White Energy board stands by director caught in Obeid affair Resigned: John Kinghorn. Photo: Nic Walker The board of coal company White Energy has declared its "unanimous support" for chairman Travers Duncan despite a finding by NSW's corruption watchdog he should be prosecuted for corrupt conduct over the Eddie Obeid affair. While Mr Duncan, who rejects the findings, is to continue as chairman, another director named as engaging in corrupt conduct, RAMS founder John Kinghorn, pictured below, resigned on Friday. Mr Kinghorn, who also rejects the Independent Commission Against Corruption's findings, said he resigned because the commission had referred evidence about possible breaches of company law to the Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions. "When one is under investigation, which one presumes I will be, I don't believe it's appropriate I be a director of the company," he said. He said he would offer his resignation to other public companies where he is a director, including L.J. Hooker, but would remain a trustee of the Kinghorn Foundation, valued by him at $300 million. On Wednesday, ICAC commissioner David Ipp found Mr Duncan's corrupt conduct included "deliberately misleading" independent director Graham Cubbin regarding the involvement of the Obeid family in a coal tenement in the Bylong Valley. Mr Duncan will face a shareholder vote at the company's annual meeting in November. It is believed M&G Investments, which owns 18 per cent of White Energy but is not represented on the board, is yet to inform the company of its view on Mr Duncan. Australian Shareholders Association chairman Ian Curry said it was "quite strange to think that one director who has been named has chosen to resign and another who has also been named has chosen not to and has been endorsed by the board."