ASIC monitoring situation after Clive Palmer gives fugitive nephew Clive Mensink Titanic job

THE corporate watchdog has confirmed it is monitoring Clive Palmer’s decision to offer his fugitive nephew a London-based gig overseeing plans to build a replica of the Titanic.

THE corporate watchdog has confirmed it is monitoring Clive Palmer’s decision to offer his fugitive nephew a London-based gig overseeing plans to build a replica of the Titanic.

Clive Mensink has accepted a job with his uncle’s company Blue Star Line, which Mr Palmer announced last month would embark on a second attempt to build and operate a replica of the doomed Titanic after an earlier attempt failed due to a lack of cash.

Mr Mensink is a wanted man in Australia, with a series of warrants issued for his arrest after he refused to return for questioning in Federal Court over the collapse of Queensland Nickel, of which he was the sole registered director when it closed in 2016, leaving 800 people out of work and more than $200 million in debts.

Guests attend a gala breakfast in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada as plans to build a replica of the Titanic are explained in 2013. Picture: AP Photo/Andrew Vaughan

An Australian Securities and Investments Commission yesterday confirmed the watchdog was monitoring Mr Mensink’s job announcement.

“The detail is limited at present but it is certainly something we are following,” the spokesman said.

“We have a current investigation in relation to various matters to do with Mr Palmer and related entities, which we have publicly acknowledged.

“That investigation is ongoing. We are considering all relevant matters within the investigation.”

While friends and family of the fugitive company director have continuously denied knowledge of Mr Mensink’s whereabouts, Courier-Mail journalists found him living in Sofia, Bulgaria, earlier this year.

But despite knowing his location, it’s believed Australian authorities cannot enforce the existing arrest warrants in offshore jurisdictions because they involve a civil, not a criminal, matter.

Pursuing extradition would only become an option if Mr Mensink were to be charged with a serious criminal offence that attracts a jail sentence of two or more years.

Mr Palmer first announced he would build the Titanic II in 2012, with a projected maiden voyage set for 2016 but the project was suspended in 2015 after financial snags.

According to a 2016 creditors report prepared by Queensland Nickel administrators FTI Consulting, the nickel refinery leant more than $220 million to Mr Palmer’s related companies in the lead-up to its collapse.

In this rendering provided by Blue Star Line, the Titanic II is shown cruising at sea.

The documents show Blue Star Line, Mr Palmer’s company overseeing the construction of the Titanic II, was loaned more than $5.9 million.

“On behalf of Blue Star Line, QN incurred a total of $5.88m in expenses, including $1.9m in project management fees and over $3.3m in costs associated with marketing the venture through launch events in the UK and USA,” the creditors report said.

“The majority of transactions in the Blue Star Line loan account were incurred prior to 30 April 2014; after that the main costs relate to rent for offsite storage and IT-related expenses.”

Mr Palmer is scheduled to face a second round of questioning in the Federal Court later this month in relation to Queensland Nickel’s collapse.