FORMER LABOR MINISTERS FOUND TO BE CORRUPT: ICAC
Yahoo!7 & AAPJuly 31, 2013, 10:57 am
Labor powerbroker Eddie Obeid and former mining minister Ian Macdonald could face possible criminal charges after the NSW watchdog found they acted corruptly.
Former treasurer Eric Roozendaal was not found to be corrupt.
The reports were handed down today by the Independent Commission Against Corruption after months of investigations.
Commissioner David Ipp has recommended that Mr Obeid and Mr Macdonald be considered by the Department of Public Prosecutions (DPP) for possible prosecution over their involvement in the Mount Penny coal mine.
Mr Obeids' son Moses and businessmen Travers Duncan, John McGuigan, John Atkinson, John Kinghorn and Richard Pool were also found to have engaged in corrupt conduct.
It enabled the Obeids to make $30 million, with the prospect of earning at least $70 million more.
As part of the Indus investigation, ICAC found Mr Obeid's son, Moses, engaged in corrupt conduct over a $10,800 car for former Labor minister Eric Roozendaal.
The corruption watchdog investigated whether Mr Roozendaal received a new Honda CRV at $10,800 - less than its original value - in return for political favours for his colleague, Eddie Obeid.
The ICAC reports said that Moses Obeid "provided a benefit to Mr Roozendaal as an inducement for him to show favour to Obeid business interests in the exercise of his official functions".
Corruption "unexceeded since the days of the Rum Corps"
Prior to the findings being released, counsel assisting Geoffrey Watson warned that if proven, this was "corruption on a scale probably unexceeded since the days of the Rum Corps".
During the investigations, Mr Macdonald was forced on one occasion to deny he was a "crook", Mr Obeid retorted on another that he had "spent more money than (Mr Watson had) made in a lifetime", and the proceedings proved so sensational that curious members of the public began queuing outside the seventh-floor ICAC hearing room, deck chairs in hand.
Operation Jasper unearthed allegations Mr Macdonald rigged a 2008 coal tender process, benefiting the Obeids to the tune of tens of millions of dollars.
Operation Jarilo heard allegations that ex-boxer Lucky Gattellari and businessman Ron Medich offered Mr Macdonald rewards or inducements - including the services of a prostitute called Tiffanie - to arrange meetings with state energy executives.
It's expected to take the commissioner until at least August to deliver findings on a fourth operation - Acacia - which probed a coal exploration licence granted by Mr Macdonald to a company run by ex-union boss John Maitland and entrepreneurs.
Commissioner Ipp will also consider whether the NSW government should amend mining laws and codes of conduct for MPs and ministers.
THE COLOURFUL CHARACTERS OF ICAC
By Lema Samandar, AAPUpdated July 31, 2013, 4:27 pm
A prostitute called Tiffanie, a champion boxer jailed over a murder and one of Australia's richest men.
They were among the colourful cast of characters who featured during three consecutive Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) inquiries that stunned the public and revealed the strange dealing of NSW Labor in the last years of their 16-year reign.
Former champion boxer Lucky Gattellari, perhaps better known for his part in the murder of businessman Michael McGurk, and property tycoon Ron Medich, who is currently before the courts over the same murder, were both found to have engaged in corrupt conduct by the ICAC.
The pair had provided the services of a prostitute, Tiffanie, for the then-mining minister Ian Macdonald.
In return Mr Macdonald arranged meetings between executives from a state-run power company and Mr Medich, who promoted his business interests.
Tiffanie did nothing wrong, but in 2011 she told an ICAC inquiry that the Labor MP "roughly kissed" her and told her "if you knew who I was you'd be very surprised".
The pair did not have sex as Mr Macdonald fell asleep but she told a girlfriend later that he made her feel sick and like vomiting.
In another ICAC inquiry, Travers Duncan, known as "Mr Coal", was found to have acted corruptly by concealing the involvement of the Obeid family in the Mount Penny tenement.
Already one of Australia's richest men, Mr Duncan allegedly stood to make $60 million from the deal.
During the inquiry, he launched an unsuccessful legal challenge against ICAC Commissioner David Ipp in the NSW Supreme Court.
He also lost a last-minute High Court bid to stop the release of findings by the NSW corruption watchdog.
Obeid associates Rocco and Rosario Triulcio, Eddie Obeid's son Paul Obeid and businessmen Richard Poole, John McGuigan, and John Atkinson were also found to be corrupt.
Rocco Triulcio, an Obeid family friend, was another entertaining witness at the inquiry.
He denied being part of a sham purchase of a farm in the coal rich area for the Obeids, but said he'd only visited it once in four years and didn't know what it had been used for.
He did know "there was a lot of grass" on it.
His brother Rosario didn't know much about the farm either.
"You wouldn't have known whether they ran goats or rats or cows there, would you?" ICAC lawyer Geoffrey Watson, asked him.
"I'm assuming they didn't run rats," Mr Triulcio replied, to which ICAC Commissioner David Ipp quipped, "Not four-legged ones."
Mr McGuigan rejected the findings and vowed to take "appropriate action" to restore his reputation.
"I have acted properly at all times and complied with all obligations in relation to the disclosure of relevant information to the NSW government," he said in a statement.
Mr Poole also said he would defend the findings in any subsequent proceedings and maintained he had acted "professionally and properly" at all times.
"It is my belief that the evidence does not support the findings," he said.
