THE chief executive of a mining company withheld information from the Australian Stock Exchange about a tainted coal deal linked to the Obeid family, a corruption inquiry has heard.
The Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) is probing whether former Labor minister Ian Macdonald rigged the tender process for a coal exploration licence in the NSW upper Hunter, and how Labor powerbroker Eddie Obeid may have profited from it.
The ICAC on Monday heard evidence from Brian Flannery, the chief executive of White Energy, a mining company that made a $500 million bid for the eventual winner of the tender, Cascade Coal, before the deal was scrapped.
Mr Flannery conceded that he "sat on" information about a $28 million payment to a man named Gardner Brook in a release to the stock exchange on April 12 2011 terminating the deal.
The inquiry heard that the payment was made to Mr Brook, an associate of the Obeids at the time, possibly to subvert the government tender process.
"You sat on that information, you concealed it, didn't you?" counsel assisting the commissioner, Geoffrey Watson, SC, asked.
"I sat on it as far as I knew it," Mr Flannery replied.
He rejected suggestions from Mr Watson that he had used "weasel words" to mislead the ASX.
Mr Flannery, who is also a shareholder in Cascade, said White Energy scrapped the deal because he considered it unethical, and possible illegal.
He said when he heard of the payment to Mr Brook he told other investors in Cascade that they were "absolutely bloody stupid" and said that he was "pulling out".
The inquiry heard that Mr Flannery purchased $640,000 worth of shares in Cascade in September 2010 and stood to gain around $50 million from the investment had the deal with White Energy gone through.
The inquiry has previously been told that the Obeids had a $60 million deal with Cascade, which had been granted a coal exploration licence in the Bylong Valley by Mr Macdonald's department.
Mr Flannery said he didn't know the Obeids were associated with the proposed White Energy deal before it was scrapped.
Earlier, Mr Duncan told the ICAC he met with members of the Obeid family in an attempt to remove them from the deal.
"I said we have to get these people out of the company and I told that to (Eddie Obeid's son) Mr Moses Obeid," Mr Duncan said.
Mr Duncan said Moses Obeid replied: "There's nothing wrong with us, we've been investigated everywhere.
"They've looked down our throat and up our arse and haven't found anything."
The inquiry continues on Tuesday before Commissioner David Ipp.
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