The Crime and Misconduct Commission (CMC) last year began investigating a $300,000 loan from Talbot to Nuttal and the subsequent Beattie Government decision to finance a $20 million rail and road deviation to Macarthur Coal's Coppabella mine.

 

Talbot will today answer to 35 related charges of corruptly making the payments to Nuttall between October 2002 and September 2005 as part of the $300,000 loan.

 

When details of the loan were made public last year, Nuttall claimed the payments were personal loans to buy houses for his three children.

 

Talbot took a leave of absence from Macarthur in November last year, leaving deputy CEO Nicole Hollows to take the reigns.

 

Nuttall was also charged with 35 counts of corruptly receiving payments when he appeared in court on January 25 and was released on bail, due to reappear on March 14.

 

Both men deny any wrongdoing surrounding their financial arrangement.

 

Since issuing a statement in November last year saying it would be “business as usual” at Macarthur during the investigation, the company has made no further public comment on the issue.