A former top Commonwealth Bank IT executive Keith Robert Hunter who has pleaded guilty to bribery

offences over a mutimillion-dollar contract between the bank and a United States software company
was "bankrupted and broken" into capitulation, according to an associate's lawyers.

Keith Robert Hunter, 62, a United States citizen, appeared briefly before Sydney's Downing Centre
District Court on Friday where he pleaded guilty to two counts of bribery. He will appear for sentencing
on December 5.

But lawyers for the head of a charity institution in the United States that NSW Police alleged made the
wrongful payments to Mr Hunter, say the "unethical investigation" of Mr Hunter was "characterised by
leaks of inaccurate, self-serving information" and had "bankrupted and broken Mr Hunter, apparently
leaving him with no choice but to capitulate to the Australian government's demands".

Mr Hunter, the bank's former executive general manager of IT engineering previously pleaded not guilty
to the offences but his turnabout with a guilty plea could mitigate the length of a potential jail sentence.

Mr Hunter was charged with bribery offences in March last year along with a colleague Jon Waldron.

The two were accused of receiving about $2.9 million in bribes to award tens of millions of dollars worth
of CBA's IT work to a United States software company, Servicemesh.

Mr Waldron, of New Zealand, was the bank's general manager of IT engineering. He faces seven counts
of bribery and is next due before the Downing Centre District Court on July 21.

A statement by Mr Waldron's lawyer Phillip Gibson said while Mr Hunter pleaded guilty, Mr Waldron
would continue to vigorously defend this case and his reputation.

The men were sacked from the bank and the matter was referred to NSW Police after an internal
investigation into suspicious payments made to both men's bank accounts.

Mr Hunter and Mr Waldron were alleged by police to have received the money via payments to their
CBA bank accounts by not-for-profit organisation called the ACE Foundation, which was set up by the
founder of ServiceMesh Eric Pulier.

ServiceMesh, which was involved in multimillion-dollar deals with CBA from 2009, is a subsidiary of a
major IT firm Computer Sciences Corporation.

Police claimed ServiceMesh's relationship with CBA helped ServiceMesh cement a successful takeover
by CSC in October 2013.

CSC is pursuing Mr Pulier in the United States for the return of the $US260 million takeover price.

A statement by Mr Pulier's lawyer Mark Holscher of Kirkland & Ellis LLP in the United States said Mr
Hunter consistently maintained his innocence and that he always acted in the best interests of his
employer and that the payments he received were compensation for work he was undertaking for the
ACE Foundation.

ACE's engagement with Mr Hunter was for work he was to perform for the ACE Foundation, under the

explicit understanding that CBA was in approval, and the payments were made openly to Mr Hunter's
CBA account.

"It is insulting to the hard work and energy of so many who have devoted themselves to the
foundation's ground-breaking results that these baseless allegations persist," Mr Holscher said.

"There was no relationship between the foundation's engagement with Mr Hunter and contracts with
CBA in the past, and the complete openness of how it conducted business is evidence that nothing was
meant to be hidden and all activities were understood as authorized."

He said the contract in question in the matter was vetted by scores of internal and independent parties
on both sides, done at extremely favourable terms to the CBA, delivered in full and on time, and recently
validated again as proper in all respects by Ernst & Young.

"CBA has agreed it has no claim to the foundation's money and will not keep it from being returned," Mr
Holscher said.

A CBA spokesman said the bank reported Mr Hunter and Mr Waldron's conduct to the police in February
2015 because it considered the considered their suspicious activities as serious.

"We have cooperated with the police throughout their investigation and the proceedings and will
continue to do so," the spokesman said.

Mr Waldron's lawyer, Mr Gibson said in the statement that Mr Waldron always said he was "never
involved in any back room deals or bribery involving CBA and Servicemesh".

"Any payments he received were for legitimate work done for Ace Corporation and they were paid into
an account in Mr Waldrons name at Auckland Savings Bank which is owned by CBA," Mr Gibson said.

"These transactions were completely transparent. There were no secret bank accounts in tax havens or

any other indicia of corrupt payments."

Read more:
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