The ‘slaughter, pummel, smash or ram’ culture at ANZ exposed by a ‘hypocrite’

October 5, 2026 — 4:29pm

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Former ANZ trader, Etienne Alexiou, was described as a “hypocrite” by Justice Nye Perram in a judgment published on Monday. But there was at least one key point where the Federal Court judge found Alexiou to be correct.

Alexiou, who was sacked amid the fallout from a partially forgotten scandal more than a decade ago, had long argued that he was a whistleblower.

He told the court that he had spoken out about trading malpractice in the early 2010s and claimed a colleague had said he would “slaughter” a rate used to set the interest on vast amounts of short-term loans, thereby manipulating the market and making money.

Perram did not agree Alexiou was a whistleblower. He was a man who had spoken with colleagues of “ramming speed straight at a jap bird” and then claimed, in court, he was talking about whaling.

ANZ had sacked him for that kind of language and Perram found Alexiou’s evidence at times “unconvincing and blameworthy”.

“The fact that Mr Alexiou is a hypocrite about this does not logically entail that he is wrong and, on this occasion, I am satisfied that he is right,” he said.

But Alexiou was no Robinson Crusoe. His........

© Brisbane Times