Eddie Obeid loses multimillion-dollar corruption lawsuit

THE former NSW minister has lost his multimillion-dollar civil case against the body that investigated the granting of a coal exploration licence on his family land.

Eddie Obeid at the NSW Supreme Court.

FORMER NSW minister Eddie Obeid has lost his civil case against the anti-corruption body that investigated the granting of a coal exploration licence on his family’s land.

Mr Obeid and three of his five sons claimed they had been denied procedural fairness at an Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) hearing, which found he acted corruptly over the granting of the licence.

Justice David Hammerschlag dismissed all the Obeid claims in the NSW Supreme Court today.

The Obeids had accused the NSW ICAC, former commissioner David Ipp, former counsel assisting Geoffrey Watson SC and other former officers of misfeasance in public office.

Moses Obeid was at the Supreme Court in Sydney on behalf of his father Eddie today. Picture: Britta Campion

In court, Mr Newlinds referred to two confidential government maps claimed to have been seized from an Obeid family office during the execution of a search warrant relating to the Operation Jasper inquiry.

The two maps played a part in ICAC findings relating to the issuing of a coal mining exploration licence on Obeid family land at Mount Penny in the Bylong Valley near Mudgee.

ICAC found the licence enabled the Obeid family to make $30 million. After ICAC, the 72-year-old went to trial over other allegations of corruption and was found guilty of wilful misconduct in public office.

The jury found he lobbied a senior public servant about lucrative retail leases at Sydney’s Circular Quay, without revealing his family’s stake in the outlets.