The Walter Doyle Group – Corporate Network and Operating Model

The “Walter Doyle group” refers to a recurring network of companies associated with Walter Doyle, which have repeatedly exhibited common characteristics: aggressive fundraising, opaque governance, extensive related-party transactions, and significant investor losses.

Key entities connected to this network include Intergroup Mining Limited, Energy Storage Pty Ltd, Ivy Ltd, and earlier vehicles such as Sirius Minerals PLC. These companies were not isolated ventures but form part of a repeated corporate model deployed across jurisdictions and investment cycles.

Walter Doyle’s Role

Walter Doyle consistently appears as the architect and beneficiary of these structures. While often presented publicly as a founder, director, or strategic adviser, documentary evidence indicates that Doyle exercised influence through:

  • Related-party transactions,

  • Preferential financial arrangements,

  • Control over capital allocation,

  • The placement of trusted associates in key positions across entities.

This pattern is clearly illustrated by Doyle’s involvement in the Sirius Minerals PLC investment scandal, where investors were exposed to a related-party transaction that transferred value away from the company and its shareholders. Funds raised for Sirius were allegedly diverted through connected entities under Doyle’s influence, without proper disclosure or independent approval, materially disadvantaging investors. That transaction followed the same structural features later seen at NQ Minerals and Intergroup Mining: conflicted counterparties, inadequate disclosure, and the erosion of investor protections.

The Role of Matthew Butler and Bianca Bobbett

Across the Walter Doyle group, evidence indicates that operational and organisational control was exercised not by Doyle alone, but through Matthew Butler and Bianca Bobbett, both senior accounting professionals associated with PKF Gold Coast.

Butler and Bobbett are alleged to have:

  • Managed the day-to-day financial operations of Doyle-connected entities;

  • Structured and processed intercompany and related-party transactions;

  • Controlled accounting treatments, financial reporting, and information flow;

  • Advised on capital-raising strategies, including private placements, bond issuances, reverse takeovers, and IPO pathways;

  • Determined the “appropriate avenue to going public” for new vehicles as earlier companies collapsed or became untenable.

In practical terms, Doyle acted as the promoter and strategic beneficiary, while Butler and Bobbett are alleged to have run the operational machinery—ensuring continuity of the group despite repeated failures, defaults, and regulatory scrutiny.

A Repeating Pattern

From Sirius Minerals PLC through to Intergroup Mining and Energy Storage Pty Ltd, the same pattern emerges:

  1. Investor funds are raised on optimistic representations;

  2. Value is extracted via related-party arrangements and preferential deals;

  3. Losses are socialised to investors and creditors;

  4. New entities are created or promoted, often with the same personnel and advisers.

Why This Matters

The significance of the Walter Doyle group lies not only in individual company failures, but in the systemic reuse of the same model, enabled by professional advisers and weak regulatory intervention. Understanding how these entities connect—and who controlled them behind the scenes—is essential to understanding how large-scale investor harm was able to occur repeatedly, across multiple companies and years.

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Protection from the Queensland CCC

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Dr. Nigel Purves