A Sydney executive accused of orchestrating a multi-million-dollar fraud that netted lavish trips and substantial kickbacks has pointed the finger at the former senior NAB staffer due to give evidence against her.
Helen Mary Rosamond, 47, has pleaded not guilty to 60 counts of giving a corrupt benefit and 32 fraud charges in her Sydney District Court jury trial.
Key to the crown case against the executive director of events and human resources group Human Group is the evidence of Rosemary Rogers, who was chief-of-staff in the office of the NAB chief executive at the time of the alleged offences from 2013 to 2017.
Rogers, who received a substantial discount on her own sentence for giving evidence, is expected to say she used her privileged position to approve millions of dollars' worth of Human Group invoices for services never provided to NAB.
The jury is expected to hear evidence that Rosamond bought Rogers a luxury car, a boat and a $620,000 international holiday before billing NAB for the costs under project codenames.
One of the largest bills was $2.2 million and marked "Project Eagle" - the codename for the onboarding of former NSW premier Mike Baird as a NAB executive in 2017.
But the Crown expects to show Human Group wasn't involved at all in Project Eagle.
The money instead allegedly covered a substantial amount for a home Rogers had purchased in Williamstown in Melbourne's west and delivered Rosamond a $700,000 kickback.
"Put simply this invoice was fake, it was false and it was a fraud," crown prosecutor Katrina Mackenzie told jurors on Tuesday.
"It was aimed at getting a quick $2.2 million - and it worked."
Anton Hughes, acting for Rosamond, said a central issue in the months-long trial will be whether his client was party to an agreement to defraud the bank for her own gain.
The charge of giving a corrupt benefit implies she initiated it, but it was disputed that it was all Rosamond's idea.
"It was Ms Rogers who took those benefits for herself," Dr Hughes said.
Allegations about Human Group's accounting were also in conflict, though Rosamond agrees she prepared the invoices sent to NAB - the firm's primary customer.
The sun set on the scheme in December 2017 when multiple people in NAB received a letter from a whistleblower and the bank began its own investigations.
The whistleblower's identity may never be known, Ms Mackenzie said.
Rogers resigned a few days after being interviewed and Human Group's agreement was terminated.
But Rosamond allegedly made a final attempt to claw more from the bank, issuing a two-page bill in February 2018 containing 20 project codenames and totalling more than $3 million.
When NAB's repeated requests for receipts went answered, it went to suppliers - a step Rosamond alleged was defamatory and demanded cease immediately.
"It's the crown case this demand exposed the accused's consciousness of guilt and made clear she feared (the suppliers) would reveal those invoices were in fact fraudulent," Ms Mackenzie said.
"We say it was for no other reason than that."
The trial continues.
