Fed: Cooper charged over HIH involvement

AAP General News (Australia)
12-16-2003
Fed: Cooper charged over HIH involvement

By Darrin Barnett

SYDNEY, Dec 16 AAP - Entrepreneur and former Collingwood Football Club director Brad
Cooper faces 10 charges including offering bribes for his role in the billion-dollar collapse
of insurance giant HIH.

Cooper, a former director of an HIH subsidiary, was arrested at his Sydney home today
and later charged by police, Australian Securities and Investments Commission chairman
David Knott told journalists.

Mr Knott said Cooper was facing 10 charges under the NSW Crimes Act in that he corruptly
offered bribes and obtained a financial advantage during the final months before the insurer's
$5.3 billion collapse in March 2001.

Cooper's arrest came as a result of admissions made by former HIH financial services
general manager Bill Howard, who said he received up to $124,000 in improper cash payments
from Cooper.

In doing so, Howard became the first HIH defendant to have made admissions of criminal
conduct to ASIC.

And Cooper became the first high profile arrest since a 16-month Royal Commission into
Australia's biggest corporate disaster handed down its findings in February.

"Today's events are a major breakthrough in ASIC's investigation into the matters referred
by the Royal Commission earlier this year," Mr Knott said.

Howard has pleaded guilty to two counts of criminal misconduct, admitting he received
the money to facilitate payments by HIH to Cooper of about $4.9 million plus debt forgiveness
of $1.79 million.

Howard also admitted authorising the payment to Vision Publishing, a company associated
with Cooper, of $735,500 for a claim that HIH had already settled.

Mr Knott said Cooper would be charged with six counts under the NSW Crimes Act relating
to corrupt cash payments and a further four counts relating to publishing a false or misleading
statement.

The ASIC chairman said Howard had revealed to ASIC his arrangement with Cooper was
reached during a meeting at a hotel in Balmain, in Sydney's inner west, on December 3,
2000.

Howard said that at that meeting, Cooper promised to "look after him" through cash
payments in return for assisting Cooper to recover amounts claimed against HIH.

On December 22, 2000, Howard opened a safety deposit box at the George Street, Sydney,
branch of the National Australia Bank for the purpose of storing cash from Cooper along
with certain HIH documents.

Several cash payments totalling between $119,000 and $124,000 were deposited by Howard
in the safety deposit box over the next three months, Mr Knott said.

Mr Knott said Howard was providing ongoing cooperation with ASIC's investigation into the matter.

The Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions today made comprehensive submissions
to the NSW Supreme Court, before Justice David Kirby, regarding Howard receiving a non
custodial sentence.

This was supported by ASIC, Mr Knott said.

Justice Kirby has reserved his position on sentencing and remanded Howard on bail to
a date to be fixed.

HIH Insurance disappeared into a $5.3 billion hole in March 2001.

A subsequent Royal Commission found about 1,000 or more adverse findings against those
involved in the collapse, with the term "Rivers of Money" used during the hearings to
describe the roughly $16 million which allegedly went to Mr Cooper or companies associated
with him in the last six months of HIH's existence.

Of that money $250,000 ended up in Collingwood's coffers at a time when the payment
of insurance claims had slowed to a trickle, just three months before HIH fell over.

Cooper told the Royal Commission he gave HIH the money to pay for the sponsorship,
but said it had nothing to do with his desire to be re-elected as Collingwood's vice president.

ASIC said bail conditions set for Cooper included requirements that he surrender his
passport; that he report weekly to the Mosman police station; that he provide bail of
$100,000 plus an acceptable third party surety for the sum of $250,000; and that he not
approach certain persons who have been identified as potential witnesses in future ASIC
proceedings.

AAP db/sjh/mo

KEYWORD: HIH CHARGES NIGHTLEAD (REPEAT)

2003 AAP Information Services Pty Limited (AAP) or its Licensors.