Whitehaven hoaxer faces 10 years jail over fake email Jonathon Moylan wreaked havoc on Whitehaven Coal Share prices with a hoax media release from ANZ. Photo: Peter Lorimer The anti-coal campaigner who temporarily wiped more than $314 million off the value of Whitehaven Coal with a hoax email faces 10 years in jail if convicted of making false and misleading statements. In early January, Jonathan Moylan tricked sharemarket investors into thinking that a $1.2 billion loan to Whitehaven had been cancelled on ethical grounds. Mr Moylan is accused of using his laptop computer to draw up a fake press release purporting to be from ANZ, which said the bank had withdrawn financial support for a proposed Whitehaven Coal mine in the Laird State Forest in New South Wales. There are three large coalmines planned for the area. Activist Jonathan Moylan had his laptop and mobile phone seized by ASIC. When he sent the bogus release to journalists, and impersonated an ANZ employee, Whitehaven stock temporarily crashed by nearly 9 per cent, wiping about $314 million from the value of the company. An ASIC investigator made an unannounced visit to the Leard Forest campsite soon after the hoax, seizing the laptop and mobile phone used by Mr Moylan. In January, as the potential consequences of his actions sank in, Mr Moylan said he had never before dealt with ASIC. "I have no experience of ASIC, but then I don't think they have any experience of activism with just cause, or civil disobedience, like this situation," he said. They usually deal with millionaires who try to cheat other millionaires. With Campbell Walker, Ben Cubby