Ousted FMR Investments operations manager Patrick Keogh has denied fabricating claims his estranged mentor Peter Bartlett approved a secret bonus scheme.
Being cross-examined in the WA Supreme Court on Monday, Mr Keogh said he had explained to Mr Bartlett while fishing off Busselton how a $250,000 management fee could be added to a planned project in 2017.
"Peter said to me the board would be unhappy if I was given a bonus and they were not," said Mr Keogh.
Mr Keogh claimed Mr Bartlett approved the secret bonus plan and then they went on fishing.
When FMR barrister Steven Penglis suggested the conversation with Mr Bartlett was fabricated, Mr Keogh said: "No, it is not made up."
Mr Keogh said Mr Bartlett, the major shareholder of FMR, regularly made "grandiose" offerings. "There were a million conversations about Peter offering things to me — the company, handouts," he said.
Mr Keogh is defending a Supreme Court breach of fiduciary duties and damages action related to dealings at FMR's Coolgardie gold mill.
FMR's action relates to Mr Keogh receiving management fees via a contractor working on a tailings dam expansion and him sharing in the profits of a 2019 scheme to process a waste ore pile.
The gold processing row repeats some issues from a failed District Court criminal prosecution of Mr Keogh and four other people in March 2023.
FMR launched its Supreme Court civil action against Mr Keogh in August 2023.
Mr Keogh has admitted breaches of fiduciary duty.
But he claims Mr Bartlett knew about both contentious arrangements and that they are covered by a deed of release signed when he was ousted by FMR in March 2020 over a truck hire contract.
FMR and Mr Bartlett deny he gave Mr Keogh the Coolgardie mill waste pile or approved the management fees.
And they have questioned changes in Mr Keogh's claims about the date of a Coolgardie mill visit where Mr Bartlett allegedly gave the operations manager the waste ore pile.
Mr Keogh initially claimed in his Supreme Court defence that the conversation took place in late 2012, but the date of the alleged gift was later changed to May 8, 2013.
Mr Keogh testified on Monday that he had asked Mr Bartlett for the stockpile in May 2013 in return for "everything I have been doing for you recently".
Mr Bartlett had said "okay" after saying Mr Keogh's request was "a bit f...ing cheeky", Mr Keogh said.
The former FMR operations manager said he had transported between 100kg and 110kg of impure gold bullion bars from Mr Bartlett's Applecross home to the Coolgardie mill in November 2012.
"I put them on the floor in the back of my car," Mr Keogh said. "I was anxious – it was 100-plus kilos of unstamped bullion."
He claimed he had driven impure bullion bars from the Coolgardie mill to Mr Bartlett's home every couple months.
When asked the size of the bars, Mr Keogh said they had varied in size and purity. "It can be one kilo, half a kilo," he said.
The hearing continues on Tuesday.
