ICAC case: Daryl Maguire ‘breached’ parliamentary conduct by offering help to Chinese interests
The corruption watchdog has heard that former MP Daryl Maguire’s offer of help to a Shenzhen commercial group was “clearly a breach” of the parliamentary code.
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The corruption watchdog has heard former MP Daryl Maguire “breached” parliamentary code of conduct by offering assistance to a Chinese commercial group and, separately, tried to get a foreign mining group an audience with Australian gas producer Santos.
The Independent Commission Against Corruption also heard he introduced a Chinese businessman to a would-be developer of property around Western Sydney airport - Tonga’s Consul General and Bill Waterhouse heir - Louise Raedler Waterhouse.
The ICAC, on Wednesday, played a recording of an intercepted telephone call between Malcolm Roberts, CEO of the Australian Petroleum Production and Exploration Association, and the former Wagga Wagga Liberal MP.
In it Maguire asks Mr Roberts if he can get a “short cut” for an unnamed “group” that had developed new oil well technology and wanted to meet Australian oil and gas producers.
“What we want to do is have some introductions,” Maguire says.
“I’m wondering if you can help us out.”
Mr Roberts said he was “very happy” to meet with the group ahead of an upcoming conference in Adelaide.
Maguire suggested Santos as one of the two companies the group could be introduced to and gave Mr Roberts his private email address to contact him on.
Maguire introduced himself, in the phone call, as the Chairman of the Asia Pacific Parliamentary Friendship group.
He said the friendship group was the “first port of call” for “just about everything for the Asia Pacific countries”.
Member for Oatley, Mark Coure MP, was the secretary of the group at that time and remains in that position.
He was asked by the ICAC, on Wednesday, whether Maguire had accurately characterised the friendship group to the industry CEO.
“That is not accurate at all,” Mr Coure said.
Mr Coure said Maguire did “absolutely not” have permission from the executive of the group to make the approach.
Further, Mr Coure said, no one in the group was told about the approach.
It was Mr Coure’s second rebuke of Maguire’s conduct before the ICAC.
Earlier he’d said Maguire didn’t have permission to provide assistance to commercial development groups from Shenzhen, China, despite comments Maguire appeared to have made in a meeting.
“To your knowledge did the (friendship) group provide any agreement to Mr Maguire that he could offer that assistance?” Counsel Assisting the Commission Scott Robertson asked.
“None whatsoever,” Mr Coure said.
“It’s a clear breach of the parliamentary friendship group policy.”
Maguire’s political career was snuffed out in 2018 after a separate ICAC investigation linked him to planned commissions from deals with property developers.
The current investigation, Mr Robertson said last week, would also look into Maguire’s relationships with property developers.
On Wednesday the commission heard from Chinese businessman Ho Yuen Li.
Mr Li repeatedly denied having any discussions with Maguire about property but Mr Robertson pointed him to evidence he had given to the ICAC in February 2019.
In that evidence Mr Li said he inspected land near the new airport in Sydney’s west.
“He introduced a Consul - a lady from Tonga - but we were not very interested in this so we didn’t discuss further,” Mr Li said.
Mr Li said Maguire’s only involvement was to make the introduction.
The ICAC heard the woman wanted to develop the land into residential homes with Mr Li’s help but the deal did not go ahead.
Mr Robertson asked if the woman’s name was Louise Raedler Waterhouse.
Mr Li said he didn’t know her name but she was honorary Consul-General to Tonga.
Mr Coure later explained the friendship group often saw its members closely interact with Consul-Generals from Asia Pacific countries as part of their role.
He confirmed Ms Waterhouse’s identity from a photo shown to him by the commission.
The only other female face in that image is that of Maggie Wang - a migration agent who told the ICAC she handed Maguire tens of thousands of dollars in cash at Parliament House earlier this week.
That money was allegedly the windfall from a cash for visas scheme she and Maguire had dreamed up.
The inquiry continues.
ICAC HEARS THAT MAGUIRE HANDED CASH-FILLED ENVELOPES
A migration agent, allegedly behind a cash for visas “scam”, has told the corruption watchdog “businesses don’t give a f***” about the details of the lucrative scheme that saw wealthy Chinese students buying their way into Australia.
The outburst came after she claimed former Wagga Wagga MP Daryl Maguire was hoping to get visas for 100 Chinese families to start a “trade centre” in his country town.
Maggie Wang told the corruption watchdog she handed over envelopes stuffed with thousands of dollars to Maguire on a dozen occasions in his Parliament House office and in cafes around Sydney’s Martin Place.
It was allegedly the windfall from a cash for visa scheme the pair had developed using Maguire’s business connections in Australia and Ms Wang’s in China.
But the pair had only met a short time earlier in 2012, she told the Independent Commission Against Corruption on Tuesday.
Ms Wang’s lifelong family friend, China’s deputy consul-general in Sydney Du Wei, introduced her to then-Liberal MP in late 2012, she said.
Ms Wang recalled a meeting in Maguire’s sprawling Government Whip’s office — in NSW Parliament House — with Maguire, his friend Phil Elliott and others.
The ICAC alleges Maguire was shadow director of the company Mr Elliott officially ran — G8wayinternational.
Ms Wang said she understood G8way was like a “club” where people paid membership fees in exchange for access to business connections.
Ms Wang is not an accredited migration agent but felt she was valuable because of her ability to translate between English and Mandarin and for other reasons as well.
“And maybe my connection back to China will help (G8way) as well, but I don’t think we spoke about that at the meeting,” she said on Tuesday.
But the matter of migration came up not long after, in one of the first of many meetings in Maguire’s Parliament House offices, she said.
The first plan, Ms Wang said, was to establish a trade centre in Maguire’s home electorate of Wagga Wagga that would see 100 Chinese store owners and their families do business out of the Riverina.
Counsel Assisting the Commission, Scott Robertson, asked Ms Wang if visas and migration were part of that discussion.
She said visas for the entire family of each of the 100 vendors was crucial.
“That’s the essential condition for them to do their business in Australia,” she said.
Ms Wang said she asked around but her friend, qualified migration agent Monica Hao, said there was no such visa that would apply — regional workers needed sponsors, bachelor’s degrees and English tests.
“Those 100 shop owners wouldn’t have them all so the bar was quite high,” Ms Wang said.
The idea was “100 per cent dead”.
At about that time, in early 2013, Ms Wang said she and Maguire decided to explore securing workplace sponsorships for Chinese people who could meet the skill requirements of the 187 Regional Migration Scheme.
Photographs from Ms Wang’s phone, shown before the ICAC, depict both her and Ms Hao in the NSW Legislative Assembly with Ms Wang smiling in the Speaker’s Chair.
She told the commission Mr Maguire had organised a private tour of the government building for the pair and a security guard had snapped their pictures.
But despite the friendly relationship, the ICAC heard Maguire didn’t want to share the new scheme with Ms Hao because she’d shot down the trade centre plan.
Still, he and Ms Wang allegedly needed access to her database of students and skilled workers looking for residency in Australia.
“You were looking for, through Monica, people who would buy their own visas by paying their own wages and a lump sum,” Mr Robertson said.
“Correct,” Ms Wang responded.
“You were interested in people with rich families who could pay large fees to get visas,” Mr Robertson asked.
“I don’t know their backgrounds, but I assume so, yes,” Ms Wang responded.
The scheme, the ICAC heard, essentially invited wealthy students to pay $50,000 to be put on the books of a Wagga business as a skilled worker for three months.
The business would get $30,000 and would have the worker’s salary and superannuation also reimbursed — all allegedly delivered by Ms Wang in bundles of cash.
They would allegedly need to tell the immigration authorities the worker — who would likely never show up — was on holidays but genuinely employed.
The remaining $20,000, Ms Wang said, was divided between Maguire and herself.
She said on multiple occasions she went to a cafe near Parliament House, or Maguire’s office itself, and handed him envelopes containing $15,000 each.
She would keep the $5000 as her own fee, she said.
All up there were about 12 successful visas made through the scheme, the ICAC heard.
Mr Robertson said Ms Wang wanted the businesses to think they’d only have to participate for three months.
But, he said, she didn’t tell them immigration authorities would be told that the workers were actually being supported for two years in order to bolster their chances of approval.
“Business doesn’t give a f***,” she said, agitated.
“Nobody cares what’s actually there on paper, because business is okay with that … I never got a response.”
One of the businessmen involved, Angus McLaren, told the commission he gradually realised he was a part of a dubious migration scheme.
“I didn’t have an epiphany that this was a scam, it was a gradual realisation that we were being sucked into something,” he said last week.
Member for Oatley, Mark Coure MP, is expected to give evidence before the ICAC tomorrow.
BID TO SECURE VISAS FOR ‘100 FAMILIES’ FOR WAGGA TRADE CENTRE: ICAC
A migration agent, allegedly behind a cash for visas “scam”, claims she and former Liberal MP Daryl Maguire hoped to secure visas for “100 families” so a Chinese trade centre could be opened in Wagga Wagga.
When that idea failed, the agent claims, she and the politician decided to split the massive profits that came from deceiving immigration authorities for wealthy foreign students.
Maggie Wang told the corruption watchdog she ended up handing over envelopes stuffed with thousands of dollars to Maguire in his Parliament House office and in cafes around Sydney’s Martin Place.
The Beijing businesswoman moved to Australia in 2002 after forging political and business connections in her home nation, she told the Independent Commission Against Corruption on Tuesday.
Her lifelong family friend, China’s deputy consul-general in Sydney Du Wei, introduced her to Mr Maguire in late 2012, she said.
Ms Wang recalled a meeting in Maguire’s sprawling Government Whip’s office - in NSW Parliament House - with Maguire, his friend Phil Elliott and others.
The ICAC alleges Maguire was shadow director of the company Mr Elliott officially ran - G8wayinternational.
Ms Wang said she understood G8way was like a “club” where people paid membership fees in exchange for access to business connections.
Ms Wang is not an accredited migration agent but felt she was valuable because of her ability to translate between English and Mandarin and for other reasons as well.
“And maybe my connection back to China will help (G8way) as well, but I don’t think we spoke about that at the meeting,” she said on Tuesday.
But the matter of migration came up not long after, in one of the first of many meetings in Maguire’s Parliament House offices, she said.
The first plan, Ms Wang said, was to establish a trade centre in Maguire’s home electorate of Wagga Wagga that would see 100 Chinese store owners and their families do business out of the Riverina.
Counsel Assisting the Commission, Scott Robertson, asked Ms Wang if visas and migration were part of that discussion.
She said visas for the entire family of each of the 100 vendors was crucial.
“That’s the essential condition for them to do their business,” she said.
Ms Wang said she asked around but her friend, qualified migration agent Monica Hao, said there was no such visa that would apply - regional workers needed sponsors, bachelor’s degrees and English tests.
“Those 100 shop owners wouldn’t have them all so the bar was quite high,” Ms Wang said.
The idea was “100 per cent dead”.
At about that time, in early 2013, Ms Wang said she and Maguire decided to explore securing workplace sponsorships for Chinese people who could meet the skill requirements of the 187 Regional Migration Scheme.
Photographs from Ms Wang’s phone, shown before the ICAC, depict both her and Ms Hao in the NSW Legislative Assembly with Ms Wang smiling in the Speaker’s Chair.
She told the commission Mr Maguire had organised a private tour of the government building for the pair and a security guard had snapped their pictures.
But despite the friendly relationship, the ICAC heard Maguire didn’t want to share the new scheme with Ms Hao because she’d shot down the trade centre plan.
Still, he and Ms Wang allegedly needed access to her database of students and skilled workers looking for residency in Australia.
“You were looking for, through Monica, people who would buy their own visas by paying their own wages and a lump sum,” Mr Robertson said.
“Correct,” Ms Wang responded.
“You were interested in people with rich families who could pay large fees to get visas,” Mr Robertson asked.
“I don’t know their backgrounds, but I assume so, yes,” Ms Wang responded.
The scheme, the ICAC heard, essentially invited wealthy students to pay $50,000 to be put on the books of a Wagga business as a skilled worker for three months.
The business would get $30,000 and would have the worker’s salary and superannuation also reimbursed - all allegedly delivered by Ms Wang in bundles of cash.
They would allegedly need to tell the immigration authorities the worker - who would likely never show up - was on holidays but genuinely employed.
The remaining $20,000, Ms Wang said, was divided between Maguire and herself.
She said on multiple occasions she went to a cafe near Parliament House, or Maguire’s office itself, and handed him envelopes containing $15,000 each.
She would keep the $5000 as her own fee, she said.
WAGGA WINEMAKER ADMITS LYING TO ICAC ABOUT DAILY KICKBACKS
A Wagga Wagga businessman has confessed to lying to the corruption watchdog about cash kickbacks from a migration agent allegedly linked to his former local MP Daryl Maguire.
Winemaker Gerry McCormick on Monday told the Independent Commission Against Corruption he put a “phantom” accountant on his books at the advice of a migration agent named Maggie Wang.
He said Ms Wang, who he thought worked as an interpreter for the local Liberal politician, handed him $5000 to “shut up” when the accountant didn’t show up to work at his business — Cottontails.
McCormick told the ICAC he wasn’t reimbursed for the woman’s wages or superannuation but instead used her connections in China to break into the lucrative wine market.
In exchange he was telling Australia’s immigration authorities she was working in his regional business and she would be able to attain a visa.
But the winemaker was lying and, wracked with “shame”, contacted his solicitor at 6.30am on Tuesday asking to go back before the ICAC and correct his evidence.
“He has now given evidence he received two further bundles (of cash),” Counsel Assisting the Commission Scott Robertson said.
The first was tens of thousands of dollars, the second was reimbursement for the accountant on his books.
“It played on my mind,” he said. “I’m sorry.”
Mr McCormick’s evidence now falls in line with many other Wagga businessmen who told the ICAC they were paid $30,000 lump sums to employee Chinese visa-seekers who never showed up and whose wages were covered or reimbursed.
“The other guys involved had the guys to own up to their mistakes I have to be man enough to do the same,” he said.
The handful of businessmen who have fronted the ICAC have all said Ms Wang was the one paying them in bundles of cash for their involvement in what they now concede was an “immigration scam”.
Ms Wang will front the ICAC later on Tuesday.
MIGRATION WORKER TO FRONT DARYL MAGUIRE INQUIRY
The woman allegedly behind a cash for visas “scam”, who made connections in rural NSW with the help of former MP Daryl Maguire, is expected to front the corruption watchdog after another businessman said she handed him thousands of dollars to “shut up” about a “phantom worker”.
Wagga Wagga winemaker Gerry McCormick told the Independent Commission Against Corruption he met a woman he thought worked for the NSW government named Maggie Wang just before he met Maguire – in 2012.
Multiple other Wagga businessmen have now told the ICAC they met Ms Wang – who was actually a migration agent – through Maguire.
Ms Wang allegedly told the other men they would be paid tens of thousands of dollars to sign documents saying specialised Chinese workers were being sponsored by their businesses for visas.
The ICAC heard the workers, in reality, never arrived in Australia and the money was a “kickback” to keep the immigration “scam” going.
Mr McCormick said he was also approached by Ms Wang with a similar offer for $30,000 but he knocked it back because he wanted sales in China – not cash for workers.
Mr McCormick had been trying to break into the Chinese market and Ms Wang allegedly said she could connect him with a worker from a Chinese wine growing region.
The winemaker told the ICAC he hoped the worker – Daisy Li – would use her parent’s business connections in China to essentially do “marketing” for his business – Cottontails – and make inroads.
The trade-off, as he allegedly understood it, was to have Ms Li on Cottontails’ books as an “accountant”.
Mr McCormick said he showed Ms Li and her parents around Wagga and explained to Ms Wang he’d put employee Ms Li if he got an order of wine – that was late 2013.
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“Well, lo and behold, two weeks later, I got an order for $52,000, or just under,” he said.
The winemaker even visited Ms Li and her family in China.
But, Mr McCormick said, when Ms Wang explained Ms Li wouldn’t actually come to Wagga to work he was disappointed and made it known.
“It was conveyed to me she wouldn‘t come … by Maggie,” he said.
“I wasn’t happy, I just said to her all this time and effort to get this to happen and now you’re telling me, after her appointment, she isn’t coming.”
He said Ms Wang explained Ms Li didn’t really know English, had no friends or contacts in Wagga and all the work would be done in China – so there was no point in her coming to the Riverina.
But Ms Li was required, according to the visa legislation, to be working in the regions and Mr McCormick had signed documents saying she would be, he said.
“If people turn up from the Department of Immigration and say where’s your staff member … she hasn’t come, I didn’t want to do that sort of explanation.”
He said Ms Wang told him to “make some lame excuse” like Ms Li was on holidays.
After that Ms Wang allegedly handed Mr McCormick $5000 in cash.
“I think it was to shut me up,” he said.
“I thought this is a scam.”
Ms McCormick said he knew he shouldn’t have taken the money and emailed Ms Wang about it.
“So I sent her an email ‘regarding the next payment Maggie’,” he said.
“She rang me up and said don’t you ever send me an email about payments.”
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He told her he didn’t want to get further “sucked in” but would continue with the current deal with Ms Li.
He told the ICAC Ms Li’s connections into China had kickstarted his business there and had brought in hundreds of thousands of dollars to his business which has all been put through the books.
He said only a Chinese-Australian trade war would “ruin the whole show” for him from now on.
Ms Wang is expected to face the ICAC tomorrow for a full day of evidence.