The brief prepared by the National Crime Authority against Perth company promoter Jeff Verheggen is a cracking read indeed.
It includes first-person accounts from veteran company promoters John Terpu and Roger Nikolaenko about helping Mr Verheggen deal with problems being caused by Namibian dealmaker Bruno de Vincentus and his WA representative, Inglewood accountant John Miller.
The brief, penned in September 2002, alleged Mr Verheggen organised a couple of heavies to go with him to Mr Miller's office and steal a bunch of options that were jeopardising a ripper deal Mr Verheggen had introduced to Mr Nikolaenko's listed vehicle Reefton Mining.
The charges, which started out as robbery and were later downgraded, were withdrawn in the District Court last week after the defence team found a crucial piece of evidence buried among 3000 phone taps the NCA handed over to Mr Verheggen.
Prosecutors said the prosecution was pulled because of the attitude of Mr Miller and Mr de Vincentus to giving evidence.
But Mr Verheggen's lawyer, Shane Brennan, said yesterday a phone tap showed Mr de Vincentus had given complete authorisation for the documents to be taken away and the prosecution case was fatally flawed. "It was misconceived from the beginning, there is no question about it," Mr Brennan said.
The withdrawal of NCA charges comes seven months after a judge threw out allegations by ASIC that Mr Verheggen had breached his duties as a director of Max Resources, which collapsed in 1998.
By 1999 Mr Verheggen, a former star broker with Eyres Reed, was working as a freelance company promoter. He and some associates had had taken a stake in Reefton Mining and he had introduced to Reefton to a potential deal to backdoor list an internet casino venture.
Among the investors in the internet casino venture was controversial Northbridge businessman John Kizon, who was then the target of an exhaustive investigation into his international financial affairs and his investment activities.
NCA covertly recorded thousands of telephone conversations in its Kizon investigation, including ones involving Mr Verheggen, Mr Nikolaenko and Mr Terpu relating to Reefton.
Mr Nikolaenko said in a statement given to NCA investigator Hugh Le Tessier that the internet casino talks were quite advanced by July 1999 but Mr de Vincentus was making it hard to complete a deal.
Mr de Vincentus held a swag of options over Reefton shares - including call options over stock owned by Mr Verheggen's family company - that the London investor had gained in return for an option over some diamond prospects in Namibia.
Mr Nikolaenko said Mr de Vincentus was refusing to hand back the Reefton options despite failing to deliver on the Namibian land.
". . . Mr Verheggen said to me in a number of telephone calls that he was determined to go to Miller's office with people he referred to as heavies and pick up the documents," Mr Nikolaenko said.
Mr Terpu told of how Mr Verheggen had told him he wanted to obtain the option documents held by Mr Miller and free the Reefton stock.
Mr Terpu tells in his statement of a phone conversation, recorded at 4.02pm on July 22, 1999, in which Mr Verheggen indicated he was prepared to use force to obtain the documents from Miller. "During the conversation I offer (sic) some names of persons who may be able to assist him," Mr Terpu said.
According to a document in the original NCA brief, Mr Verheggen was called by Balcatta businessman Ivan Marinovich at 4.16pm and investigators believed he went with Mr Verheggen to Mr Miller's office. Mr Marinovich refused to speak to the investigators.
Mr Miller said in a statement that Mr Verheggen came to his office and asked to be given the Reefton option file, which Mr Miller refused to hand over. He allegedly left the office and returned a few minutes later, agitated and aggressive.
"During this threatening conversation Verheggen mentioned that the people he had downstairs would be happy to come to my office and forcibly take the file from me," he said. He claimed Mr Verheggen took the file.
Mr Nikolaenko told of how he received a phone call from Mr Verheggen about 5.37pm that day in which he claimed Mr Verheggen told him he had retrieved the file from Mr Miller, that he had two people downstairs who would have slapped Mr Miller and they were paid $500 each.
The Reefton chief said he was quite sure the documents in the file were shredded. "Reefton has a shredder in its office and either Verheggen or I would have done the shredding," he said.
Mr Verheggen was to stand trial in August last year on downgraded charges of stealing from Mr de Vincentus and threatening Mr Miller to compel him to do an act he was lawfully entitled to abstain from.
The trial was aborted after Mr Brennan raised a conversation between Mr de Vincentus and Mr Verheggen that was among 3000 recordings handed over by the NCA to his client but was not transcribed by the NCA.
He said that in the tapped phone conversation, recorded while Mr Verheggen was in Mr Miller's office, Mr de Vincentus said he had no interest in the file and Mr Verheggen could take it away. "You can't steal something the owner says you can have," Mr Brennan said.
Mr Verheggen was not available for comment, but Mr Brennan said it was "fair to say he is fairly angry".
The lawyer said Mr Verheggen denied going to Mr Miller's office intending to belt anyone up and had not taken Mr Marinovich.
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