The CEO of Primary Healthcare is under investigation by ASIC and being implicated in corruption allegations
Primary Health Care CEO Peter Gregg can’t catch a break. Having just done a miraculous job selling Medical Director and setting the group up for an unlikely turn around in the coming years, he’s been dragged back into a scandal that is engulfing his previous employer.
Leaked documents have linked Gregg with global corruption involving the oil industry.
Gregg was previously chief financial officer of Leighton Holdings, one of the Australian companies allegedly involved in a worldwide bribery scandal.
A recent report by Fairfax Media and The Huffington Post alleged that Leighton Holdings was one of dozens of corporations involved in filtering bribes through Monaco-based company Unaoil to win government contracts in the Middle East.
According to Fairfax journalists they have sighted documents bearing Gregg’s signature that connects him with suspect payments made to a United Arab Emirates firm during his time as chief financial officer.
Gregg is also the subject of an ongoing criminal investigation by The Australian Securities and Investments Commission involving a $15 million offshore payment made by Leighton Holdings.
In a statement to the ASX, the board of Primary Health Care said it was aware of ASIC’s probe when Gregg was appointed early last year.
The board said it had been assured that “in his position with Leighton Holdings, Gregg acted at all times in accordance with the law”.
In a statement Gregg said the claims were “false and defamatory in a number of material respects”.
“I have not breached any civil or criminal law, whether in Australia or elsewhere. I have instructed my legal representatives to immediately commence proceedings for defamation against Fairfax media and its relevant journalists.”
Watch this space. Gregg is going to struggle to maintain any momentum he had built if he now gets entangled in such a case with one of the country’s largest media outlets.
