Criminal charge is political, Clive Palmer insists

Clive Palmer has accused the corporate watchdog of a political witch-hunt amid the threat of two years in jail over golf resort.

Sally and Russell Bennett at the tennis villa they bought into. Picture: Ric Frearson

Clive Palmer has accused the corporate watchdog of a political witch-hunt after it charged him with a criminal offence relating to his Sunshine Coast golf resort punishable by up to two years’ jail.

The former federal MP said yesterday the Australian Securities and Investments Commission had slapped him with the charge in a bid to stymie his expected attempt to re-enter politics.

ASIC has charged Mr Palmer under the Commonwealth Criminal Code for allegedly “aiding, abetting, counselling or procuring” his company Palmer Leisure Coolum to breach takeovers law over a 2012 bid to buy out timeshare villas at his Sunshine Coast resort. The watchdog has also charged Palmer ­Leisure Coolum with an alleged breach of the Corporations Act.

Mr Palmer, founder of the now-dormant Palmer United Party, said he would vigorously defend the charges and released written advice from the inaugural chairman of ASIC, solicitor Tony ­Hartnell, which said the charges were “doomed to fail”.

“The prosecution of PLC and Mr Palmer should be permanently stayed as an abuse of process on the ground that it is so obviously hopeless that it has no prospect whatsoever of success,” Mr Hartnell’s advice reads.

Mr Palmer did not appear in Brisbane Magistrates Court yesterday, where the charges were mentioned briefly.

Clive Palmer last year. Picture: Liam Kidston

He said the charges had been brought for a “political purpose”.

“The charges are an attempt to try and make me ineligible to stand for parliament and they won’t succeed,” he said.

“ASIC has known about the events for nearly six years, so serious questions must be asked as to why they are acting now and at whose direction.”

Court documents reveal an ASIC officer swore the complaint against Mr Palmer on February 22 before a justice of the peace. On February 23, Mr Palmer, who has long insisted he is retired from politics, released a statement saying his deregistered political party would run candidates in every seat at the next federal election.

ASIC alleges that in April 2012, PLC publicly proposed to make a takeover bid for securities in The President’s Club, which runs a timeshare scheme at the resort, taking in 144 residential villas, 80 in a “golf village” and 64 in a ­“tennis village”. ASIC alleges Mr Palmer’s company did not make an offer for those securities within two months, as required by law.

The charges carry a maximum penalty of two years’ jail and fines of $11,000 for an individual and $55,000 for a company.

Mr Palmer has been in a stoush with fellow villa owners at his resort for years, and owners of the mouldering tennis villas still have no access to power and water.

Russell Bennett and his wife Sally have owned a quarter share of one of the tennis villas since 1989 and, while it was once a favourite destination for family holidays, Mr Bennett says it is now too depressing to visit.

“The resort is like a ghost town now,” Mr Bennett said. “Everything is overgrown. The pool is like an outback dam, it’s all brown and muddy. There’s no village square any more. We can’t move on, lease it out or sell it (our stake) and we can’t use it.”

Mrs Bennett said although the natural environment around the villas was beautiful, with tall trees and birdlife, the infrastructure was very run down.

“There are layers of mildew and bits are falling apart in the masonry, which is so annoying when you continue to pay into the sinking fund,” she said.

Magistrate Mark Howden adjourned the case to June 13.