Mineral Resources board ducks and weaves on ASX disclosure grilling

Mineral Resources claims it had no need to disclose Chris Ellison’s secret dealings through a tax haven company last month — despite the board gaining a full briefing on the scandal in June.

In response to stock exchange queries, MinRes ducked questions about why it failed to disclose its dealings with Ellison-controlled British Virgin Islands company Far East Equipment Holdings in its annual reports from 2006 to 2008.

“Excluding the knowledge of Mr Ellison, the present board would be speculating in expressing a view as to the reason disclosure was not made in the annual reports,” MinRes said in answers signed by company secretary Mark Wilson and released after the market closed on Tuesday.

Mr Ellison remains managing director of MinRes despite a damning report about his dealings and confirming he struck a $3.94m settlement with the tax office last year over his Far East dealings.

That settlement related to profits on up to $10 million of machinery sales by Far East, including sales in 2003 and 2004 that left MinRes owing the tax haven company $3.79m when it floated in 2006.

The MinRes investigation found the Far East loans were buried in MinRes’ business liabilities and no related party disclosures of the debts and payments were made from 2006 to 2009.

But the scandal, revealed in media reports since October 20, has triggered an investigation by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission and a series of questions from stock exchange officials.

The ASX queries focused on MinRes not disclosing Mr Ellison’s troubles related to his dealings through Far East despite the company admitting it received information from a whistleblower in June 2022.

It also admitted receiving what it described as more detailed allegations in July 2023 and “substantive detail regarding these matters in November 2023”, as well as a board briefing in May on the investigation.

Yet there was no mention of the scandal in the MinRes 2023-24 annual report, filed with the stock exchange on October 21.

In response to the latest query, Mr Wilson said the Far East dealings should have been disclosed by the company before June 2022 but were not.

Mr Wilson said no disclosure was made of the dealings with Mr Ellison and other directors in the 2022, 2023 and 2024 annual reports.

Asked why not, the MinRes company secretary said the last payment was made to Far East and its liability discharged in January 2008.

The MinRes board did not consider the “historical dealings” between Far East and MinRes to be “materially price sensitive information”.

“Accordingly, MinRes does not consider that there was a requirement to make retrospective disclosure in respect of these historical dealings,” said Mr Wilson, defending the non-disclosure in the 2023-24 annual report.