Eddie Obeid and Ian Macdonald jailed over corrupt mining lease
Eddie Obeid, his son Moses and Ian Macdonald have been sentenced to jail over a corrupt mining lease.
Police & Courts
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Disgraced former Labor powerbroker Eddie Obeid was back in his own bed on Thursday night despite being sentenced to five years’ jail.
At the same time his son Moses Obeid and his former political mate Ian Macdonald were led away to spend the night in the stark cells at the Sydney Police Centre before starting their jail terms.
Obeid senior was sensationally granted overnight bail for fear he would die if he contracted Covid-19 in the police or jail system.
Justice Elizabeth Fullerton, who had minutes earlier jailed the corrupt trio to a combined total of up to 21 years six months behind bars, refused to hear bail applications from lawyers for Macdonald and Moses Obeid and their applications were withdrawn.
The men have already filed notices to appeal their convictions that they were each guilty of a single charge of conspiring for then-resources minister Macdonald to misconduct himself by doing acts in connection with the granting of the Mt Penny coal exploration licence in 2008.
The Obeids made a $30 million windfall in the deal which covered the family farm Cherrydale Park in the Bylong Valley near Mudgee.
They are appealing on the grounds that Justice Fullerton Ustice, the judge who heard the trial sitting alone without a jury because of the notoriety of the case, had erred in law and their convictions were a miscarriage of justice.
Eddie Obeid, 77, will appear before the court via AVL on Friday as he fights to remain on bail pending the hearing of their appeal in the Court of Criminal Appeal, which could be several months away.
Justice Fullerton voiced her anger at Corrective Services, who had assured her the men would all be taken straight to the Metropolitan Remand and Reception Centre at Silverwater where they would be held in isolation until tested for Covid and other health problems.
Instead they will spend 24 hours at Surry Hills first.
“If Mr Obeid gets Covid, that means death,” his counsel April Francis told the court.
ALL THREE MEN SENTENCED TO JAIL
Earlier on Thursday afternoon, disgraced former Labor ministers Eddie Obeid and Ian Macdonald, and Obeid’s son Moses, were sensationally been jailed for a combined total of up to 21 years and six months.
Over 1400 people dialled in see justice being done as the Supreme Court broadcast the sentencing live on YouTube, demonstrating the public interest in the case.
Former Labor powerbroker Eddie Obeid, 77, was sentenced to seven years with a non-parole period of three years and 10 months. He will be eligible for parole on August 20, 2025.
Moses Obeid, 52, was jailed for five years with three years’ non-parole and will be eligible for parole on October 20, 2024.
Former resources minster Macdonald, 72, was sentenced to nine years and six month, with five years and three months non-parole. He will be eligible for parole on January 20, 2027.
The corrupt trio have been on bail since they were convicted in July of conspiring to create a mining lease over the Obeid’s Bylong Valley farm and have been listening in to the sentencing proceedings in the Supreme Court from their homes.
Justice Elizabeth Fullerton who found them each guilty of a single charge of conspiring for Macdonald to misconduct himself by doing acts in connection with the granting of the Mt Penny coal exploration licence in 2008.
Their last taste of freedom came in front of a barrage of media cameras as they arrived at court in person on Thursday to face Justice Elizabeth Fullerton, who found them each guilty of a single charge of conspiring for Macdonald to misconduct himself by doing acts in connection with the granting of the Mt Penny coal exploration licence in 2008.
“It was misconduct in public office of the most serious kind,” Justice Fullerton said.
The judge said the two former high-flying politicians had breached the public’s trust.
It is just the latest stage in their sensational fall from grace.
The notorious 77-year-old millionaire ex-politician Edie Obeid was once described as a “champion of the unprivileged”.
His mate, the former resources minister Macdonald, was known around parliament as “Obeid’s left testicle” and a “wholly-owned subsidiary of Mr Obeid”, the Independent Commission Against Corruption was told as it investigated them almost a decade ago.
Businessman Moses Obeid is the only one of the trio who has not yet spent time behind bars.
The last time his father faced jail, the court was told he had as little as three years to live but he was jailed for five years for misconduct of public office for lobbying senior water bureaucrats for the rights to waterfront businesses without disclosing family business interests in cafe leases on Sydney’s Circular Quay.
He walked free two years ago after serving three years.
Macdonald was convicted in March 2017 of misconduct in public office for corruptly issuing lucrative mining licences at Doyles Creek in the Hunter Valley and sentenced to ten years jail with a minimum period of seven years.
He successfully appealed the verdict and was released in February 2019 and a retrial is pending.
The men had all pleaded not guilty to the latest charge, describing it as “nonsense”, “reconstructed fiction” and ”a reductionist attempt to rewrite history”.
The conspiracy between the them occurred between September 2007, when an Obeid company bought the Cherrydale Park farm, and January 2009.
In her judgment, Justice Fullerton said the conspiracy was in force in May 2008 when Macdonald, having announced 11 mining exploration leases, inquired with the Department of Primary Industries how much coal was in the area of Cherrydale Park and then “strongly suggested” that the department create a small coal release area that encompassed the farm.
Companies could only enter the closed tender process by invitation and Moses Obeid was negotiating with one of them, Monaro Mining, through an intermediary.
When Monaro couldn’t come up with the finance to bid, Moses began negotiations “in earnest” with the second company, Cascade Coal, the judge said.
“It is fundamental to our system of government that ministers who occupy office as members of the executive government are entrusted with powers, duties and responsibilities exclusively for the public benefit,” Justice Fullerton said at the time.
“That is not simply an arcane feature of the Westminster system as we have inherited it.
When the claims were investigated by the ICAC in 2012, it was described as a level of corruption which had not been seen since the days of the Rum Corps in the early years of European settlement.
Justice Fullerton said on Thursday that while Eddie and Moses Obeid were “patently” motivated by money, the motive for Macdonald was unclear and he may have been repaying a debt of gratitude to Eddie Obeid for his patronage in parliament or hoped for a financial benefit later on.
Members of the public can view but not record, re-post or broadcast the audio or footage of the Supreme Court live stream.
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