Mining entrepreneur Bob Johnson called upon to enter plea in $38.5m fraud case

Mining entrepreneur Dr Bob Johnson is expected to soon enter a plea in his $38.5m alleged fraud case, which has its origins in secret federal police raids almost a decade ago.

Maptek founder Dr Bob Johnson.

Almost a decade after the offices of Dr Bob Johnson’s mining and technology empire were raided as part of a secretive Australian Federal Police operation – and 25 years after they allege he started defrauding the federal government – a plea in his long-running $38.5m fraud case is likely to be entered.

In the Adelaide Magistrate’s Court earlier this week, a masked Dr Johnson sat impassively as his lawyer Andrew Culshaw tried to argue for a 10th adjournment in the case, which was brought by the AFP more than three years ago.

Magistrate Simon Smart flagged in that hearing that a plea must soon be entered in the matter, which Mr Culshaw argued should again be delayed on the basis that prosecutors had promised but failed to provide 900,000 items of evidence.

The allegations relate to a raid of the offices of Dr Johnson’s Adelaide-based companies Maptek and Havilah Resources – an ASX-listed copper explorer – back in 2014, which had been kept secret until being unearthed by The Australian five years later.

Then-Havilah Resources chairman Dr Bob Johnson holding sample of pure copper from the company’s South Australian project.

The AFP had gone so far as to hold closed, unlisted court hearings on 10 occasions between late 2014 and 2019. The matter was not suppressed – it was simply kept entirely secret from the public.

However, documents unearthed by The Australian in 2019 showed that a summons under the Serious and Organised Crime Act and the Proceeds of Crime Act had been lodged by the AFP on November 28, 2014.

The AFP Commissioner had sought and been granted orders in the South Australian Supreme Court that Dr Johnson’s property be restrained – an order which Dr Johnson unsuccessfully challenged the following year.

The 83 assets covered under the restraining order included:

● A property in London, two in Byron Bay, other properties in NSW and one at Wallaroo on the Yorke Peninsula.

● More than 10 bank accounts and a share portfolio related to Maptek.

● A large number of term deposits.

● Several share portfolios.

● Assets associated with the companies First Names (Jersey), Woolsthorpe Investments, Fieldgate Holdings, Vulcan Software, Teallach Software, VSI Software and Pierpoint Foundation.

Then-Federal Opposition Leader Tony Abbott visiting Maptek, which was founded by Dr Johnson.

The AFP in 2019 refused to confirm the matter was even on foot, saying at the time: “The AFP does not confirm or deny who it may or may not be investigating.”

However, in July 2021, Dr Johnson, 74, was charged with two counts of defrauding the commonwealth and 13 counts of obtaining a financial advantage by deception – charges that carry a maximum 10-year prison term if proven.

The AFP has alleged Dr Johnson failed to disclose overseas trust assets in his tax returns and therefore evaded taxes between 1999 and 2013.

The charges followed a complex joint investigation, starting in 2014, by AFP and law enforcement agencies around the world.

In September 2021, prosecutors revealed their “complex” case spanned 40,000 pages and Dr Johnson’s counsel flagged needing “substantially more time”.

Since then, the hearing at which Dr Johnson was scheduled to enter his pleas has been adjourned nine times – from July 12, 2022, through to Wednesday.

Mr Culshaw said an adjournment should be granted as the prosecution’s failure to disclose the material did not comply with federal law.

“Some 18 months ago, the AFP was to provide us with ‘voluminous material’ comprising some 900,000 items in accordance with the legislation,” he said.

“We are now some 18 months on from that, the committal brief has not been updated since, and the documents have not been provided – until today.

“This morning we have been given some affidavits, a 40-page letter and a hard drive which, I’m told, has those 900,000 documents on it.”

Prosecutors said they did not oppose one final adjournment. Mr Smart said Dr Johnson could have two more weeks to finalise his instructions, and remanded him on continuing bail.

“Get busy, Mr Culshaw – this matter has been before this court for almost 3 ½ years,” he said.

Dr Johnson has been a leading figure in the SA mining community for decades and globally was a pioneer in the use of computer software for the modelling of underground resource deposits.

His company Maptek, founded in 1981, employs hundreds of people globally with offices in the US, Chile, South Africa and Russia.

He has also led listed companies, including Havilah, which in 2019 fended off a $100m bid from Sanjeev Gupta’s GFG Alliance to take a majority stake in the company.

Dr Johnson abruptly resigned from Havilah in late 2013 but remains a significant shareholder.

In 2019 the company rebuffed GFG’s $100m offer, with executive director Chris Giles killing off the deal by voting his stake against it.

The-then chief executive and non-executive directors subsequently resigned to be replaced by directors aligned with Dr Johnson.

As well as the AFP, agencies involved in the investigation include the Australian Taxation Office and the Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission as part of the Serious Financial Crime Taskforce.

“The investigation also involved international law-enforcement agencies from the Bailiwick of Jersey, the United States, the United Kingdom and the British Virgin Islands,’’ the AFP told The Australian in 2021.

It is understood Dr Johnson also had his passport taken away in 2014.

Originally published as Mining entrepreneur Bob Johnson called upon to enter plea in $38.5m fraud case