Joseph Gutnick - Biography

Joseph Isaac Gutnick (Diamond Joe) is an Australian businessman and mining industry entrepreneur. He is also an ordained rabbi and is well known for his philanthropy in the Jewish world.

Business holdings

Among Gutnick's business holdings:

• Legend International Holdings. A mining company focused on phosphate exploration in Queensland, Australia. Gutnick is the President and CEO.
• Centaur mining went in receivership 2000 Gutnick is the President and CEO.

Gutnick was, after almost having been ruined by the 1987 stock market crash, advised by Rabbi Menachem Schneerson to go back to the Australian desert and search for "gold and diamonds". He was responsible for overseeing the discovery of the Plutonic gold deposit, as well as the discovery, development and operation of the Bronzewing and Jundee gold mines in Australia. Gutnick also was a director of the World Gold Council and was awarded the prestigious Diggers award at the 1997 Diggers and Dealers Industry Awards.

In 1991, his company, Great Central Mines, paid A$115 million to prospector Mark Creasy for the Bronzewing gold deposit. 2000 Gutnick files writs in court against long time Levi Mochkin stockbroker In 1999, Gutnick along with partner Robert Champion de Crespigny was found to have illegally structured a takeover of Great Central Mining. Gutnick was ordered to return $28.5 million to investors. On 5 April 2000, Joseph Gutnick, Robert Champion de Crespigny and Ian Gould resigned as directors of Great Central Mining.

Personal life

Gutnick lives in Melbourne, Australia with his wife, a daughter of textile maker Max New, whom he married in 1974; they have 11 children. He studied for rabbinic ordination in Brooklyn, New York and ran a religious girls' seminary in Melbourne. His brother, Mordechai Gutnick, is a prominent Orthodox Jewish rabbi in Australia.

Gutnick is an Orthodox Jew and a member of the Chabad-Lubavitch Hasidic movement. According to Gutnick, in 1988, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson told him exactly where to mine for gold in Western Australia.

He was close with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. In the 1990s, Gutnick spent millions of dollars campaigning for Benjamin Netanyahu and against the Labor Party in Israel's elections.

Philanthropy

Gutnick is recognized as a philanthropist who made significant donations to schools and Jewish organizations in Australia and worldwide.

Gutnick v Dow Jones

Gutnick successfully sued Dow Jones and Company for defamation regarding an article published about him in Barron's Online in the year 2000. It was one of the first international legal cases involving defamation on the internet.