The case was initially based on Anglo’s allegations that the company’s former Australian coal project director had rorted about $4.5 million through fake invoice-related schemes and contract winning kickbacks while he oversaw development of the $2 billion Grosvenor longwall project in Queensland.
“After swiftly freezing his assets and hiring investigators to probe his past, shortly before Christmas the company slapped him with another $5.3 million damages claim – alleging he also rorted the company when he worked to expand a copper mine in South America between 2009 and 2011,” the Courier Mail reported.
The civil case will return to court on January 29.
Anglo has seemingly made advances on several fronts, including winning court permission to search Tonkin’s Mount Samson home.
“On October 24, he [Tonkin] also chose to voluntarily transfer $3.2 million from his Hong Kong bank account to the lawyers acting for Anglo – a move that Anglo claims ‘amounts to an admission’,” the newspaper reported.
“The alleged con unravelled in mid-August after an eagle-eyed colleague Phillipa Starmer noticed one of her emails had been altered. After an investigation, the HR department found it was likely Tonkin was responsible.
“Tonkin admitted he had breached procurement guidelines – a relatively minor misdeed – but rather than stand aside while he was investigated Tonkin chose to resign.
“When the HR boss began digging, he found the US consultant named in the email – Hank Testolin – didn’t exist. Alarm bells rang.”
Anglo is refusing to comment on the matters while they are before the court.
Anglo was previously paying 50-year-old Tonkin a salary of more than $350,000 a year.
Anglo’s head of underground operations, Glen Britton, known for ushering in stellar results at Anglo’s Moranbah North longwall mine, became the executive in charge of the Grosvenor project since Tonkin quit in September.
Targeting a mine life of 30 years, the under-construction Grosvenor mine is expected to produce 4.3 million tonnes per annum of metallurgical coal with full production targeted for 2016.
Run-of-mine production is expected to reach up to 7Mtpa, with this output to be transported via an overland conveyor for processing at Moranbah North.
