Clive Palmer used mystery alias Terry Smith for years

THE alias used by Clive Palmer to pull the strings at Queensland Nickel while he was a “fulltime politician” has been a reoccurring theme.

Curious case of Clive’s mystery alias

THE alias used by Clive Palmer to approve expenses at Queensland Nickel while he was a “fulltime politician” has been a reoccurring theme throughout his business and political empire.

It follows reports Mr Palmer has been signing off on expenses at the embattled refinery, using a Yahoo email address under the name Terry Smith, while he was not registered as the company director.

Mr Palmer has repeatedly claimed he retired from business in 2013 when he entered Parliament as the Member for Fairfax.

While allegations he has had continued involvement in the refinery’s operations are new, Mr Palmer has been using the Terry Smith alias for years as he conducts his affairs.

Court documents show “Terry Smith”, the pseudonym for Mr Palmer, has made appearances at Queensland Nickel, Mineralogy and Kingsway Oil at least as far back as 2009.

The Courier-Mail has also seen emails to Palmer United Party candidates sent from the “Terry Smith” email address.

In 2010 there was a defamation case against Mr Palmer by the managing director of his company Kingsway Oil, which he sold in 2012.

Clive Palmer made his first public appearance on Tuesday since his nickel refinery went into administration. Picture: Lyndon Mechielsen

Evidence in the hearing included an email from the Terry Smith email sent to executives at Kingsway and the WA Government in December 2009.

In a Federal Court judgment last year, which was part of his long-running dispute with CITIC, Justice James Edelman referred to emails from March 2010 between Mineralogy executives and “Terry Smith”, whom he described as “apparently a pseudonym for Mr Palmer”.

Mr Palmer himself admitted in a Supreme Court of Queensland civil dispute in September last year he used the name in emails.

Reports in The Australian newspaper this week revealed Queensland Nickel executive Martin Brewster, Mr Palmer’s nephew, sent emails to the Terry Smith address requesting approval for payment of expenses.

Each email from Mr Brewster ended with the phrase “for your approval”.

One of these was sent in August 2014 while Mr Palmer was not a director, while the other was sent January 21 last year, the day before Mr Palmer became director for a period of just over three weeks. Mr Palmer did not reply to that one until January 22 when he was director.

Yesterday, Mr Palmer denied that he had been approving expenditure at Queensland Nickel under the alias Terry Smith.

“That’s just not true. I’m not hear to discuss that. Any other questions about Australia Day?” he said.