Labor donor given $5000 tax invoice for $500 donation
A Labor donor who gave $500 in cash for a party fundraising dinner at the centre of an anti-corruption probe has accepted an electoral commission form showing he in fact donated $5000 was untrue.
NSW
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A Labor donor who gave $500 in cash for a party fundraising dinner at the centre of an anti-corruption probe has accepted an electoral commission form showing he in fact donated $5000 was untrue.
To “Stanley” Yip, who owns the Harbour City souvenir shop in Chinatown, is allegedly one of 12 “straw” or fake donors used to mask the true origins of a $100,000 cash donation at the March 2015 dinner.
Mr Yip told ICAC he was not a Labor Party member but felt it would have been “rude” not to support his friend Jonathan Yee, who asked him to make a donation before the event.
Mr Yee is the general manager of the Emperor’s Garden restaurant, which is next door to Mr Yip’s shop.
Mr Yip said he contacted Mr Yee after receiving a tax invoice from the ALP after the dinner, which stated he had donated $5000 and not $500.
“When I received the invoice I asked Jonathan, so why this $5000 invoice and he explained to me, that’s for the whole table, just under my company name,” he said.
“I said OK, that’s fine.”
Asked by counsel assisting Scott Robertson whether he thought something was “at least a little bit wrong”, Mr Yee said he trusted his friend.
NSW Electoral Commission disclosure forms from September 2016 tendered to the inquiry showed Mr Yip signed off on the $5000 political donation.
Mr Yip said Mr Yee had helped him fill out the form and that he didn’t read what was written before signing it.
Mr Robertson asked: “You have to accept that what is said in this disclosure form was untrue because you didn’t make a contribution of $5000 to the Australian Labor Party, you only made a contribution of $500 - correct?”
Mr Yip replied in the affirmative, again saying he trusted Mr Yee to fill it out properly.
“Now I know,” he added.
Mr Yip said he attended the fundraising dinner briefly where he spoke to Mr Yee’s family but didn’t stay for a meal.
Earlier, a man who purportedly donated $5000 to NSW Labor said former MP Ernest Wong demanded he hand over his mobile phone and “continue with the lies” to the state’s electoral commission during a secret meeting at Parliament House, an inquiry was told today.
Steve Tong, who worked for Chinese development company Wu International, told the Independent Commission Against Corruption that he met Mr Wong at his Parliament House office in September last year and said to him he was “was very angry because (Wu International had) used my name to make the donation”.
The inquiry was told Mr Wong closed his office door before taking the phones of Mr Tong and another Wu International employee Yueran “Kenny” Zhan at the start of the meeting.
Mr Tong said Mr Wong first asked him about his health but soon raised the issue of whether he had heard from the NSW Electoral Commission about the donation issue.
“I said to him, I don’t wish to be involved in any of your matter, I said the whole thing was done without my knowledge — it was done by the company (Wu International),” Mr Tong said.
“They used my name to make a donation, I only knew about it when I received an invoice from the Labor Party. And I said to him I hope I will not be involved further in this matter.”
Mr Tong said although Mr Wong was not being “straightforward”, it was clear to him that he was being directed to “continue with the lies” he had been advised to tell the electoral commission about the donation.
“I was very clear that his intention was for me to continue with the lies,” Mr Tong said.
After the meeting, Mr Tong said he went home and recorded what happened in the meeting because he “had a feeling something would happen in the future”.
The ICAC is examining whether Chinese billionaire Huang Xiangmo, who is now banned from Australia, was the true source of $100,000 said to be donated to Labor by 12 people at a 2015 Chinese Friends of Labor dinner. Mr Huang, a property developer, was prohibited by law from making donations to NSW political parties.
Mr Tong, now retired, was one of the 12 donors registered as giving a series of $5000 donations from the fundraising dinner.
He told the ICAC last week that his name was used to make the donation and he was “dumbfounded” and angry when he received a $5000 invoice from Country Labor.
The inquiry continues.