Independent Member for Clark, Andrew Wilkie, has welcomed the announcement by ASIC that it is suing TerraCom Limited, it’s managing director, chief commercial officer, former Chair and a former director following whistleblower allegations of coal quality testing fraud.
Mr Wilkie revealed the allegations of widespread fraudulent behaviour in the Australian coal industry in the House of Representative on 21 November 2022.
“Many members of the community will be pleased to see some progress in the investigation of whistleblower allegations of widespread fraud and other criminal behaviour in Australia’s export coal industry,” Mr Wilkie said. “However, TerraCom is just a small fish in a corrupt ocean, and the pressure remains on the Federal Government to initiate inquiries into the big players and the coal testing companies.
“As it is ASIC only investigated TerraCom and sure enough found it guilty. But I continue to sit on a mountain of evidence of similar wrongdoing across the industry and none of the other companies have been investigated, nor has any regulator come to me to see my evidence.
“I’m also concerned that ASIC’s announcement today seems to be limited to civil legal action when the whistleblower’s allegations clearly point to criminal behaviour.”