Brief Cases

The Age

Thursday November 29, 2007

Matt O'Sullivan, Leonie Wood

Blue Ensign flags inventor's fine

BLUE Ensign Technologies, the company that said it had found a way to extract oil from the outback, has filed an amended prospectus disclosing the checkered past of the process' inventor.

John Rendall, developer of the method Blue Ensign plans to use to produce oil from shale, misled investors in Solv-Ex Corp from 1995 to 1997 with claims he had devised a method to exploit Canada's oil sands, Blue Ensign said in a filing with the Australian Securities and Investments Commission.

Blue Ensign made no mention of the judgement or fine against Mr Rendall in previous filings. It said the disclosure was in response to an article on November 15 that detailed his role in Solv-Ex and the subsequent collapse that cost shareholders $US825 million.

Mr Rendall is Blue Ensign's biggest shareholder with a 43% stake.

Reconsider, Opel urged

THE Optus-led consortium that the Howard government controversially awarded almost $1 billion is under intense pressure to reconsider plans for a broadband network in rural and regional areas.

Stephen Conroy, who is almost certain to be named communications minister, has said Labor will honour the contract, but has also urged Opel to reconsider the project because the incoming government plans to build a national broadband network using superior technology.

Industry sources believe the business case for Opel could be severely jeopardised by a competing network that offers faster speeds at cheaper prices in rural and regional areas.

The consortium between Optus and Elders is still some weeks away from appointing a chief executive and chief financial officer, more than five months after being named as the successful bidder. -- MATT O'SULLIVAN

Drug partner wanted

CHEMGENEX Pharmaceuticals, an Australian drug company developing a treatment for drug-resistant leukaemia sufferers, plans to seek a partner to develop or buy the rights to its medicine in the next six months.

Chief executive Greg Collier said yesterday ChemGenex next month would present preliminary results of late-stage patient studies of its drug, omacetaxine, at an American Society of Hematology annual meeting in Atlanta. The Geelong-based company had so far self-funded trials of the drug, Mr Collier said.

The drug may prolong the lives of the 5-10% of chronic myeloid leukaemia sufferers for whom Novartis AG's Gleevec is ineffective. About 5000 Americans are diagnosed each year with CML, a slow-progressing cancer that causes bone marrow to produce too many white blood cells.

ChemGenex shares fell 7? to $1.01.

Wickenby man wins case

PHILIP Egglishaw, the Jersey-based accountant at the centre of the Wickenby tax avoidance investigation, has won a court case clearing the way for him to receive a copy of all documents and files downloaded from his laptop after an Australian Crime Commission raid in early 2004.

Mr Egglishaw was given DVD copies of the laptop's hard drive soon after ACC officers raided his Melbourne hotel room. But in 2005, his new computer suffered a catastrophic crash, destroying the information he had retained.

Mr Egglishaw asked the ACC in 2005 and again last year for extra copies, but it refused. The Federal Court in June agreed with the ACC.

Mr Egglishaw appealed and the full court of the Federal Court deemed that he was entitled to a copy of the documents under section 3N of the Crimes Act.

The Wickenby investigation, which is being conducted by five government agencies, including the Tax Office, focuses on the use of overseas trusts and bank accounts to avoid tax in Australia. -- LEONIE WOOD

© 2007 The Age

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