A SENIOR executive at the supermarket giant Woolworths sent a stream of inside information to particular companies to ensure they won nearly $40 million worth of computer contracts in return for $3.7 million in kickbacks, a court has heard.
He then allegedly used a complex web of companies in the British Virgin Islands to launder the proceeds and hide the money trail.
A former general manager of information services at Woolworths, David Wills, is on trial in the Downing Centre District Court on 24 charges, including fraud, money laundering and fabricating evidence to mislead a tribunal.
Advertisement: Story continues below
On trial alongside him are Peter and Carroll Henderson, a husband and wife who ran a company that was allegedly awarded contracts as part of the alleged fraud.
In his opening address to the jury yesterday, the Crown prosecutor Sunil de Silva said the three accused were part of a conspiracy in which Mr Wills used his position to ensure contracts for computer hardware and software were won by the Hendersons’ company, Smart Repair Terminals, or a foreign company which they acted as agents for, Azben Electronics.
”Mr Wills used his position at Woolworths to influence both the awarding of contracts and the quantity of equipment,” Mr de Silva said.
Mr Wills allegedly did this through a ‘’sham procedure” whereby he would give the inside information about the tender process, such as what answers to give when Woolworths requested information.
He also allegedly lied to the Woolworths board, telling them a pilot scheme involving computer software and hardware from the two companies was functioning perfectly when this was not necessarily the case.
He allegedly breached Woolworths’s own internal protocols in carrying out the tender process to ”allow the fraud to take place”.
The court heard Woolworths lost credibility in the marketplace as a result of the alleged fraud because other companies lost confidence in its tender process.
In return for his efforts, Mr Wills allegedly received $3.7 million.
The court heard that he hid this money through a web of companies, including Crossborder Holdings, an entity based in the tax-friendly British Virgin Islands.
It was alleged the Hendersons attempted to hide and launder their money in a similar way.
The jury heard the Crown case was a circumstantial one where the evidence would take the form of many thousands of pages of documents, including 4500 pages from Woolworths alone.
The trial, before Judge Andrew Haesler, continues.
Source:http://www.smh.com.au/national/woolies-executive-fixed-40m-computer-contracts-court-told-20120516-1yrd4.html
