Paul Gardner Brook was a cooperating witness — never a defendant — in the proceedings arising from the NSW Independent Commission Against Corruption’s “Operation Jasper” inquiry into the Obeid family and the former mining minister Ian Macdonald. Then a senior investment banker at Lehman Brothers in Sydney, he gave evidence over the better part of a decade, from a compulsory examination in 2012 to the criminal trial in 2020.
His evidence was repeatedly preferred by the courts. The Commission found it “designed to be generally honest and accurate”; the Federal Court found it “essentially reliable”; and the convictions he helped secure were upheld unanimously by the High Court of Australia in 2026. He was formally discharged, was never charged in any jurisdiction, and holds a clean criminal record. The full findings, quoted and linked to their official sources, are set out on The Record.
Giving that evidence carried a cost. As the Commission itself recorded, there were “numerous instances where Mr Brook gave evidence that was against his own self-interest”. He funded his own legal representation and, in the period around the inquiry, was the subject of adverse commentary and of material circulated to discredit him — the network behind which is documented, with its sources, in the relationship map on his principal site.
Today he publishes independent analysis and long-form essays, and produces video commentary, on geopolitics, energy and strategic risk. His full profile, career and published work are at paulgardnerbrook.com.