Watchdog charges not a fair cop, says Clive Palmer

Clive Palmer alleges charges laid against him by the corporate watchdog have proceeded against prosecutor guidelines.

Businessman Clive Palmer. Picture: AAP

Clive Palmer says charges laid against him by the corporate watchdog have proceeded against prosecutor guidelines.

In February, Australian Sec­urities & ­Investments Commission senior commissioner John Price told a parliamentary oversight hearing that Mr Palmer had been charged with four ­offences, including fraud.

The charges related to alleged misconduct in 2013, the year Mr Palmer was elected to parliament as the member for Fairfax.

He was charged with dishonestly gaining a benefit or advantage, pecuniary or otherwise, for another person and two counts of dishonestly using his position as a director of a corporation with the intention of directly or indirectly gaining an advantage for someone else.

The Australian understands the charges relate to payments of $10m and $2.16m transferred out of an account belonging to Mr Palmer’s flagship company Mineralogy in 2013.

An ASIC document obtained by Mr Palmer’s legal team under FOI laws, seen by The Australian, shows that the Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions regarded the case as a “very difficult prosecution”.

Mr Palmer claims it goes against CDPP policy to pursue cases only if the outcome is likely to be a conviction of guilt. An ASIC spokesman said it would be inappropriate to comment.