phillip grimaldi won't take stand in chameleon

Phillip Grimaldi won't take stand in Chameleon case

Michael Bennet | October 12, 2009

Article from: The Australian

ONE of the key identities in the battle being played out between Chameleon Mining and Murchison Metals in the Federal Court will not take the stand.

Citybeat hears Phillip Grimaldi, who was last month accused of using Chameleon as a “milch cow”, will not take the stand in his defence.

Mr Grimaldi and fellow mining identity Greg Barnes are accused of using Chameleon to fraudulently extract cash and shares to buy the Iron Jack iron ore tenements in Western Australia in 2004 for rival Murchison Metals.

At the time, Mr Grimaldi was a director of NiCu – formerly Murchison - and Mr Barnes was managing director of Chameleon.

However, the court heard last month that Mr Grimaldi was also a shadow director of Chameleon and, while he was never appointed to the board, he acted as an officer of the company.

Jack Hills is located in WA’s iron ore-rich but underdeveloped Mid-West region and is now worth an estimated $800 million.

Murchison executive chairman Paul Kopejtka spent this morning in the witness box and was asked about the early days of Murchison, but apparently had some trouble with events that took place at the time.

Chameleon chairman and former rugby league player Benny Elias was also in court today, along with litigation funder Paul Lindstrom, who we hear took a keen interest in the testimony.

The case is scheduled to conclude in two weeks.

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/business/story/0,28124,26198323-20142,00.html