Re Yannon
6 January, 2000
The Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions, Damian Bugg QC, said today that he had informed the Chairman of ASIC on Tuesday of his decision that there would be no prosecutions following the ASIC investigation into the Yannon matter.
Mr Bugg went on to say "It is not unique for an investigation to conclude without a prosecution. The process of inquiry and evidence gathering is an essential part of any regulatory system. In the same way, the independent review of that material by the DPP to determine whether or not charges should be laid is necessary for the separation of these two quite different functions. This ultimately leads to the maintenance of the presumption of innocence when a matter concludes in this way.
As is the normal course, I will not be publishing my reasons for the decision other than to say that the process undertaken followed the Prosecution Policy of the Commonwealth DPP, a policy which has been uniformly applied throughout this country by all Directors of Public Prosecution, State and Commonwealth, since 1989."
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