Former ANZ trader, Etienne Alexiou, was described as a “hypocrite” by Justice Nye Perram in a judgment published on Monday.
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trader → describe → Monday
But there was at least one key point where the Federal Court judge found Alexiou to be correct.
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Alexiou → be → ?
Alexiou, who was sacked amid the fallout from a partially forgotten scandal more than a decade ago, had long argued that he was a whistleblower.
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he → sack → scandal
He told the court that he had spoken out about trading malpractice in the early 2010s and claimed a colleague had said he would “slaughter” a rate used to set the interest on vast amounts of short-term loans, thereby manipulating the market and making money.
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he → tell → money
Perram did not agree Alexiou was a whistleblower.
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Alexiou → agree → ?
He was a man who had spoken with colleagues of “ramming speed straight at a jap bird” and then claimed, in court, he was talking about whaling.
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he → speak → whaling
ANZ had sacked him for that kind of language and Perram found Alexiou’s evidence at times “unconvincing and blameworthy”.
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evidence → sack → times
“The fact that Mr Alexiou is a hypocrite about this does not logically entail that he is wrong and, on this occasion, I am satisfied that he is right,” he said.
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he → entail → occasion
His remarks about “ramming” were made to counterparts at UBS and CBA.
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remarks → make → UBS
And as Perram put it, they paint a picture of a wider ‘nasty and brutish’ world characterised by the British philosopher Thomas Hobbes, that Alexiou inhabited.
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Alexiou → put → that
Internally, “the workplace in which Mr Alexiou worked was Hobbesian,” Perram said.
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Perram → work → which
Traders were paid multimillion-dollar annual bonuses.
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Traders → pay → bonuses
“Their pursuit no doubt contributed to the – at least – martial language evident on the trading floor where, as the facts of this case show, the Dionysian urge to slaughter, pummel, smash or ram seems to have been a virtue worthy of public confession.”
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urge → contribute → confession
Getting drunk was common, even among senior management.
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Getting → get → management
Reckless, dangerous and “sexist behaviour which did not by any means stop short of sexual harassment” happened openly.
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which → stop → harassment
“The attitude to women that is revealed is particularly problematic.”
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that → reveal → women
Alexiou himself had been interviewed for his job, which he got in 2011, on an evening that began at a wine bar, continued to a Chinese restaurant, and ended at a strip club called the Men’s Gallery in the Sydney CBD.
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that → interview → CBD
The evening was driven by a senior man in the ANZ trading division, but the group included a female human resources staffer from the bank.
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group → drive → bank
It was a “a radical departure from what most people would regard as normal in the workplace”, said Perram, with some understatement.
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Perram → regard → understatement
If the interview set the tone, things escalated in March 2013 at a dinner in a conference hosted by the bank in the Hunter Valley.
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things → set → Valley
After dinner, ANZ’s then-managing director of global markets, Steve Bellotti, took an interest in a young woman identified only as P.
“[Bellotti] (and another male employee) then sexually harassed P by badgering her for her room number, blocking her from leaving and manhandling her,” Perram found.
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Perram → manage → her
The incident ended only when another bank employee asked whether P would like him to call security.
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him → end → security
“If this was the conduct of the people at the top of global markets then it is not difficult to see what impact that was likely to have had on the culture of the (mostly) male employees beneath them,” Perram said.
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Perram → see → them
“It paints a picture not only of unconstrained loucheness and irresponsibility but also of a culture where sexist behaviour towards women was normalised and where the sexism went as far as harassment.”
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sexism → paint → harassment
“Since the fish rots from the head, I find that this culture permeated down to the traders for whom senior management was responsible and that the workplace was affected by it to a non-trivial degree.”
Alexiou embraced the culture, Perram found, but he was not fully of the “the smash, ram, pummel and slaughter set”.
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he → rot → set
The former trader was an introverted man trying to fit in amidst his boorish workplace, Perram said.
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Perram → try → workplace
While the whistleblowing claim and talk of a $100 million judgment came to nothing, Alexiou won a breach of contract claim, likely worth about $5 million.
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Alexiou → come → claim
The bank itself settled allegations around the interest rate setting device for $50 million in 2017 and admitted some of its traders had attempted to engage in “unconscionable conduct”.
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some → settle → conduct
ANZ is on its third chief executive since Alexiou was sacked in 2015.
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Alexiou → sack → 2015
Bellotti – who was contacted for comment – left that year too.
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who → contact → comment
“The conduct considered by the court relates to events involving employees no longer with the bank that occurred more than a decade ago that falls short of the standards expected at ANZ,” a bank spokesman said.
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spokesman → consider → ANZ
“ANZ has continued to strengthen its culture, leadership accountability and workplace standards, and remains committed to providing a respectful, inclusive and safe environment for all employees.”
At least some of the exposure that led to that change came from a most imperfect messenger.
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newsletter → continue → stories
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