THE man who caused a temporary $314 million drop in Whitehaven Coal’s market value with a press release he sent from his laptop at Maules Creek says he will return.
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Jonathan Moylan, 26, avoided a jail sentence at the Supreme Court of NSW on Friday, and admitted yesterday he regretted the fallout from his hoax.
“As I have consistently said, I didn’t intend any impact on the sharemarket and impacting on third parties is something that I very much regret,” he said from Newcastle.
Moylan sent out a fake statement to the media in January 2013 claiming to be from the ANZ bank. The statement said the bank was withdrawing $1.2 billion in funding from the Whitehaven Coal mine project at Maules Creek.
The media release caused a temporary $314 million drop in Whitehaven Coal’s market value before the hoax was revealed.
Moylan pleaded guilty to disseminating false or misleading information affecting market participation.
He received a 20-month prison sentence after pleading guilty to disseminating false information, but was released immediately on a two-year, $1000 good behaviour bond.
Supreme Court Justice David Davies said Moylan had prior convictions and fines, including for trespassing.
The maximum jail term possible was 10 years.
Whitehaven Coal had no comment on the sentencing yesterday.
Moylan’s court case prompted a nationwide wave of support, including a Stand With Jono campaign that saw people around the country pictured holding placards of support.
Among them was Maules Creek farmer Rick Laird, who travelled to the Supreme Court for the sentencing.
Mr Laird said he believed the sentence was “pretty fair”.
He said a few years back, he would never have seen himself as “an activist” but said he had become one to “protect the farmland and the water table”.
Mr Laird said he believed Moylan’s actions had made a difference in attracting attention to the plight of farmers who were faced with the threat of new mines.
“There’s a lot of support and not just from farmers,” he said.
“The reality is we have just had our hottest summer ever and these projects are part of the problem.”
Moylan said yesterday he was currently “taking a break” in Newcastle, but would return to Maules Creek.
“There are lots of different ways of campaigning,” he said.
“In any campaign, what you will see in the newspapers and on TV is in terms of people taking acts of civil disobedience. That is really just the public face of the campaigning.
“I have always told the Maules Creek community I will support them. I’ll be in Maules Creek, but you won’t see me chaining myself to any machinery any time soon.”
He said he was relieved the case was over and he believed the sentence to be “fair”.
“It’s taken a very long time,” he said.
The first coal is expected to be produced from Maules Creek in early 2015. The mine is approved to extract up to 13 Mt of coal per annum and rail 12.4 Mt from the site per year for 30 years.