According to The Australian Financial Review this week, the explosive new evidence was given at a Senate inquiry in Perth by former non-executive director Jeffrey Mews, who also accused Mr Young of withholding market-sensitive information from investors and the board before selling $32.5 million worth of shares in February 2005.

Mr Mews's most compelling testimony centred on the company's failure to disclose losses from its 1994 forestry project, which were known to management when Mr Young sold his shares as part of a $140 million capital raising by Great Southern.

"This money was raised at a time when executive management was aware of the potential issues surrounding the 1994 project and disclosure of these facts was not made to the board or anyone," Mr Mews said in an August 2005 letter to the board, tendered yesterday.

The evidence prompted the chairman of the inquiry, Bill Heffernan, to question whether Mr Young was an "insider trader, according to The Australian Financial Review.

The Senate inquiry follows an investigation by The Australian Financial Review last month that documented concerns raised by Mr Mews and former chairman Peter Patrikeos over the company's failure to disclose losses from its 1994 timber project, which was harveted in late 2004.