Commenting on the Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions (CDPP) decision to withdraw the cartel lawsuit, Herbert Smith Freehills (HSF) said the landmark prosecution had raised “novel and complex issues”, and it was pleased that the charges were being dropped against its client, Citigroup, and Deutsche Bank.

After nearly four years of pre-trial hearings, the CDPP Sarah McNaughton SC said that following a further review of the evidence and consideration of detailed submissions received from the accused’s solicitors, they concluded “that there were no longer reasonable prospects of conviction for the charges before the court”.

“All decisions relating to the conduct of federal criminal prosecutions are made in accordance with the Prosecution Policy of the Commonwealth, including any decision to discontinue a prosecution already commenced,” Ms McNaughton said.

“This resulted in the director’s decision to decline to proceed further in the proceedings against the remaining defendants in this complex matter.”

Partner Luke Hastings – who was supported by partners Andrew Eastwood, Liza Carver and Christine Wong – said the firm was privileged to have worked with Citi on the matter that was one of only a handful of criminal cartel charges in Australia and the “first to consider an application of cartel laws on financial market activity”.

The MinterEllison team behind Citi executive Itay Tuchman – Beverley Newbold, Philip Stefanovski, Ross Freeman and Geoff Carter – said that they were delighted with “the results for Itay and also for the other accused”.

The scope of the lawsuit had narrowed in recent months after the CDPP dropped charges against the former head of Citigroup in Australia, the client for the stock issue in question, ANZ, and ANZ’s former treasurer.

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The charges carried the potential for significant fines and prison terms of up to 10 years and came at the height of an investigation into Australia’s banking sector.