Commonwealth Bank's approach to the takeover of Bankwest and its controversial treatment of many business borrowers from late 2008 "involved criminal behaviour and offended various provisions within the Corporations Act," Sydney solicitor Trevor Hall from Hall Partners contends in a submission to an inquiry by the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Corporations and Financial Services into the impairment of loans."In this case, a deception arises in respect of CBA's conduct by way of the intentional impairment and provisioning of loans that were otherwise classified as performing loans, and causing a provision to be raised against them," Hall wrote in an overview to a rare submission that seeks to draw together the substance of the core complaint over CBA's conduct.    The Hall Partners contribution is, so far as Banking Day can tell, the cornerstone presentation to the Joint Committee of all the key elements of what CBA's Cohen termed "a conspiracy around the purchase of Bankwest and… an incentive to impair loans to reduce the purchase price or gain some other benefit."Hall argued that "at the time that the CBA entered into the Bankwest share sale deed, it had formed the view that it would not be proceeding with a large part of the Bankwest commercial loan book, and that it would exact the cost of its exit from that loan book at the cost of HBOS."He asserted CBA "would do so by making provisions against the loan book and by impairing and provisioning the Bankwest commercial loan book customers' facilities."Hall, went to declare that "without doubt, … David Cohen (CBA's group general counsel) was speaking dishonestly when he informed the previous inquiry that the effect of the sale and purchase deed was to give rise to a zero sum outcome to the CBA in relation to the acquisition of Bankwest."Cohen, Hall went on to insist, "himself well knew that the statements were untrue."Our lead article in this three part analysis and our commentary on the affair (the second of today's trio) provides a counterpoint to the viewpoint in Hall's submission to the Joint Committee. For more on David Cohen's position the material considered by Hall, read here and here.