Liquidators target Clive Palmer’s corporate empire
Taxpayer-funded liquidators are suing to claw back millions from Clive Palmer’s golf course, dinosaur park and other assets.
Taxpayer-funded liquidators are suing to claw back $67m from Clive Palmer’s Sunshine Coast golf course and dinosaur park, $16m from his flagship company Mineralogy, and $9.2m from his Bora Bora resort.
In the Queensland Supreme Court lawsuit, lodged on Friday, special purpose liquidators PPB Advisory have launched an assault on the former federal MP’s corporate empire, seeking hundreds of millions of dollars for creditors of Mr Palmer’s collapsed Queensland Nickel.
Townsville refinery company Queensland Nickel crashed into liquidation under $300m in debts in April last year, after 800 workers lost their jobs.
As well as huge claims against Mr Palmer, his fugitive nephew and former Queensland Nickel executive Clive Mensink, PPB Advisory is also suing another ex-QN director Ian Ferguson for $25m for breaches of director’s duties.
Mr Ferguson — a former Gold Coast real estate agent who gave Mr Palmer one of his first jobs as a young man — is also being targeted to repay $300,000. The Federal Court last year heard Mr Palmer had ordered Queensland Nickel to pay his “old friend” Mr Ferguson $500,000 as a personal loan.
The many-pronged claim names 21 defendants and is yet to be served on many of them. Mr Ferguson did not return calls from The Australian on Wednesday, and Mr Palmer is still on a cruise in the Mediterranean. He was spotted disembarking the ship — where he has been joined by his family, friends and at least one lawyer — in the picturesque historic city of Dubrovnik, in southern Croatia. The cruise is due to finish in Venice on Sunday, after visiting Croatia’s Split and Lkopor in Slovenia.
The lawsuit accuses Mr Palmer of acting as a shadow director of Queensland Nickel and breaching his director’s duties, suing him personally for more than $290m.
But Mr Palmer — who has repeatedly denied wrongdoing in relation to Queensland Nickel’s collapse — was highly critical of PPB Advisory’s legal manoeuvre. The liquidators are being funded by the federal government, partly to recoup $70m in taxpayer funds used to cover his workers’ redundancy entitlements.
“No cause of action just a political stunt by a desperate prime minister,” Mr Palmer said in a text message to The Australian. “Who appointed pby [PPB] to oversee the liberal party not a valid claim will be struck out if ever they serve it abuse process done for an improper purpose (sic).”
PPB is also seeking to be appointed as receivers to the QLD Nickel joint venture companies — QNI Resources and QNI Metals — to give them the power to sell the mouldering Townsville refinery.
The claim alleges Mr Palmer purchased the former Club Med resort in Bora Bora Tahiti on July 16, 2012. In November 2012, Mr Palmer allegedly ordered Queensland Nickel to transfer $14.3m to the resort’s holding company — but only $5.1m was paid back.
“The remaining $9.2m of the funds paid at Mr Palmer’s request to (the company) Ocean, were used, in part or in whole, to care for and maintain the Bora Bora resort owned by Mr Palmer,” the claim reads.
More than $5m of Queensland Nickel’s money was used to buy vintage cars, with the refinery company later “selling” the vehicles to Mr Palmer for $5m. But he never paid the money, the claim alleges.
Regulators ‘overlap’ in scam prevention draft
The draft Scam Prevention Framework could penalise telcos for abiding by one code while breaking another, the Communications Alliance has warned.
More mutual mergers on the horizon
People First Bank, the combined Heritage Bank and People’s Choice, is planning for further growth, with boss Steve Laidlaw targeting roll-ups with like-minded rivals.