A senior ANZ executive described Pankaj and Radhika Oswal as devious and unsavoury characters in racist remarks about the Indian business couple, a court has heard.
An email from the executive to the ANZ CEO contained a series of derogatory comments in what amounted to racial bigotry, the Oswals' $2.5 billion damages case against the bank and receivers of their Australian fertiliser business heard.
"In essence we are dealing with two very unsavoury characters," former ANZ chief risk officer Chris Page told then CEO Michael Smith in a 2009 email read to the court.
"We are dealing with Indians with no moral compass and an Indian woman as every bit as devious as PO (Pankaj Oswal)."
Mr Oswal's barrister Tony Bannon SC said Mr Page used the word Indian as a derogatory term, conveying the message that the Oswals had no moral compass in part because they are Indians.
He said Mr Page also wrote "this has been a very Indian characteristic transaction".
"Again it betrays a similar use of the word Indian as a term of insult," Mr Bannon told the Victorian Supreme Court on Wednesday.
"It is no more or less than racial bigotry."
He said it was alarming that a senior officer at a large bank would have such thoughts, that he put it in writing and that he could send it to the CEO without fear of rebuke.
"(It) betrayed what indeed was the true culture which was acceptable to a senior manager of the bank," Mr Bannon said.
Mr Bannon said there was no rebuke from Mr Smith, who told Mr Page: "Well done. I guess we need to keep the pressure on. What a bunch."
The bank bore animosity toward Mr Oswal and Mr Page held the businessman in contempt, Mr Bannon said.
The December 2009 email was sent at the time the bank had the Oswals sign guarantees connected to their Burrup fertiliser business.
The Oswals are seeking up to $2.5 billion in damages from the bank and receivers PPB Advisory arguing the couple's 65 per cent stake in parent company Burrup Holdings was sold for less than half its true value in 2012.
They allege the ANZ and PPB were focused on covering the Oswal debt to the bank and disregarded the couple's interests.
Mr Page "wants dirt on PO", PPB's Ian Carson noted in December 2010, just before his appointment as a receiver, the court heard.
Mr Page wrote about an April 2011 meeting where he was asked about Mr Oswal: "I replied that he is of no interest to us and whatever happened to him happened to him."
The court heard the ANZ and others will allege misconduct by Mr Oswal before receivers were appointed to the Burrup business, which operated an ammonia manufacturing plant in Western Australia.
Mr Oswal has been accused of misappropriating tens of millions of dollars, which he denies.
An ANZ spokesman said any form of racism is unacceptable but the internal correspondence has no relevance to the legal merits of the Oswal case.
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