Qantas ‘fall guy’ gets six months’ jail

Article from:

July 29, 2008 12:00am

QANTAS fall guy Bruce McCaffrey has become the world’s first former airline executive to be jailed over a far-reaching global price-fixing scandal.

Mr McCaffrey, the former Los Angeles-based Qantas freight vice-president for the Americas, today received a lighter than expected six month jail term.

He was also ordered to pay a $US20,000 fine. The frail 65-year-old US citizen pleaded guilty in May for his role in the national carrier’s $AUS380 million global price-fixing scam.

Judge John D Bates said today it was a “very, very serious crime” and it was not a situation where Mr McCaffrey was only following orders.

But he added: “It does bother the court that…those most responsible from his company will never face these kinds of consequences and that’s the way the law is.”

Qantas has agreed to pay a $US61 million criminal fine for fixing the price of freight from January 2000 to February 2006 in a worldwide plot to eliminate competition.

Mr McCaffrey – who is in poor health and suffered a stroke 12 years ago and will need a kidney transplant within a year – is the only person so far jailed as part of the powerful US Justice Department’s exhaustive investigation.

Nine internationall airlines have paid about $US1 billion in fines over the conspiracy. Mr McCaffrey was sentenced in the US District Court in Washington today.

The six month sentence was two months less than the terms of the plea deal he made with the US Government. The judge took into account the assistance he has given US investigators.

Five other Qantas former and past staff have denied knowledge of the cartel and because they are not US citizens are unlikely to face charges.

The conduct is not deemed criminal in Australia. Mr McCaffrey’s distraught family have accused Qantas of leaving the veteran employee out to dry and making him the “scapegoat” for the scandal.

He worked for the national carrier for more than two decades before retiring. His lawyers argued he was only following the orders of “corporate higher-ups in Sydney”.

Mr McCaffrey will report to a federal prison on a date that is still to be determined.

The Public deserve answers

Qantas plane makes emergency landing after fuselage rupture

‘Gaping hole from the wing to the underbody’. (Reuters: Handout )

• Audio: Aust-bound Qantas flight makes emergency landing (PM)

A Qantas 747 has made an emergency landing in the Philippines capital Manila because of a large rupture in the plane’s fuselage.

The flight with 365 people on board was flying from London to Melbourne, via Hong Kong when it was forced to land. None of the passengers have been seriously injured.

Less than two hours after flight QF 30 left Hong Kong this morning, the pilot sought an emergency landing at Ninoy Aquino International Airport after reporting a hole in the plane’s cargo section near the right wing.

The plane was flying at 29,000 feet when its fuselage ruptured causing the cabin to lose air pressure.

Passengers on the flight have said that the plane plunged about 20,000 feet and a door apparently popped open.

Qantas has confirmed the plane has landed at Manila and is being inspected on the tarmac, but will not say what caused the emergency landing.

Qantas chief executive officer Geoff Dixon said initial inspections showed the aircraft had sustained a hole in its fuselage, and it was being inspected by engineers.

He said the flight crew performed emergency procedures after oxygen masks were deployed and there were no reports of any injuries.

Peter Gibson from the Civil Aviation Safety Authority says initial reports indicate a problem with the air pressure in the cabin.

“The pilot has some pressurisation warnings about a door on the left hand side of the aircraft, but exactly what went wrong is still being determined,” he said.

The Transport Safety Bureau has confirmed a large hole was ripped into the fuselage in the cargo section of the plane.

Speaking from the Manila airport, passenger Dr June Kane says she heard a loud bang from underneath the plane, and saw debris fly through the cabin.

“I’m looking at the plane now and on the left hand side, just forward of the wing, there’s a gaping hole from the wing to the underbody,” she said.

“It’s about two metres by four metres and there’s baggage hanging out so you assume that there’s a few bags that may have gone missing.”

Dr Kane says she heard the bang while the plane was flying over the South China Sea.

“There was a terrific boom and bits of wood and debris just flew forward into first (class) and the oxygen masks dropped down,” she said.

“We were told that one of the rear doors, a hole had blown into it, but I’ve since looked at the plane and there’s a gigantic gaping hole in the plane.

“It was absolutely terrifying but I have to say everyone was very calm.”

Another passenger, Brendan McClements, says there was a rush of wind and the plane began to shake

“I had my seat belt on and I strapped it on a bit tighter, put the mask over my head and from then on it was like what happens happens,” he said.

A Qantas supervisor in Manila says all the passengers have been taken to hotels in Manila.

She says the situation was not life threatening.

The Australian embassy in Manila is assisting travellers who are expected to be put on another flight later today.

Qantas said the 747-400 was not the one that was used to fly Pope Benedict XVI out of Australia earlier this month after his visit to Sydney.

Guess Who?

ACTU on Qantas Job Cuts

Date: 18 July 2008

The decision by Qantas to shed 1500 jobs in Australia and overseas is disappointing and unions will seek to work with the airline to minimise compulsory redundancies for the workforce.

“We are concerned at any job losses, and will be looking closely at the detail of what is proposed by Qantas,”Jeff Lawrence, ACTU Secretary, said.

“Qantas has said there will be some compulsory redundancies, and unions will be ensuring they are consulted closely to minimise their impact.

“Qantas workers should also be consulted about the impact of other changes announced today on work loads and job practices.”

The ACTU welcomed an in-principle agreement between Qantas engineers and the company’s management from enterprise bargaining negotiations.

While details of the engineers’ agreement are confidential at this stage, if accepted by the members it will deliver higher pay for the airline’s 1500 licensed engineers.

The proposed agreement will be considered by the engineers over the next few weeks.

For further information

Contact:	Mark Phillips
Union:	ACTU
Phone:	(03) 8676 7266
Contact Mobile:	0422 009 011
WWW:	http://www.actu.asn.au/

Qantas Campaign Forum Now Available

The Qantas Campaign Forum is all about connecting Qantas Workers all over Australia. One of the ways we do this is through an online forum. It’s a place where we can meet online and stay in touch with other workers at Qantas and discuss our campaign, workplace issues and general topics affecting us at Qantas.

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Ex-Qantas boss fails in ATO battle

Published in the Australian Business

Susannah Moran | July 05, 2008

TREVOR Kennedy has lost a court bid to force the tax office to reveal how it came into possession of letters with his Swiss lawyer and transcripts of an examination the businessman attended in Switzerland.

The former Qantas director is fighting the ATO in the Administrative Appeals Tribunal in relation to seven years’ worth of amended tax assessments.

The tax office has hit Mr Kennedy with a $6.9million bill, which includes penalties, for allegedly underdeclaring his income.

It relied on various documents, including a transcript of examination of Mr Kennedy in Switzerland, and letters to his Swiss lawyer, Benno Hafner, in amending his assessments. As part of the case, Mr Kennedy appealed a preliminary ruling made in the AAT but yesterday three Federal Court judges ruled against him.

The tax bill issued to Mr Kennedy in 2006 relates to claims that he, deceased stockbroker Rene Rivkin and former Labor powerbroker Graham Richardson were the owners of a secret parcel of shares in the Offset Alpine Printing Group. Following a mysterious fire in 1993, the shares surged in value.

Mr Richardson is fighting the tax office in the Federal Court and denies having owned the shares.

Mr Kennedy claims the ATO is pursuing him in bad faith, is seeking to collect tax twice and has assessed various years of income “on two different bases, knowing they both could not be correct”.

Yesterday the full bench said Mr Kennedy’s application to obtain additional documents that “go to the provenance or authenticity” of documents already provided was premature.

Mr Kennedy’s lawyers argued that he would suffer procedural unfairness if the tax office did not provide the extra documents. The judges rejected this argument.