Qantas inquiry clears Jetstar Pacific execs

Qantas Airways Ltd says its own investigation into two former Jetstar Pacific executives prevented from leaving Vietnam since Christmas has cleared the Australian citizens of any blame for financial losses from fuel-price hedging that led to the budget carrier’s former chief executive being arrested.

Qantas government and corporate affairs chief David Epstein told Business Spectator that the airline’s investigation found former Jetstar Pacific chief operating officer Daniela Marsilli and former chief financial officer Tristan Freeman played no role in the $US31 million ($A33.7 million) loss incurred by the budget airline.

“Qantas has 100 per cent confidence in the two employees and this confidence is based on its own investigation and analysis of the situation,” Mr Epstein said.

Vietnamese authorities banned Ms Marsilli and Mr Freeman from leaving the country in December while economic police investigated the losses of Jetstar Pacific, which is a joint venture between Qantas and Vietnam’s state-owned Pacific Airline.

In January, police arrested former Jetstar Pacific CEO Luong Hoai Nam, a Vietnamese citizen, on charges related to the Vietnamese penal code, which reportedly deems irresponsible financial management of state-owned property a crime.

Mr Epstein declined to comment on the charges against Mr Nam, who is no longer a Jetstar Pacific employee, but said Ms Marsilli and Mr Freeman were assisting police with the investigation.

Ms Marsilli and Mr Freeman have not been charged or detained and are free to move around the country, with their families permitted to travel between Vietnam and Australia, he added.

The news of the probe comes less than two weeks after it was revealed that Rio Tinto Ltd conducted an independent, external investigation into four of its China-based executives, including Australian citizen Stern Hu, after they were arrested on charges of stealing state secrets and accepting bribes.

A Shanghai court last week sentenced Mr Hu to 10 years in prison for accepting bribes and obtaining commercial secrets. His three colleagues received sentences of between seven and 14 years.

Mr Hu’s lawyer said on Thursday that he would not appeal the verdict.

Mr Epstein declined to disclose the specific findings of the Qantas investigation and would not say when it was carried out. He also did not say which division of Qantas conducted the investigation.

Ms Marsilli and Mr Freeman are still receiving salaries from Qantas and have been offered future positions with the airline, Mr Epstein said. He added that Qantas was providing the pair with legal and financial support, and funding their families’ travel between Australia and Vietnam.

But he rejected comparisons of the case with the trial of Mr Hu, saying Qantas was satisfied with the Vietnam government’s level of cooperation.

Vietnamese laws prohibit the pair from having lawyers present in police interviews, but they are allowed to bring their own interpreters, he said.

“Qantas has been able to secure expert interpreters who have been given full access to the interviews,” he said.

Mr Epstein said he was unable to give any indication of when the pair would be allowed to return to Australia.

Qantas chief executive Alan Joyce said in January that Ms Marsilli and Mr Freeman had done nothing wrong and that making financial losses from fuel-price hedging was commonplace in the aviation industry.

In the same month, Foreign Minister Stephen Smith urged Vietnamese authorities to expedite their questioning of the two Australians, saying it was “clear to me the Qantas executives, or the Jetstar executives, are not the focus of the investigation.”

At 1227 AEST, Qantas shares were trading 0.7 per cent higher at $2.87, against a 0.13 per cent rise in the benchmark index.

Businessspectator

Tags: Jetstar Pacific, Quantas, Vietnam aviation