Bloomberg reported that mining magnate Mr Clive Palmer and a former business partner are fighting 2 bitter legal battles after the billionaire pocketed a multi million dollar windfall on the purchase of an ailing BHP nickel refinery.

Mr Palmer has launched legal action against Mr Robert Pearce his former company director at Gladstone Pacific Nickel claiming he was misled over the sale of USD 23 million in company shares.

In the NSW Supreme Court, GPNL defended the actions of its major shareholder, Mr Palmer who controversially purchased Yabulu Nickel Refinery for himself after BHP rejected GPNL's initial offer.

The purchase has led Mr Pearce through his associated company Robash to allege Mr Palmer did not give proper notice of his interest in the north Queensland refinery and breached his fiduciary duties as a director of GPNL during negotiations with BHP.

If successful in the application, GPNL will sue its 56% shareholder, Mr Palmer. It is unclear what a favorable outcome for Robash might entail with barrister James Stevenson SC accepting judge Michael Ball's proposition that damages would be a difficult remedy. It has been reported the case could be worth as much as USD 500 million.

Mr Sheahan SC for GPNL said that Mr Palmer only agreed to buy the refinery after the GPNL board formally resolved it had no interest in the transaction. Further the company expected to benefit from the deal.

Mr Sheahan said the judge that claims Mr Palmer might have misused information gleaned during his negotiations on behalf of GPNL were tenuous. Emails involving GPNL executives at the time of the sale contained no suggestion the deal should be stopped. There was no suggestion that Palmer should be told he should not be using any information and no suggestion he is being told he has no right to do what he proposed to do.

The parties will provide final submissions to Justice Ball by Monday. In Brisbane's Supreme Court, Mr Pearce is defending claims he misled Mr Palmer over the purchase in 2007 of more than 6 million GPNL shares from four companies including Robash.

Mr Palmer alleges his former financial adviser Mr James Henderson and Mr Pearce advised him the companies selling the shares would be reluctant to do so. However, they would agree to sell at an above-market price of pound stg. 1.65 per share. GPNL shares had fallen significantly at the time and were selling for only pound stg. 1.135 on London's Alternative Investment Market in late November.

Mr Palmer alleged they justified the cost since GPNL's stock would rise due to profitable new ventures, including contracts to source nickel ore from New Caledonia and infrastructure development at Gladstone.

Mr Palmer's claim alleged that "There were no reasonable grounds for believing that GPNL shares would be worth pound stg. 1.65 per share if Palmer purchased them from the companies."

(Sourced from www.theaustralian.com.au)