The Federal Court has amended a secrecy order over a handful of documents at the request of Mineral Resources in embattled chief Chris Ellison’s now-settled row with a former contracts boss to allow directors to get legal advice and to share the files with authorities.
MinRes, its billionaire owner and its former contracts boss Steven Pigozzo had been locked in a bitter battle on several fronts for more than two years until July, when a peace deal brought the row to an abrupt end.
Mineral Resources was founded by Chris Ellison, who remains its managing director. He says he will leave the company in the next 18 months.Credit: Trevor Collens
The stoush began with claims Pigozzo had engaged in insider trading, pocketed bonuses and misused company secrets before his sacking, which he staunchly denied.
But it escalated when Pigozzo returned fire with a scathing 155-paragraph Fair Work claim against the miner, Ellison and Perth law firm Bennett, which contained explosive allegations that were leaked to the media before the case file could be sealed.
Among the most serious of the self-proclaimed whistleblower’s claims was that Ellison had directed Pigozzo to conceal evidence in a $6 million lawsuit and unlawfully import COVID-19 testing equipment.
Since then, the documents have remained covered by sweeping suppression orders sought at the request of Ellison’s legal team and granted by the Federal Court, making them inaccessible to anyone outside the company’s board.
But that changed this week, when the orders were varied to allow current and former directors of MinRes to access the files to get legal advice and for them to be shared with government authorities.
The move comes as the corporate regulator probes allegations Ellison and four other executives profited to the tune of millions of dollars in a decade-long offshore tax scheme.
The diversified mining services company has been grappling with a plunging share price amid the shock allegations revealed by the Australian Financial Review, which have cost him the top job at the company he spent more than 30 years building.
MinRes’ board confirmed it launched its own external inquiry into the allegations more than two years before they became public which concluded Ellison used company resources for personal gain, from rent paid to entities in which he had an interest, staff directed to work on his personal property — including his boat — and relief afforded to entities tied to his daughter Kristy-Lee Craker.
Ellison, who remains the largest shareholder with an 11.5 per cent stake in the $7 billion miner he founded 32 years ago, will fork out $18.4m in penalties over the scheme before he departs his role in the next 18 months.
It also comes as the media prepares to contest a bid to have documents from the case permanently scrubbed from the court file.
In August, lawyers representing this masthead lodged submissions opposing an application by Ellison and MinRes seeking to have more than 16 legal documents removed from the file — including Pigozzo’s affidavit — and swathes of the original claim permanently shielded from public view.
The request was originally lodged after Pigozzo and MinRes reached a peace deal in July, with both parties content with permanent gag orders over the documents filed in the case.
But the Federal Court held off on approving the request until the media had an opportunity to review and contest the bid as an “interested party” in the well-publicised legal battle.
The separate allegations concerning Ellison became public two months later.
The application is due to be heard on December 17.
Mineral Resources declined to comment.
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