Chinese business partners accuse Clive Palmer of ‘fraud’
CLIVE Palmer is embroiled in claims
of “fraud” and “dishonesty” levelled by his estranged Chinese business
partners, who have significantly raised the stakes in their legal row
with a powerful document that holds him personally responsible for more
than $12 million in missing funds.
The document, filed yesterday in the Queensland Supreme Court in Brisbane, discloses that Mr Palmer personally signed two cheques — for $10m and $2.167m — that drained the Chinese funds from a National Australia Bank account shortly before the federal election last September.
The $10m was funnelled into Cosmo Developments, a company controlled by Mr Palmer, in early August while the $2.167m went to a Brisbane agency, Media Circus Network, which placed much of the costly advertising for the Palmer United Party during the election.
Mr Palmer has repeatedly and strenuously denied wrongdoing and insisted that the funds were his to spend, but he has said he could not recall whether he had signed the cheques.
He staged an angry walkout when questioned about the missing money on the ABC’s 7.30 this month.
In the detailed legal document filed yesterday, the subsidiary companies of Citic Pacific, which is owned and controlled by the Chinese government, said the payment to Media Circus “was authorised by Palmer” and “signed by Palmer”, along with the $10m payment to Cosmo.
The document said that Mr Palmer’s company had not provided any legitimate explanation for the expenditure, despite it being bound to spend China’s funds only on the costs of running a port at Cape Preston, in Western Australia.
The Chinese allege Mr Palmer’s company, Mineralogy, “was not in possession of the port, had not budgeted to provide $10m worth of services to the port … and had no plan to incur any such expenditure”. Nor did it have the need “to incur expenses in relation to the port or for port management services at the port in the sum of $2.167m”.
The Chinese also allege that the description of the payments in the ledger of Mineralogy’s company as port management services was “false” as “neither Cosmo nor Media Circus provided” any such services.
The Chinese said the payments were “dishonest and fraudulent”, adding that Mr Palmer executed the transfers of money but did not disclose them to one of his executives, Paul Robinson, who was tasked with overseeing the port.
“Palmer knew that the payments were not made for port management services because he signed the cheques in favour of two companies that were not involved in the provision of port management services,” the document states. “He knew that Mineralogy was not in possession of the port in the second half of 2013. He knew that port management services to the value of $12.167m were not required to be provided by Mineralogy in August or September 2013.”
The Chinese allege that Mr Palmer, who won the seat of Fairfax at last year’s election and had three members of his party elected to the Senate, was involved in a “dishonest procurement”. They added that there had been a “sham transaction” that was designed in a desperate attempt to lend legitimacy to the payments.
The document that was created to lend legitimacy, according to the Chinese, “bears all the hallmarks of having been created in extreme haste based on a template document”, with multiple drafting errors, misspellings and “gobbledegook”.
The Chinese allege that “Palmer’s procurement, assistance and or participation as alleged … was dishonest”, and represented a breach of trust with his commercial partners, who have spent almost $10 billion developing an iron ore export project based on the tycoon’s tenements.
Mr Palmer resigned from Cosmo Developments in May, however, he did not disclose this when he updated his parliamentary register to declare that he had quit as a director of several other large companies in his group.
Company searches show Cosmo Developments, which is owned by Mr Palmer’s flagship company Mineralogy, now has one director: Mr Palmer’s nephew Clive Mensink.
Mr Palmer has insisted the money the Chinese deposited into the account was his to use with “no strings attached”. “It was my money,” he has said. “The money was paid (by the Chinese) to our companies.”
The Australian has reported that there were strict rules around the money’s use and that Mr Palmer had signed a deed stating the funds could only be used by Mineralogy “for the day-to-day expenses of operating, maintaining and repairing” the port.source
The document, filed yesterday in the Queensland Supreme Court in Brisbane, discloses that Mr Palmer personally signed two cheques — for $10m and $2.167m — that drained the Chinese funds from a National Australia Bank account shortly before the federal election last September.
The $10m was funnelled into Cosmo Developments, a company controlled by Mr Palmer, in early August while the $2.167m went to a Brisbane agency, Media Circus Network, which placed much of the costly advertising for the Palmer United Party during the election.
Mr Palmer has repeatedly and strenuously denied wrongdoing and insisted that the funds were his to spend, but he has said he could not recall whether he had signed the cheques.
He staged an angry walkout when questioned about the missing money on the ABC’s 7.30 this month.
In the detailed legal document filed yesterday, the subsidiary companies of Citic Pacific, which is owned and controlled by the Chinese government, said the payment to Media Circus “was authorised by Palmer” and “signed by Palmer”, along with the $10m payment to Cosmo.
The document said that Mr Palmer’s company had not provided any legitimate explanation for the expenditure, despite it being bound to spend China’s funds only on the costs of running a port at Cape Preston, in Western Australia.
The Chinese allege Mr Palmer’s company, Mineralogy, “was not in possession of the port, had not budgeted to provide $10m worth of services to the port … and had no plan to incur any such expenditure”. Nor did it have the need “to incur expenses in relation to the port or for port management services at the port in the sum of $2.167m”.
The Chinese also allege that the description of the payments in the ledger of Mineralogy’s company as port management services was “false” as “neither Cosmo nor Media Circus provided” any such services.
The Chinese said the payments were “dishonest and fraudulent”, adding that Mr Palmer executed the transfers of money but did not disclose them to one of his executives, Paul Robinson, who was tasked with overseeing the port.
“Palmer knew that the payments were not made for port management services because he signed the cheques in favour of two companies that were not involved in the provision of port management services,” the document states. “He knew that Mineralogy was not in possession of the port in the second half of 2013. He knew that port management services to the value of $12.167m were not required to be provided by Mineralogy in August or September 2013.”
The Chinese allege that Mr Palmer, who won the seat of Fairfax at last year’s election and had three members of his party elected to the Senate, was involved in a “dishonest procurement”. They added that there had been a “sham transaction” that was designed in a desperate attempt to lend legitimacy to the payments.
The document that was created to lend legitimacy, according to the Chinese, “bears all the hallmarks of having been created in extreme haste based on a template document”, with multiple drafting errors, misspellings and “gobbledegook”.
The Chinese allege that “Palmer’s procurement, assistance and or participation as alleged … was dishonest”, and represented a breach of trust with his commercial partners, who have spent almost $10 billion developing an iron ore export project based on the tycoon’s tenements.
Mr Palmer resigned from Cosmo Developments in May, however, he did not disclose this when he updated his parliamentary register to declare that he had quit as a director of several other large companies in his group.
Company searches show Cosmo Developments, which is owned by Mr Palmer’s flagship company Mineralogy, now has one director: Mr Palmer’s nephew Clive Mensink.
Mr Palmer has insisted the money the Chinese deposited into the account was his to use with “no strings attached”. “It was my money,” he has said. “The money was paid (by the Chinese) to our companies.”
The Australian has reported that there were strict rules around the money’s use and that Mr Palmer had signed a deed stating the funds could only be used by Mineralogy “for the day-to-day expenses of operating, maintaining and repairing” the port.source