The Victorian Supreme Court has this morning issued a permanent halt on the Australian Securities and Investment Commission's case against former AWB chief executive Andrew Lindberg.
The corporate regulator has alleged Mr Lindberg failed to inform the board of "bribes" that the wheat exporter paid to Iraq in breach of UN sanctions between 1999 and 2004.
The permanent halt applies to the second of two civil penalty cases that ASIC has initiated against Mr Lindberg.
In court this morning, Justice Ross Robson said that the second proceeding would be vexatious and oppressive.
Mr Lindberg, who has attended court every day of the hearing over the past two months, embraced his wife Leigh outside the court. Mrs Lindberg was overcome with tears.
The permanent halt, however, does not affect the first civil penalty case in which ASIC alleges Mr Lindberg knew about the payments to Iraq and failed to stop them, and because he failed to stop them he bought the company into disrepute causing it commercial damage.
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