Mining magnate Ken Talbot regretted giving $300,000 to former Queensland government minister Gordon Nuttall and it was never intended as a bribe, his lawyer says.
Mr Talbot was one of 11 people killed in a plane crash in the Republic of Congo on Saturday, two months before he was due to face court over the payments to Nuttall.
The founder and former chief executive of Macarthur Coal quit the company in June 2008 amid allegations he bribed Nuttall, who is serving seven years in jail for corruption.
Mr Talbot had been due to face the Brisbane District Court on August 30, charged with paying secret commissions, totalling almost $300,000, to Nuttall between 2002 and 2005.
He had pleaded not guilty to the charges, and on Wednesday his lawyer Glenn Cranny said his client had never intended the payments to Nuttall as a bribe.
"Ken was a generous person that he gave this money to assist Mr Nuttall's kids and he had never, ever, ever expected or thought or considered that he would get some form of benefit from Mr Nuttall or the government as a result," Mr Cranny told the ABC.
The Courier-Mail on Wednesday published extracts from an interview with Mr Talbot before his death, in which the billionaire said the payments to Nuttall resulted from a shared desire to "look after our kids".
"Look, we sat down one day and Gordon voiced his concern about the need to look after our kids," Mr Talbot told the paper.
"He said one of his children was going to buy a house and he needed about $200,000."
Mr Talbot said he later instructed an associate to pay Nuttall the money.
"(The person) came back to me a day or so later and said 'Gordon actually wants $300,000'," Mr Talbot said.
"I thought that was pushing the friendship a bit but then I said OK, give it to him."
He said that if he had his time over, he would never have authorised the payments.
Nuttall was jailed for corruptly receiving $300,000 between 2002 and 2005.
The case against Mr Talbot will be formally dropped once an official notification of his death is received.