The ‘slaughter, pummel, smash or ram’ culture at ANZ exposed by a ‘hypocrite’

Former ANZ trader, Etienne Alexiou, was described as a “hypocrite” by Justice Nye Perram in a judgment published on Monday. But there was at least one key point where the Federal Court judge found Alexiou to be correct.Alexiou, who was sacked amid the fallout from a partially forgotten scandal more than a decade ago, had long argued that he was a whistleblower.Former ANZ trader Etienne Alexiou leaving the Federal Court in Sydney last October.Louie DouvisHe told the court that he had spoken out about trading malpractice in the early 2010s and claimed a colleague had said he would “slaughter” a rate used to set the interest on vast amounts of short-term loans, thereby manipulating the market and making money.Perram did not agree Alexiou was a whistleblower. He was a man who had spoken with colleagues of “ramming speed straight at a jap bird” and then claimed, in court, he was talking about whaling.ANZ had sacked him for that kind of language and Perram found Alexiou’s evidence at times “unconvincing and blameworthy”.“The fact that Mr Alexiou is a hypocrite about this does not logically entail that he is wrong and, on this occasion, I am satisfied that he is right,” he said.But Alexiou was no Robinson Crusoe. His remarks about “ramming” were made to counterparts at UBS and CBA. And as Perram put it, they paint a picture of a wider ‘nasty and brutish’ world characterised by the British philosopher Thomas Hobbes, that Alexiou inhabited.Internally, “the workplace in which Mr Alexiou worked was Hobbesian,” Perram said.Traders were paid multimillion-dollar annual bonuses. “Their pursuit no doubt contributed to the – at least – martial language evident on the trading floor where, as the facts of this case show, the Dionysian urge to slaughter, pummel, smash or ram seems to have been a virtue worthy of public confession.”Swearing was pervasive. Getting drunk was common, even among senior management. Reckless, dangerous and “sexist behaviour which did not by any means stop short of sexual harassment” happened openly. “The attitude to women that is revealed is particularly problematic.”Alexiou himself had been interviewed for his job, which he got in 2011, on an evening that began at a wine bar, continued to a Chinese restaurant, and ended at a strip club called the Men’s Gallery in the Sydney CBD. The evening was driven by a senior man in the ANZ trading division, but the group included a female human resources staffer from the bank.It was a “a radical departure from what most people would regard as normal in the workplace”, said Perram, with some understatement.If the interview set the tone, things escalated in March 2013 at a dinner in a conference hosted by the bank in the Hunter Valley. After dinner, ANZ’s then-managing director of global markets, Steve Bellotti, took an interest in a young woman identified only as P.“[Bellotti] (and another male employee) then sexually harassed P by badgering her for her room number, blocking her from leaving and manhandling her,” Perram found. The incident ended only when another bank employee asked whether P would like him to call security.“If this was the conduct of the people at the top of global markets then it is not difficult to see what impact that was likely to have had on the culture of the (mostly) male employees beneath them,” Perram said.“It paints a picture not only of unconstrained loucheness and irresponsibility but also of a culture where sexist behaviour towards women was normalised and where the sexism went as far as harassment.”“Since the fish rots from the head, I find that this culture permeated down to the traders for whom senior management was responsible and that the workplace was affected by it to a non-trivial degree.”Alexiou embraced the culture, Perram found, but he was not fully of the “the smash, ram, pummel and slaughter set”. The former trader was an introverted man trying to fit in amidst his boorish workplace, Perram said.While the whistleblowing claim and talk of a $100 million judgment came to nothing, Alexiou won a breach of contract claim, likely worth about $5 million. The bank itself settled allegations around the interest rate setting device for $50 million in 2017 and admitted some of its traders had attempted to engage in “unconscionable conduct”.ANZ, under new leadership, has made a concerted effort to clean up its internal culture. BloombergANZ is on its third chief executive since Alexiou was sacked in 2015. Bellotti – who was contacted for comment – left that year too. He is now an investor with a particular interest in cryptocurrencies.“The conduct considered by the court relates to events involving employees no longer with the bank that occurred more than a decade ago that falls short of the standards expected at ANZ,” a bank spokesman said.“ANZ has continued to strengthen its culture, leadership accountability and workplace standards, and remains committed to providing a respectful, inclusive and safe environment for all employees.”At least some of the exposure that led to that change came from a most imperfect messenger.The Business Briefing newsletter delivers major stories, exclusive coverage and expert opinion. Sign up to get it every weekday morning.From our partners