Hello, welcome back to Emlex's podcast covering the top regulatory stories of the week.

My name is James Panicki, Asia Pacific Senior Editor here at Emlex, and it's great to have your company.

We have something a bit unusual for you this week, an audio documentary put together by

our Australian reporting team, which goes behind the scenes of the country's first criminal

cartel trial in recent history. The background to the case is that in 2018, a man from the Australian

country town of Mildura became the first person to be charged under Australia's 2009

criminal cartel offences, eventually facing trial in 2021. Rob Hogan and his company Country Care

were accused of attempting to induce fellow retailers

of disability aids into a price-fixing arrangement following an investigation by the Australian

Competition and Consumer Commission. It was a draining 12-week trial for the lawyers, the jury

and Hogan himself. Emlex, of course, was in court

almost every day. By the time it was over, Hogan, his company and a young former employee,

had been acquitted of all charges, with observers left wondering why the A-T-T-C had chosen this case to put the criminal cartel

offences to the test. As for the person at the centre of the case, he says that the five-year

struggle to clear his name and avoid jail has left him shattered. A year after his acquittal,

Rob Hogan has agreed to speak publicly about his ordeal for the first time.

Laurel Henning has followed the case from the beginning, and she filed this report.

And a quick glossary for global listeners, the word Commonwealth in Australia is used as an adjective

to describe the federal government and federal agencies.

The ACCC, the methods of interviewing people, the methods of getting their information,

and then what they actually choose to use, I just think it's just disgraceful.

They need to understand as humans at the other end of every decision they make.

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