The chief executive officer of Sydney-based managed services provider, CMS IT, Angelo Millena, has been given until January before he faces court again over a series of alleged frauds involving the National Union of Workers NSW.
The case, which was heard at Downing Centre Local Court in Sydney on 22 December, sees Millena charged with 10 fraud-related offences allegedly amounting to more than $220,000, according to Fairfax media.
The case has been adjourned until January.
The hearing comes almost a month after the Trade Union Police Joint Taskforce arrested Millena in Sydney after an extensive investigation resulting from the long-running Royal Commission into Trade Union Governance and Corruption (TURC), which concluded in December 2015.
It is alleged by police that Millena supplied IT services to the National Union of Workers NSW, with a number of the exchanges between the service provider and branch later identified as being allegedly fraudulent transactions.
Police allege that Millena conducted business with former union official, Derrick Belan, to defraud the NSW branch of the union.
Millena has also been charged with allegedly participating in a criminal group, and allegedly receiving material benefits derived from that group.
Belan, the former NSW branch secretary of the National Union of Workers, and his niece, Danielle O’Brien, were reportedly charged on 17 November, in relation to almost $870,000 in alleged fraud offences.
It is alleged that they processed false invoices through a third party who supplied services to the union.
The Sydney-headquartered CMS IT reportedly has around 60 staff in several offices in the local region, including Singapore, Auckland, Darwin, and Manila.
The company has a history of working for a number of not-for-profit organisations and medium-sized businesses in the Asia Pacific region.
As the case against Millena continues, the union has indicated that it is no longer engaging CMS IT for its IT services, and is working to recover union money, according to Fairfax.
The case against Millena follows the sentencing on 20 December of former Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA) IT executive, Keith Hunter, to more than three years’ jail time for allegedly taking kickbacks from Eric Pulier, former head of US-based enterprise cloud management company, ServiceMesh.
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