Chinese billionaire Huang Xiangmo gave NSW Labor general secretary $100,000 in cash, ICAC hears

An anti-corruption hearing in Sydney has heard a stunning allegation involving Chinese billionaire Huang Xiangmo and $100,000 in cash.

An anti-corruption hearing in Sydney has heard the stunning allegation that Chinese billionaire Huang Xiangmo personally handed the former general secretary of NSW Labor, Jamie Clements, $100,000 in cash.

The revelation came as the NSW Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) began six weeks of hearings this morning.

Those hearings will examine whether Labor officials, members of the group Chinese Friends of Labor and political donors breached electoral finance laws in the lead-up to the state election in 2015.

We’ll return to the allegation involving Mr Huang and Mr Clements shortly. But the focal point of the inquiry, led by chief commissioner Peter Hall QC, is a fundraising dinner that was held on March 12 of that year.

The election took place about two weeks later, on March 28.

The venue for the dinner, a Chinese restaurant called The Eight, is a short distance from NSW Labor’s Sussex Street headquarters.

This morning, counsel assisting the commission Scott Robertson told the hearing $100,000 in cash had been raised during the event, via 12 different donors.

NSW electoral law at the time limited donations to political parties to $5700 per person each year. Most of the donors in question got around that technicality by giving $5000 to NSW Labor and a further $5000 to Country Labor, which is a separate entity.

The donations were properly disclosed in accordance with the law. But they still raised the suspicions of electoral officials.

Mr Robertson told ICAC a majority of the donors were “persons associated with Jonathan Yee”, the general manager of the Emperor’s Garden restaurant in Chinatown.

Five donors were employees or former employees of the restaurant. Two were Mr Yee’s family members (his mother and brother). Another was Mr Yee himself.

“Those associations, along with the implausibility that restaurant workers would have the financial capacity to make lump sum donations of $5000 or $10,000, as well as other factors, led the Electoral Commission to suspect that the $100,000 in cash was donated on behalf of a person or persons other than those that appeared in NSW Labor and Country Labor disclosures,” Mr Robertson said.

Two further donations were made by people associated with Wu International Investments Pty Ltd, a property development company based in Chatswood. Property developers are prohibited donors under electoral law.

Bill Shorten, who was the federal Labor leader at the time, and his NSW counterpart Luke Foley were both at the fundraising dinner. Mr Robertson specified there was “no suggestion on the available material” that either of them were involved in the suspect conduct.

A photo from the dinner showing Mr Shorten and Mr Foley were there. Picture: Facebook

The allegations above were already troubling, but the most explosive one was yet to come, courtesy of an alleged meeting that took place weeks after the dinner.

“During an interview with Kenrick Cheah, the community relations director at NSW Labor, Mr Cheah stated that Mr Huang Xiangmo attended NSW head office a few weeks after the Chinese Friends of Labor dinner in 2015 and gave the then NSW Labor general secretary Jamie Clements $100,000 in cash,” Mr Robertson said.

“Mr Cheah stated that after his meeting with Mr Huang, Mr Clements handed the $100,000 in cash to Mr Cheah. At that time, Mr Huang was a director and chairman of Yuhu Group, a property development company.

“As a close associate of Yuhu Group, Mr Huang was a prohibited donor.”

Huang Xiangmo. Picture: The Australian

Jamie Clements. Picture: Dylan Robinson

Mr Huang is already a controversial figure. He is known to have been a significant donor, at the federal level, to both Labor and the Liberal Party.

Earlier this year he was denied re-entry into Australia after his bid for citizenship was blocked and his permanent residency cancelled, leaving him unable to return to his multimillion-dollar home in the affluent Sydney suburb Mosman.

Mr Huang was also at the centre of the revelations that forced Labor senator Sam Dastyari to resign in 2017. Mr Dastyari had warned Mr Huang he was likely under surveillance from the Australian Government.

Mr Huang sat at the head table at the fundraising dinner on March 12, alongside Mr Shorten and Mr Foley.

This morning ICAC was also told one witness, Quanbao Liao, took his own life last year before he was due to give evidence.

NSW Labor leader Jodi McKay has said she supports the ICAC inquiry and it must run its course.

“People know that I stand for integrity in politics and I always will,” she said in a video posted on Facebook yesterday.

“The inquiry must run its course without fear or favour, but I won’t let it detract from all the good that our party seeks to achieve.”