'Suspicious' withdrawal at Star casino before $100,000 donation: ICAC

Exactly $100,000 in cash was withdrawn from a gambling account funded by exiled billionaire Huang Xiangmo at Sydney's Star Casino just six days before the NSW Labor Party banked a cash donation of the same size, a corruption inquiry has heard.

Documents tendered at the Independent Commission Against Corruption on Thursday show The Star logged the transaction on April 3, 2015, as "suspicious" after a business manager at Mr Huang's property development group Yuhu withdrew the "large amount" of cash and left in an Audi.

The registered owner of the car was Mr Huang's Yuhu Investment Holdings, records show.

Former NSW Labor general secretary Jamie Clements denies receiving an Aldi bag containing $100,000 from Huang Xiangmo. Credit: Tom Rabe, James Davis, Ryan Stuart

The ICAC is investigating allegations senior NSW Labor Party figures, including former general secretary Jamie Clements, were involved in a scheme in 2015 to circumvent the state's ban on political donations from property developers to bank an illegal $100,000 cash donation from Mr Huang.

The watchdog has heard allegations Mr Huang delivered the cash to Mr Clements in a plastic Aldi bag on April 7, 2015.

Financial records show $100,000 in cash was banked by the NSW ALP on April 9, but both Mr Clements and Mr Huang have denied the property developer was the source of the money.

A series of members of the Chinese community have given evidence at the ICAC that they were used as "straw donors" to disguise the source of the cash by making false declarations that they donated to the party at a Chinese Friends of Labor fundraising dinner in the days before the March state election.

On Thursday The Star's group investigations manager, Kevin Houlihan, gave evidence that Mr Huang provided $5 million to set up a gambling junket at The Star with a starting date of April 3, 2015, which was Good Friday.

A business manager at Mr Huang's Yuhu Group, Wun Chi Wong, also known as Gary Wong, was the operator of the junket and Mr Huang was one of three players.

On April 3, 2015, financial records show Mr Wong withdrew $100,000 in cash from the gambling account. Mr Houlihan gave evidence that The Star's usual practice was to dispense large amounts of cash in bundles of $100 notes, bound together with white straps.

The ICAC has heard evidence the cash delivered to NSW Labor's head office was also in $100 notes.

On December 6, Mr Wong emailed the ICAC and said he was "currently oversea [sic] of Australia and sorry ... I couldn't accept the invitations" to give evidence at the inquiry.

Mr Huang has resided in Hong Kong since his Australian permanent residency visa was cancelled on December 5 last year for reasons including character grounds, and has declined to give evidence at the ICAC.

He is being pursued by the Tax Office for $140 million in allegedly unpaid tax and penalties related to the sale of a mansion in Hong Kong, which is said to give rise to a capital gains tax liability.

Mr Clements has admitted he met Mr Huang at NSW Labor's head office in Sussex Street in Sydney on April 7, 2015, two days before $100,000 in cash was banked by the party. He told the ICAC in October it was "possible" the property developer gave him a gift during the meeting, but "the only thing it would have been" was wine.

Mr Clements denied Mr Huang handed over any cash in the office and said the billionaire had sought the meeting because he wanted to meet then federal Labor leader Bill Shorten.

"I would have said 'of course I'll get you a meeting,'" Mr Clements said. "We had dinner with Mr Shorten shortly after."

He said he was "not in a position to categorically deny the possibility that they [Mr Huang and an executive assistant from the developer's Yuhu Group] had a bag which included a gift for me at that meeting" but it would not have been money.

Mr Clements has previously admitted Mr Huang gave him $35,000 in a wine box in August 2015 to pay his personal legal bills. He admitted he did not tell the NSW Labor Party about the gift.

The ICAC started public hearings into the source of the $100,000 in August and concluded on Thursday. The watchdog will deliver its report at a later date.