‘Slush fund’ official Ralph Blewitt expecting fraud charges
MICHAEL SMITH and HEDLEY THOMAS The Australian April 16, 2014 12:00AM
THE union official who confessed to being a perpetrator of a major fraud in the Australian Workers’ Union slush fund affair has agreed to a formal Victoria Police request to return to Australia to be charged with criminal offences.
Ralph Blewitt, a former AWU senior official who confessed his role to The Australian in August 2012, has been asked by Victoria Police Fraud Squad detective Sergeant Ross Mitchell to come to Melbourne as soon as possible for a formal interview in which he will again admit his guilt.
His solicitor, Bob Galbally, revealed yesterday that the development was separate to any evidence Mr Blewitt was expected to provide under oath to the national royal commission into union corruption, which will examine union slush funds including the one that was set up in the 1990s with legal advice from Julia Gillard.
