PAUL Ansell is the man allegedly behind a cartel said to have laundered nearly $150 million of your money — literally.

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission has accused grocery giants Colgate-Palmolive, PZ Cussons and retailer Woolworths of orchestrating a coordinated industry-wide switch to ultra-concentrate laundry powders which halved packet sizes, but not prices.

It was called “Project Mastermind” and is now the subject of Federal Court action brought by the ACCC after Unilever blew the whistle, thereby protecting itself and its staff against prosecution.

The ACCC has said it believes the aim of Mastermind was to sell super-strength powders for the “same price per wash as the equivalent standard concentrated products and not pass on the cost savings to consumers”.

The only individual in the ACCC’s crosshairs is Colgate-Palmolive’s then sales director Paul Ansell, who the competition cops claim would regularly speak to a Unilever executive about “actual and proposed conduct in relation to the supply of laundry products, including information concerning the pricing, and proposed price increases, of laundry detergent products”.

Mr Ansell denies the allegations, as do Colgate-Palmolive, Cussons and Woolworths.

Documents filed with the Federal Court allege the cartel behaviour began in January 2008 when six Colgate-Palmolive executives, including Mr Ansell, went to Woolworths’ Sydney headquarters and warned the value of the laundry detergent market would be $146 million lower in total over the four years 2009 to 2013 if the industry transition to ultra-concentrates was “staggered” not simultaneous.

The ACCC’s specific allegations against Mr Ansell include that in a phone conversation on September 9, 2008, he told a Unilever executive that Colgate was planning a five per cent price hike on all its laundry products and asked whether Unilever was proposing to do the same, to which the Unilever executive allegedly said he would propose an increase at a management meeting later that day.

Documents filed by the ACCC with the court allege that at a Unilever “stress test workshop” on September 9, staff agreed to “prepare to take a … price increase … in response to intelligence that suggests that Colgate will take a +5% in Oct”.

In his defence, Mr Ansell admits telling the Unilever Colgate was “intending to take a price increase across the board” but denies disclosing the size.

Mr Ansell also admits that during 2008 he told a Unilever executive that Colgate wanted to defer the launch date for its ultra-concentrate, that he asked the executive whether Unilever or a retailer had funded price discounts and that they discussed the rising cost of a key ingredient in laundry powder.

But he denies disclosing “confidential and commercially sensitive information”.

When approached by News Corporation, Mr Ansell said he could not comment on the ACCC’s claims as the matter was before the courts.

A directions hearing is set for September 2.