John Kinghorn, the founder of Rams Home Loans, is among eight men found to have "engaged in corrupt conduct in relation to their actions involving the Mount Penny mining tenement in the Bylong Valley" in New South Wales. The NSW Independent Commission Against Corruption yesterday released its findings in relation to the matter after a long-running inquiry that centred on dealings between two former ministers of the NSW Labor government.The ICAC report said it will "furnish to the Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions evidence that may be admissible in the prosecution of Kinghorn and three others for offences under the Corporations Act."The commission said it had found Kinghorn had "engaged in corrupt conduct by deliberately failing to disclose information to the independent board committee of White Energy about the Obeid family involvement in the Mount Penny tenement, with the intention of deceiving relevant public officials or public authorities of the NSW Government as to the involvement of the Obeids in that tenement."Kinghorn's approach during evidence is the subject of extensive adverse commentary in the ICAC report. It found that Kinghorn:- "was an aggressive witness [and] strongly opinionated"- was "plainly dissembling", gave "implausible" evidence, "gave false evidence", gave evidence that was "highly dubious", and evidence that was "surprising". For example, "Kinghorn's evidence that he was ignorant as to the nature or purpose of the massive capital issue to Coal & Minerals Group could not be truthful."The commission concluded that "Kinghorn was holding to a position that was untenable.""It is impossible to reconcile a combination of Kinghorn's vast business experience, his obvious sophistication in business and company matters, his duties as a director of Cascade, and his duties as a director of White Energy, with a complete ignorance of the transactions between Buffalo Resources and Cascade."The commission said it "finds that Kinghorn was giving false evidence about his lack of knowledge concerning Buffalo Resources."It also concluded: "Kinghorn was a director of White Energy and had a fiduciary duty to the company. The Commission is satisfied that, despite this, Kinghorn deliberately concealed the Obeid involvement in the Mount Penny tenement" from the White Energy independent board committee.The commission said it was "satisfied that, if the facts it has found were to be proved on admissible evidence to the criminal standard of beyond reasonable doubt and accepted by an appropriate tribunal, they would be grounds on which such a tribunal would find that Kinghorn committed a criminal offence under s 184(1) of the Corporations Act.""This is because, as a director of White Energy, he was intentionally dishonest or, alternatively, reckless and failed to discharge his duties in good faith and in the best interests of that company or for a proper purpose by withholding information about the Obeid family involvement so that the value of his holding in Cascade would not be adversely affected."The commission therefore finds that Mr Kinghorn engaged in corrupt conduct by deliberately failing to disclose information to the IBC [the independent board committee of White Energy] about the Obeid family