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Daniel Wilkie found not guilty

SECOND ASIC PROSECUTION OF FAI'S DANIEL WILKIE FAILS

On 13 October 2008 in the Supreme Court of New South Wales a jury acquitted our client, Mr Daniel Wilkie, the former Chief Operating Officer of FAI, of all charges laid against him in relation to FAI's financial results released at 31 December 1997.  The 12 person jury found unanimously that Mr Wilkie was not guilty of the three separate charges which had been the subject of a six and a half week trial in the Supreme Court.

Mr Wilkie had been again represented by our Director of Commercial Litigation, Hugh Scott, and Ben Giles of our commercial litigation team.

The acquittal came 6 1/2 years after the collapse of HIH and nearly three years to the day after Mr Wilkie was acquitted of earlier charges arising out of the collapse of HIH.  Those charges concerned reinsurance contracts entered into in May and June 1998 and their alleged impact on the FAI financial results for June 1998.  Our release concerning the earlier acquittal can be accessed at HIH Acquittal for our client.

The acquittal of Mr Wilkie was expected to mark the end of a sustained and aggressive, or in the words of Hugh Scott "totally misconceived", pursuit of Mr Wilkie by ASIC and the Commonwealth DPP.

It is particularly noteworthy that not only have Hugh Scott and Ben Giles managed to secure the only acquittals for persons charged with offences arising out of the HIH collapse (Mr Wilkie's first acquittal included those of his two co-accused in a defence substantially led by Speed and Stracey) but also involved obtaining the payment of Mr Wilkie's defence costs in a landmark High Court of Australia judgment handed down in April 2005. 

Hugh Scott said of the acquittal:

"Today represents a great relief for Daniel and his family and another pleasing result for Speed and Stracey -in particular Ben Giles and myself.  Over the last 7 years we have been bombarded with hundreds of thousands of documents from a specialist division of ASIC funded with millions of dollars.  My client was initially denied indemnity for his defence costs by FAI's insurers which necessitated the commencement of proceedings and ultimately a remarkable and successful appeal to the High Court, all within 7 months from the date indemnity was denied."

Mr Wilkie said:

"My family and I are greatly relieved with this result.  I would like to thank all my family and friends who have supported me through this most trying period.  In particular I would like to thank  the team at Speed and Stracey, Hugh Scott and Ben Giles, and also my barristers Lionel Robberds QC and Murugan Thangaraj, all of whom have believed in me and worked tirelessly, skilfully and artfully in my defence and in looking after my best interests.  I could not have asked for more from them."

For further comment contact Hugh Scott: 0418 413 959 or 02 9251 8000

Chronology