Fed: Anonymous letter sparked biggest corporate raid
CANBERRA, April 24 AAP - An anonymous letter typed on lime green paper was responsiblefor sparking Australia's largest corporate raid by the competition watchdog on petrolgiants.
Australia Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) investigators today began examiningdocuments seized during raids on Caltex, Shell, Mobil and independent oil companies, lookingfor evidence of price collusion.
The raids were carried out yesterday on the offices of the oil companies in Sydney,Newcastle and Melbourne.
They followed a tip-off by a whistleblower.
ACCC chairman Professor Allan Fels said a woman had sent an anonymous letter to thecommission in December last year detailing price collusion.
In an attempt to find the woman, the ACCC placed ads in a newspaper, and she respondedwith more information.
"We would have preferred even more than what we got," Prof Fels told ABC Radio.
"But she has provided us backup to a couple of letters, a few documents which, unlessthey are a compete fabrication - and we don't believe that's at all likely - would indicatethat there are some questions for oil companies to answer as to possible communicationsbetween them concerning some price rises."
He said the woman's husband did contact the ACCC.
Prof Fels said 90 ACCC staff, lawyers, investigators and information technology expertswere involved in the raids.
He said the ACCC did not yet have proof of illegal activities.
"The commission has formed the belief that there may have been a breach of the TradePractices Act, or breaches," Prof Fels said.
"We're looking for evidence of communications between the oil companies and there isat least one suggesting that may be the case."
ACCC's NSW regional director Rose Webb said the whistleblower's first point of contactwas a neatly typed letter on lime green paper.
"We obviously checked out all the information that she included in her letter and itdid seem to all add up in terms of the name and people that she mentioned and detailsshe had given," she told ABC Radio.
"It was clear that she was an insider in the company and she had details of documentsthat existed in the company and she later did provide us with some documents."
Motoring organisations had complained of price hikes over the Easter holiday period.
Prof Fels said the ACCC was likely to use its powers to interview witnesses and itwould take weeks to look at the evidence.
"It is likely that there will be a follow-up in terms of using our powers to crossexamine witnesses from oil companies and so on," he told the Nine Network.
AAP sm/daw/pw/bwl
KEYWORD: PETROL ACCC SECOND LEAD
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