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Coal activist to stand trial over fake ANZ statement

A man has been committed to stand trial over a hoax ANZ media release that temporarily slashed $300m off the value of Whitehaven Coal. Anti-coal activist Jonathan Moylan is charged with making a false and misleading statement under the Corporations Act. The fake statement released in January claimed the bank had withdrawn from a NSW mining project on environmental grounds.

 An anti-coal mining activist has been committed to stand trial in the New South Wales Supreme Court for issuing a hoax ANZ Bank media release.

Jonathan Moylan is being prosecuted by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) over the fake statement released in January claiming ANZ had withdrawn its $1.2 billion funding for Whitehaven Coal's Maules Creek project on environmental grounds.

The hoax caused a temporary crash of more than $300 million in Whitehaven's share price.

Moylan is charged with making a false and misleading statement under the Corporations Act.

He emailed the statement from a protest campsite at Maules Creek, near Narrabri in north-western NSW.

The Newcastle man's family, including his mother and sister, were in the Downing Centre District Court today as the prosecution and Moylan's lawyer John Sutton agreed for the matter to go straight to trail without a committal hearing.

The court heard the Supreme Court's chief justice had already determined it should go to a higher court.

Earlier this month Moylan's legal team described as "an enormous overreaction" the push to have the case moved from the District Court to the Supreme Court.

Today outside court his lawyer Mr Sutton said the case has been sent to the Supreme Court because of its supposed complexity.

"I have a view of the complexity which is at odds with what the Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions has," Mr Sutton said.

"The DPP wrote to the Chief Justice of New South Wales suggesting it was a complex matter, the Chief Justice accepted that, that's a matter for his honour to determine.

"What it says is the state, with a capital S, thinks that this is a complicated matter and they want to have the best brain in the Supreme Court or the highest court in this state to examine the matters and examine the issues.

"It does frustrate me to be perfectly honest. The cost involved in running the Supreme Court mean that this is a matter that will cost the state tax payer more money."

Moylan will appear in the Supreme Court on November 1.

Source: Yahoo! Finance