It was November 2010 and about a dozen professional investors from Sydney’s tightly knit moneyed circles were hoping to cash in on the coal boom. The coal price had dropped from its peak of almost $US200 a tonne in 2008, but there was still plenty of money to be made in the sector. It’s one reason why these investors jumped at the chance to take part in a capital raising of $28 million in Cascade Coal, in return for a stake in the private company.

Little did they know that two years later this investment would end up under the spotlights of an inquiry by the NSW government’s Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC).