Interpol track Clive Mensink to Hong Kong, Australian authorities sit back until he returns

Interpol track Clive Palmer’s fugitive nephew Clive Mensink, but Australian authorities have to sit back until he returns.

Clive Palmer’s fugitive nephew, Clive Mensink, is ignoring an arrest warrant requiring him to return to Australia over the collapse of Queensland Nickel. Picture: AAP

Interpol tracked Clive Palmer’s fugitive nephew Clive Mensink to Hong Kong in June, but Australian authorities have admitted their hands are tied until he chooses to return to Australia.

Two Federal Court arrest warrants were issued in March after the globetrotting Mr Mensink failed to cut short a marathon, cruise-studded overseas holiday to return to Brisbane to testify about the collapse of Mr Palmer’s Queensland Nickel company.

Queensland Supreme Court documents show Interpol issued a Blue Notice — which the world’s largest police organisation says is aimed at collecting “additional information about a person’s identity, location or activities in relation to a crime” — at the request of the Australian Federal Police.

“Inquiries by the AFP have ascertained that Mr Mensink remains overseas,” the July 28 letter reads, from Federal Court sheriff John Mathieson to King & Wood Mallesons partner and solicitor for Queensland Nickel’s special purpose liquidator Emma Costello.

“The AFP has sought assistance from Interpol, resulting in a Blue Notice being raised. The most recent advice is that Mr Mensink arrived in Hong Kong on 8 June 2017 and departed there on 9 June 2017.”

“The AFP has not received any further advice since then. There is a border alert in place, and AFP will be notified immediately if Mr Mensink returns to Australia. The AFP have advised that because there is no extraditable offence associated with the arrest warrant, no further action can be taken until Mr Mensink returns to Australia.”

The arrest warrants state that Mr Mensink is charged with contempt of court.

The sheriff’s letter is contained in court documents filed by special purpose liquidators PPB Advisory in the Queensland Supreme Court, in relation to a mammoth $500m lawsuit against Mr Palmer, Mr Mensink, and Mr Palmer’s corporate entities to claw back cash owed to QN’s creditors.

Last week, Queensland Supreme Court judge John Bond agreed Mr Mensink could be served with the lawsuit in absentia, because he was still overseas at an unidentified location.

At the time, Mr Palmer told the court of his missing nephew: “His attitude seems to be that he’s left Australia for good”.

He said he had not been in contact with Mr Mensink, the sole registered director of QN when it collapsed into voluntary administration in January last year, since February this year.

The Supreme Court documents show liquidators have been trying — and failing — to serve Mr Mensink since August last year.

Correspondence from Advance National Services tendered to the court reveals service agents went to Mr Mensink’s registered address in suburban Brisbane several times, but was told he no longer lived there.

On August 6 last year, Mr Mensink’s ex-wife told service agents at the home that Mr Mensink had left the country three months earlier and had since travelled to Asia, America and Germany.

Another service attempt in December showed his ex-wife told agents Mr Mensink had still not returned to Australia and believed he would be somewhere in Europe for Christmas.