The former chief executive of Victoria's regional rail network and ex-manager of Melbourne's Metro Trains have faced court accused of major misconduct by the state's corruption watchdog.
Ex-V/Line CEO James Pinder and former Metro manager Peter Bollas are among seven people who were charged by the Independent Broad-Based Anti-Corruption Commission last month.
The group faced Melbourne Magistrates Court on Wednesday, where their bail conditions were set ahead of another hearing in March.
Pinder, who appeared in person, is facing nine charges stemming from 2018 to 2020 including wilful misconduct in public office and corruptly receiving special consideration from cleaning services provider Transclean Facilities.
Bollas and Pinder are jointly accused of conspiring to corruptly solicit valuable consideration from Transclean's director, George Haritos, court documents reveal.
Bollas, who was Metro's head of fleet operational support, has also been charged with receiving secret commissions.
The charges follow an IBAC inquiry, which looked into allegations that senior public officials improperly influenced the awarding of major contracts with V/Line and Metro.
Transclean, which provided cleaning services to V/Line and Metro, was accused of making secret cash payments to senior transport officials.
Haritos and Transclean's co-director Alex Kyritsis are charged with corruptly giving Pinder and Bollas valuable consideration, "the receipt or expectation of which would tend to influence them to show favour" to the company. Haritos is facing five charges and Kyritsis one.
Steven Kyritsis and Maria Tsakopolos, employees of Transclean, are accused of giving Pinder or Bollas "valuable consideration" to influence them to show favour.
Tsakopolos' lawyer, Steven Benedict Collin, has been charged with attempting to pervert the course of justice.
All seven accused were released on bail with conditions, including not to contact prosecution witnesses. They must surrender their passports, cannot attend any international points of departure and cannot associate with any co-accused.
The matter will return to court for a committal mention on March 29 next year.
