NO SOONER had the cheque arrived with Cape Lambert Iron Ore's board than the well-planned smash-and-grab raid went into action.
Just hours after Cape Lambert received the second-last $80 million instalment from China Metallurgical — for the purchase of its namesake West Australian iron ore project for $400 million — Dubai-based mining investor Mick Shemesian launched a daring raid on the company.
Cape Lambert is effectively a $320 million cashbox in the wake of the China Metallurgical sale.
"Make that $400 million when the final payment arrives, which it will," says executive chairman and founder Tony Sage.
Hong Kong-based Power United, which is controlled by Shemesian and owns 11.5% of Cape Lambert, has given notice that it wants to replace several company directors, including Sage. Power United has nominated its own team for the board, which includes a couple of rather colourful characters.
One is Melbourne day trader Leo "The Gun" Khouri, who has some well-established links with the Underbelly crowd.
Khouri was one of the Opes Prime clients who sought the aid of underworld figure Mick Gatto in recovering his Opes losses, estimated at $50 million.
Another name on the Shemesian ticket, not in the "colourful category", is well-known and highly reputable Perth lawyer Martin Bennett of Lavan Legal, who also happens to be representing Khouri and 58 investors as part of a class action to recoup those very funds lost in Opes Prime's collapse.
The list of Lavan Legal clients in that class action does include some colourful ones, Full Disclosure hears — flushed out when Gatto and associate John Khoury went on their Opes Prime mission to Singapore in April in a failed attempt to track down missing cash.
As Gatto's lawyer, Nicola Gobbo, said at the time: "Some would be described as business people. If you very loosely used the term 'business people'."
Bennett is well known in Perth mining circles and has done legal work for Fortescue Metals boss Andrew "Twiggy" Forrest and the late corporate raider Robert Holmes a Court.
Shemesian wants shareholders to nominate Bennett as proxy for the potential directors at the meeting — word is that Leo Khouri no longer resides in Australia.
Let's hope Bennett goes better than he did at one of his more recent meetings in the tough world of WA mining — he presided over an interesting shareholder meeting in Perth of fellow iron ore hopeful Golden West Resources, which ended in a brawl between some of the attendees.
The potential new board members of Cape Lambert may need to put in a call to Gatto's Arbitrations and Mediations if it all goes sour at the meeting.
Of note, Shemesian is an investor in Golden West, which is a company on may radars. In April this year The Age revealed that Australian Federal Police were investigating the alleged leaking of sensitive information about a planned takeover involving Golden West to Gatto, amid increasing concerns about infiltration of the sharemarket by organised crime. In total, Power United has nominated Khouri, Bennett, Blair Sergeant and Tony Roberts for positions on the board, citing a recent investment in Sierra Leone as the reason.
"The shareholder has lost faith in the board and believes the board has ulterior motives regarding the Marampa transaction, which have not been disclosed to shareholders," Power United stated. The Marampa project has been linked in the British press to convicted heroin dealer Frank Timis and rock star Bob Geldof. Continued…
