Sydney’s richest businessmen were on the hunt for a legendary cache of gold when things turned ugly.
Locke founded Gold and Copper Resources in 2007. By then, he had already amassed a large number of mining exploration licences around Orange and struck up the acquaintance of American-Canadian billionaire Robert Friedland, one of the world’s most influential mining investors.
“Friedland was a major figure in world mineral exploration and I was impressed,” Barlow said in a statement to police when turmoil later engulfed the company.in 2010, decided to invest in Gold and Copper Resources and joined the Lockes on the board. By early 2017 the company had pulled off a $153 million joint venture with Andrew “Twiggy” Forrest’s Fortescue Metals Group.
Locke agreed, on the condition he would keep his own directorship for three years or while he held a 20 per cent stake in the company. The new board investigated the success fee and concluded the criteria had not been fulfilled for it to be paid out. They wrote to Locke in September 2018 informing him they believed the basis upon which it was paid was “fundamentally flawed”.Locke’s company, Yanbulla, was given the opportunity to pay for the shares, worth $9.3 million. If it did not, Gold and Copper Resources could begin debt recovery proceedings against it or forfeit the shares, Locke was warned.
The 82-year-old told police he was “truly shocked” by what he had found and further probing uncovered more payments that had not been justified.