A key figure in Victoria's Ultranet scandal pocketed up to $10 million from selling his company to the project's developer, an anti-corruption hearing has heard.
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Details of a lavish meeting planned for Lake Como in Italy, huge payments and secret emails were revealed at the Independent Broad-based Anti-Corruption Commission hearing into Ultranet on Wednesday.
IBAC heard allegations that Greg Tolefe, the co-owner of a company called CingleVue, received between $4 and $10 million when it was bought by Ultranet developer CSG Limited. Some of this money was contingent on CSG Limited winning the Ultranet contract in 2009.
CingleVue co-founder Greg Martin, a former executive with computer giant Oracle, which was contracted to deliver the software for Ultranet, received $800,000 from the sale of the company.
IBAC is examining how contracts were awarded and tendered for Ultranet, a $240 million botched IT project for Victorian state schools which was dumped in 2013 because it was plagued with technical issues.
Mr Martin, who worked at Oracle from 2003 to 2012 was also questioned about secret emails he sent to then education department deputy secretary Darrell Fraser during the tender process for the multimillion-dollar project.
He leaked commercially sensitive information, and allegedly disguised his emails using an address with the name "Growlerbarman" and contacting Mr Fraser via his daughter's email address.
"You know that during the tender process you can't communicate. And here is an example of that important rule being broken," counsel assisting Ian Hill, QC, said.
After CSG won the Ultranet tender, Mr Fraser was appointed chair of the inaugural Oracle Global Education Common, which was scheduled to have its first meeting at a villa in Lake Como, Italy. He was to be paid $3500 a day, and said in an email it was "an experience he could only dream of". The Italy meeting did not go ahead.
Mr Martin was also quizzed about a lavish 2006 trip to New York with Mr Fraser and his wife.
He said Mr Fraser was "trying it on" when he requested limos, a private showing at the MET and five-star accommodation.
He denied that Oracle paid for these travel expenses.
But Mr Martin said the trip would be worthwhile for the education department because it would involve visiting schools and meeting significant people. He said in an email to Mr Fraser that the "key design decisions" around Ultranet would be made on the trip and Victorian education would "significantly benefit" from the US trip.
He said he flew "cattle class" while Fraser flew business class.
IBAC is investigating whether education department employees received gifts, travel and job opportunities due to their involvement in Ultranet, and whether they purchased shares in the company that won the multimillion-dollar IT contract.
It promised to deliver an online platform that connected teachers, parents and students, but was riddled with glitches and rarely used after its rollout in 2010.
The former Napthine government dumped the project in 2013.
It was revealed earlier this week that the cost of the project blew out to $240 million - far more than $180 million previously reported.
The hearing continues.
