From the AFR:
The NSW corruption watchdog has recommended criminal charges against former state Labor ministers Ian Macdonald and Eddie Obeid and some of the country’s wealthiest businessmen, including mining mogul Travers Duncan, in an historic probe into a coal tender.
In a report released on Wednesday, the Independent Commission Against Corruption found Mr Macdonald had corruptly created a mining tenement in 2009 over rural properties owned by the family and associates of his political ally, Mr Obeid.
It also found Mr Duncan, the chairman of White Energy, and four of his associates had acted corruptly by “taking steps to conceal the Obeid involvement in the … tenement with the intention of deceiving relevant NSW government public authorities or officials as to that involvement”.
…The corruption watchdog found Mr Macdonald passed on confidential information to Moses Obeid, one of Mr Obeid’s five sons, or members of the Obeid family in 2008 about areas of the state that would be opened to coal exploration.
He acted contrary to his public duty as a minister of the Crown in creating the tenement to benefit Mr Obeid, his son Moses and other members of the Obeid family, the ICAC said.
The ICAC found Mr Macdonald also gave confidential information to Mr Duncan.
