The Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA) has rejected claims its chief executive breached a confidentiality agreement while delivering an update on its Storm Financial (Storm) resolution scheme.
In an open letter to CBA chief executive Ralph Norris obtained by InvestorDaily, Levitt and Robinson Solicitors principal solicitor and advocate Stewart Levitt has accused Norris of revealing contents of a confidential discussion in a newspaper interview.
“Remarks attributed to you traversed the contents of confidential discussions which had been conducted between me and CBA customer relations manager Dr Brendan French, and the bank’s senior legal counsel Charles Tilley, on 31 May and 7 June 2010,” Levitt wrote.
“I take it that the privilege attaching to the contents of those discussions has now been waived by CBA.”
Among the claims Levitt made against Norris, Levitt took particular offence to Norris’s comments that suggested CBA had offered to put select Storm clients through test cases but that Levitt Robinson had declined.
“This statement is simply neither accurate nor in fact, contextually true. Test case negotiations between Levitt Robinson and Dr French and Mr Tilley were suspended by CBA – not by Levitt Robinson – on 7 June 2010,” the letter said.
“CBA required that a single Levitt Robinson test case be substantially subsidised by Levitt Robinson’s CBA Storm Borrower clients. Contrastingly, CBA had more than fully underwritten the costs of Slater & Gordon running test cases for its Borrower clients before the resolution scheme’s independent panel and had agreed to pay Slater & Gordon $500,000 for this to occur.”
The bank rejects Levitt’s allegations it has breached confidentiality, a CBA spokesperson said.
“Mr Levitt’s claims are incorrect. The bank terminated Mr Levitt’s involvement in the Resolution Scheme over a month ago,” the spokesperson said.
“Unless Mr Levitt succeeds in his court challenge to have that decision reversed, clients who he represented need to appoint a new Borrower Lawyer to stay in the Scheme.”
Storm Financial collapsed in January 2009.
