Obeid friend lying his head off, ICAC told - Sydney Morning Herald

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An Obeid family friend who bought one of the farms at the centre of a corruption investigation has admitted he didn't know what type of cattle were on it and never acquired basic farming equipment.

In a farcical appearance at the NSW Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) on Friday, Justin Kennedy Lewis was grilled on his 2008 purchase of the Coggan Creek farm in the coal-rich Bylong Valley.

Counsel assisting the inquiry, Geoffrey Watson SC, has alleged Mr Lewis purchased the farm based on inside information obtained by former Labor MP Eddie Obeid and his family that the area would soon be subject to an exploration licence.

The ICAC is investigating whether the 2008 decision of former NSW resources minister Ian Macdonald to open up the Bylong Valley to mining favoured the Obeids, who stood to make $100 million, and people connected to them.

Mr Lewis agreed to buy Coggan Creek for $3.5 million in November 2008 and immediately signed a deed which would grant the Obeids 30 per cent of any profit made from reselling the farm to Monaro Mining.

Mr Lewis told the inquiry he had been told by one of Eddie Obeid's sons - either Moses, Paul or Gerard - that the property could be sold for four times its value because of coal deposits in the area.

However, he said he considered the possibility of the area being opened up to mining as a "long shot", and denied the coal deposits were central to his decision to buy the property.

At one point an exasperated Commissioner David Ipp asked him, "Wasn't that important to you? You pay $3.5 million and all of sudden you get $14 million."

"That would be a pretty cool thing but I thought it was a long shot," Mr Lewis replied.

"My main reason for buying the property was just not that."

However, Mr Watson accused him of "lying your head off in the witness box" by saying he wanted to run Coggan Creek as a farm.

Questioned by Mr Watson, Mr Lewis admitted never having bought a cow or any farming equipment for Coggan Creek, and said he had only visited the property three or four times.

"Had you spoken to an agronomist (before buying the property)?" Mr Watson asked.

"A what?" a puzzled Mr Lewis replied.

"An agronomist, you don't even know what that is," a frustrated Mr Watson said.

"A person who is specialising in the economics and viability and use of farmlands."

Mr Lewis also said he couldn't "recall" whether the farm was used for dairy, agistment or the breeding of cattle before he bought it.

"I really want to suggest to you that you're actually making this up about being interested in running it as a farm," Mr Watson said.

Referring to Mr Lewis' previous testimony to the ICAC, Mr Watson said that when he had been asked what the cows were doing on the farm, he had replied: "Just walking around and eating grass and all that sort of stuff."

"Is that the extent of your farming knowledge? Cows just walk around and eat stuff?" Mr Watson asked.

"I mean really, in my way of thinking, how hard could that be," a smiling Mr Lewis replied.