NAB] project or something like that, and that’s when I would have known it would be going through the invoices”.
But Rosamond’s barrister, Dr Anton Hughes, had told the jury there was no arrangement between the pair and Rogers was an “accomplished liar”.
The jury heard Rogers is serving a prison sentence after pleading guilty to a raft of offences including 27 counts of corruptly receiving a benefit from Rosamond.
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