Inside the two-week unravelling of Chris Ellison’s hold on MinRes
Monday’s attempt to draw a line in the sand still leaves unanswered questions for shareholders and investigators about the goings-on at Mineral Resources and what became of crucial evidence.
It was in the winter of 2019 that a string of incriminating emails began disappearing from the Mineral Resources servers. The emails would have revealed how the mining giant’s founder Chris Ellison and four executives had used a British Virgin Islands holding vehicle to sell machinery to the company at huge markups.
When the MinRes board went looking for the emails – and the document trail that should have been there – they were gone. On Monday, a review by the board, led by chairman James McClements, concluded there had been “an attempt to avoid information … becoming public”.
Mark Di StefanoColumnistMark Di Stefano is Rear Window columnist, based in the Sydney newsroom. He previously worked at BuzzFeed, the Financial Times and The Information before joining the Financial Review as a media and tech correspondent. Connect with Mark on Twitter. Email Mark at mark.distefano@afr.com
Neil ChenowethSenior writerNeil Chenoweth is an investigative reporter for The Australian Financial Review. He is based in Sydney and has won multiple Walkley Awards. Connect with Neil on Twitter. Email Neil at nchenoweth@afr.com.au
