ANZ and ANZ treasurer Rick Moscati are expected to be charged with criminal cartel conduct by the Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions (CDPP), according to the ACCC.
ANZ told the ASX it was told late Thursday that the CDPP intends to commence proceedings against the joint lead managers of ANZ's underwritten institutional equity placement of approximately 80.8 million shares in August 2015.
According to the ACCC, two other companies and a "number of other individuals" will be included in the criminal charges.
ACCC chairman Rod Sims said: "It will be alleged that ANZ and the individuals were knowingly concerned in some or all of the conduct."
ASIC is also investigating ANZ in relation to the 7 August 2015 placement, in which ANZ aimed to raise $3 billion to satisfy APRA capital requirements.
Specifically, ASIC is investigating whether ANZ's announcement on 7 August 2015 should have stated the joint lead managers – namely Deutsche Bank, Citigroup and JP Morgan – took up approximately 25.5 million shares of the placement.
ANZ noted that the 25.5 million shares represented 0.91 per cent of total shares on issue at the time.
