NAB fraudster jailed for 15 years over plot

A Sydney executive who defrauded the National Australia Bank of millions of dollars to fund a lavish lifestyle has been jailed for 15 years after a judge labelled the scam “stunning”.

Helen Mary Rosamond was on Thursday sentenced in Sydney’s Downing Centre District Court in the final chapter of the infamous multimillion-dollar embezzlement scheme.

Dressed in a blue jacket and skirt, she sat still and listened intently as Judge Robert Sutherland took more than 2½ hours to hand down his sentence.

After facing trial, she was last year convicted of 90 fraud and bribery charges after a jury found Rosamond paid millions in kickbacks to Rosemary Rogers, who worked as a chief of staff to two former NAB chief executives.

The jury found that in her role as the director of event management company, Human Group, Rosamond sent falsified and inflated invoices to the bank, which were then approved by Rogers.

The court was told that in her role, Rogers had the personal authority to approve invoices of up to $20m.

And Judge Sutherland said such a “extraordinary delegation” enabled them to “escape scrutiny and internal auditing”.

“The length and the breadth of the fraudulent activity is breathtaking in its audacity,” Judge Sutherland said.

“The extravagance of their spending, the opulence of the lifestyle both pursued was stunning.”

The loss incurred by the bank was estimated to be between $7m and $9.8m.

The jury found Rosamond charged personal expenses to NAB, including $228,747 for an interior designer, $100,000 in rent, $372,611 for landscaping and $17,888 for artwork.

The court was told that Rogers also approved a $2.2m invoice from the Human Group which purported to be for costs related to the recruitment of former NSW Premier Mike Baird.

Human Group first began working with NAB in 2006 on a legitimate basis with Rosamond’s company organising events and workshops.

But over a five-year period they defrauded the bank of millions.

The court was told that Rogers was provided with $5.5m worth of kickbacks from Rosamond from 2013 until December 2017, while Rosamond obtained $4m worth of benefits.

In 2017, the NAB received an anonymous whistleblower’s letter, prompting Rogers to resign and the bank to terminate its consultancy agreement with the Human Group.

The court was told Rosamond and Rogers became good friends, spoke almost daily and in texts referred to each other in affectionate terms such as “bestie” and “sister from another mother”.

The court was told that she expressed “shame, regret and remorse” to a psychologist.

However Judge Sutherland noted she did not give evidence during sentence proceedings and they could only be given limited weight.

Rosamond was on Thursday sentenced to 15 years in jail with an eight-year non-parole period.

With time served, she will be eligible for release in December 2030.

In a statement, NAB thanked the anonymous whistleblower for exposing the scheme.

“NAB acknowledges its prior failures in not having sufficient controls and processes,” NAB’s group executive of legal and commercial services Sharon Cook said.

“After we became aware of the fraud, we overhauled our controls and processes, including reducing expense delegations and introducing additional checks on expenses.”

Rogers was in 2021 sentenced to eight years in prison, with a non-parole period of four years and nine months after she pleaded guilty to 64 charges, including corruptly receiving a benefit and obtaining a financial gain by deception.