ICAC: Former NSW Labor boss Jamie Clements fronts inquiry into political donations
Exiled Chinese billionaire Huang Xiangmo handed embattled former NSW Labor boss Jamie Clements $35,000 in a wine box to pay his legal bills as he faced police investigation for sexual harassment, the corruption watchdog has been told.
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- Chinese billionaire had former Labor boss on retainer, ICAC told
- Labor staffer told to be careful with $100,000 in cash, ICAC told
Exiled Chinese billionaire Huang Xiangmo handed embattled former NSW Labor boss Jamie Clements $35,000 in a wine box to pay his legal bills as he faced police investigation for sexual harassment, the corruption watchdog has been told.
Mr Clements, who was NSW Labor’s general secretary from 2013, was hit with an apprehended violence order in mid-2015.
The Labor powerbroker was facing a police investigation for sexual harassment in his office.
He was ultimately not charged but, he told the Independent Commission Against Corruption on Wednesday, it was “the most difficult time” of his life.
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He had stepped aside in August when Chinese business magnate Huang Xiangmo asked to meet him at his Mosman mansion.
“He lead me upstairs to a room I’d never been in before,” Mr Clements said on Wednesday.
“He had a box, a wine box and he opened it and there was cash in it.”
Mr Huang, who does not speak conversational English, allegedly handed him a handwritten note that said “for your legal fees”.
The billionaire screwed up the note and handed over the box of money — it was $35,000 in $100 bills.
Mr Clements said he counted the money in the car and took it home. He used it to pay some legal bills and keep himself afloat.
He never deposited it in a bank account because he didn’t want his wife to find out.
“I believed I was about to lose my job I was told I was going to be charged,” he said.
“I’d been hit by an AVO, I was on the front page of the paper I’d admitted to my wife I had an affair all within 24 to 48 hours.
“I was in all sorts commissioner”.
Mr Clements spent Wednesday being grilled over whether he was handed $100,000 cash by the billionaire at a dinner earlier in 2015.
The ICAC has previously heard from Labor staffer Kendrick Cheah Mr Huang personally delivered the money in an ALDI shopping bag to Mr Clements in the days following the Chinese Friends of Labor fundraiser held in March 2015.
The inquiry is investigating whether NSW Labor officials schemed to disguise Mr Huang as the true source of the $100,000 donation to the party using a racket of “straw” or fake donors.
The August wine box was not the first time Mr Clements had received money.
He recounted, in May 2015, when Mr Huang’s assistant Tim Xu visited the head office with an envelope containing $10,000 in cash.
Mr Clements had asked the billionaire for money to pay for stamps to help a right-wing Union leader facing an election challenge.
Mr Huang — a property developer who has since been exiled from Australia — was banned from donating.
Earlier Mr Clements told the corruption watchdog his successor, who "hates his guts", was responsible for fundraising at the time a Mr Huang allegedly handed over a cash-stuffed ALDI bag.
Mr Clements told the commission he had "delegated" the task of fundraising for the looming state election to Kaila Murnain, one of his two assistant general secretaries at that time.
Ms Murnain was overseeing committees that targeted ethnic groups for fundraising, Mr Clements said, but he denied he was across the detail.
"I couldn't micromanage Kaila about something like this," he told the inquiry on Wednesday.
"Fundraising itself is important but this is a small part of that."
Chief Commissioner Peter Hall QC asserted Mr Clements had deliberately divested himself from the responsibilities fundraising.
Mr Clements said he simply "did not interfere" with Ms Murnain.
"In the sense I gave Kaila responsibility for it and my management style was to back people you give responsibility to," he responded.
The ICAC has previously heard from Labor staffer Kenrick Cheah that Mr Huang personally delivered the money in an ALDI shopping bag to Mr Clements in the days following the Chinese Friends of Labor fundraiser held in March 2015.
Council Assisting the commission Scott Robertson asked if Ms Murnain, who supported Mr Clement's resignation in 2016, "hates his guts".
"I think she hates my guts I don’t know if I hate her," Mr Clements said.
"I have a bad relationship with Kaila but I don’t hate her."
The inquiry yesterday heard evidence that Mr Clements so close to Mr Huang that when he quit his job in January 2016 the tycoon paid the one-time powerbroker $200,000 and gave him free office space to restart his career.