Corruption charges follow uranium company’s deals with S.A. govt
Arkaroola uranium hunter on bribery charges HENDRIK GOUT17/10/2009 The owner and director of the largest shareholder in the company which the state government allows to explore the Arkaroola wilderness for uranium, Marathon Resources, is awaiting trial on charges of having bribed a government minister.
Ken Talbot of Talbot Group Investments Pty Ltd is accused of corruptly making payments to Gordon Nuttall, then a Labor minister in the Queensland Government.
A company search of Marathon Resources Ltd’s top 20 shareholders yesterday shows Talbot Group Holdings Pty Ltd owns 14,869,839 shares, or more than 19 per cent of Marathon’s issued capital.
In December 2008, Gordon Nuttall and Ken Talbot were committed to stand trial on 35 corruption charges.
The charges concerned $300,000 allegedly paid by Talbot to Nuttall while Nuttall was a Minister of the Crown.
Nuttall was sentenced in July this year to seven year’s jail. The court found him guilty on a total of 36 counts, and the secret commissions actually totalled $360,000. In closing arguments he was described as a man who sold his soul for greed and vanity in receiving payments from the millionaire miner.
Marathon was found guilty in early 2008 of illegally dumping radioactive waste in a variety of locations throughout the Arkaroola wilderness sanctuary……………
On October 12, Marathon advised the stock exchange that three days earlier, SA mineral resources minister Paul Holloway had granted the company a year-long exploration licence covering the area.
That decision stunned some of Mr Holloway’s own backbench, influential Liberals such as Senator Nick Minchin, independents and SA’s increasingly despondent conservation movement.
Arkaroola uranium hunter on bribery charges – Local News – News – General – The Independent Weekly
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