Labor donor accused of inflating amount of ‘lucky money’
An alleged “straw” donor has been accused of “inflating” the amount of “lucky money” he received for Chinese New Year to justify a $5000 donation to NSW Labor he claimed to have handed over at a party fundraiser in 2015.
NSW
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An alleged “straw” donor has been accused of “inflating” the amount of “lucky money” he received for Chinese New Year to justify a $5000 donation to NSW Labor he claimed to have handed over at a party fundraiser in March 2015.
Emperor’s Garden restaurant chief financial officer and Valentine Yee told the corruption watchdog he paid for the donation using lucky money he received from his elderly friends and relatives during the festival in February that year.
Lucky money, given in red envelopes, is a traditional gift during Chinese New Year.
Mr Yee told ICAC the amount of lucky money a parent gives to a child as part of the tradition could “vary between $100 to $1000”.
However he insisted it could be “much more” if the parents were wealthy.
Counsel assisting Scott Robertson put to Mr Yee: “You’re not seriously suggesting you had swathes of relatives giving you hundreds of dollars in lucky money”.
Mr Yee replied: “I don’t count them all, I just put them away”.
Mr Robertson asked: “Are you trying to inflate the amount of money you receive in red packets because you realise the significance of the investigation?”
Mr Yee replied: “I’m not inflating it”.
The corruption watchdog is investigating whether an allegedly illegal $100,000 donation was handed to NSW Labor, after a fundraiser in March 2015, from Chinese billionaire Huang Xiangmo and later covered up by declaring the money in separate amounts of $5000 from fake donors.
Mr Xiangmo was banned from donating at the time as a property developer.
The ICAC inquiry has previously heard the majority of donors were people associated with Valentine Yee’s brother Jonathan Yee, who is the general manager of the Emperor’s Garden restaurant and helped organise the 2015 fundraiser with Mr Wong.
Mr Yee told the inquiry he donated $5000 cash to support his brother and gave him the money in an envelope on the night of the Chinese Friends of Labor dinner in March 2015.
After establishing an average lucky money donation is $100, Mr Robertson asked: “Are you seriously saying that 50 people gave you an average of $100 in 2015, is that your serious evidence?”
Mr Yee replied: “Yes”.
Chief commissioner Peter Hall said: “That’s a nonsense answer, isn’t it?”
Mr Yee denied this.
Mr Hall also accused Mr Yee of “playing with the truth” on several occasions after he appeared to change his evidence.
After previously denying then state Labor MP Ernest Wong asked him to donate to the fundraiser, Mr Yee changed his answer when investigators presented him with a form the electoral commission asked him to fill out in 2017.
In response to a question regarding who asked him to donate to the fundraiser, Mr Yee told the commission: “Jonathan Yee and Ernest Wong”.
“He (Wong) may have asked,” Mr Yee told the inquiry.
Mr Robertson suggested to Mr Yee his brother Jonathan raised the $5000 figure and that he had not simply “plucked it out of the air”.
Mr Yee denied this.
“In point of fact, you didn’t actually donate a cent, did you?” Mr Robertson asked.
Mr Yee said he disagreed.
“But you signed a form Mr Jonathan Yee had filled out for you that said you had made a $5000 donation even though you didn’t, correct?” Mr Robertson said.
Mr Yee replied: “Incorrect”.