Labor ICAC inquiry: Illegal $100k donation ‘came from Huang Xiangmo’s casino account’

A $100k donation accepted by NSW Labor allegedly came from Huang Xiangmo’s Star City gambling account, ICAC hears.

Ernest Wong arrives to give evidence at the NSW Independent Commission Against Corruption inquiry. Picture: AAP

An illegal $100,000 cash donation accepted by the NSW Labor Party allegedly came from funds withdrawn from the high roller gambling account at Sydney’s Star City casino of Chinese billionaire Huang Xiangmo, a corruption inquiry has heard.

The NSW Independent Commission Against Corruption heard evidence on Thursday that $100,000 cash was withdrawn by one of Mr Huang’s employees from a $5m sum banked with the casino for gambling by the then owner of the Sydney-based Yuhu property development group.

In a surprise twist near the end of a long-running investigation, ICAC’s counsel assisting Scott Robertson drew a link between funds withdrawn from Mr Huang’s Star City account, which triggered casino management to log a “suspect transaction”, and money later delivered in cash to the NSW ALP’s head office.

Mr Robertson said Wun Chi Wong, an employee of Mr Huang’s Yuhu Group who was also a licensed gambling junket operator, withdrew the $100,000 cash in $100 notes on April 3, 2015.

Casino surveillance showed Mr Wong, also known as Gary Wong, then exit the casino driving a white Audi turbo.

The same amount of cash, all in $100 notes, was banked by the NSW ALP in two of its accounts as a cash donation six days later on April 9.

Mr Huang, banned as a property developer from giving any funds to parties in NSW under state law, has declined to co-operate with ICAC’s investigation into the allegedly illegal donation but denied making any political contributions that were inappropriate.

ICAC has heard evidence during its inquiry that the property developer may have been the true source of a $100,000 cash donation – and not a group of low-paid restaurant waiters and others giving smaller amounts of $5000 and $10,000 as originally declared to the NSW Electoral Commission.

Mr Robertson accused former NSW Labor MP Ernest Wong during earlier ICAC hearings this week of being the “ringleader” of a plan to hide Mr Huang as the real source of the funds by using the names of others.

After initially signing declarations that the donated money was theirs, all five waiters and family owners at the Emperor’s Garden restaurant in Sydney’s Chinatown have since confessed they were “fake donors” and gave the ALP no money.

The waiters have also claimed in ICAC evidence that former Labor MP Mr Wong, a longtime associate and friend of Mr Huang’s, pressured them to lie in sworn evidence to ICAC.

Near the close of proceedings on Thursday, ICAC heard new evidence from Star City’s group investigations officer Kevin Houlihan, who confirmed casino records showing Gary Wong deposited $5m into Mr Huang’s gambling account on April 3, 2015.

Mr Houlihan confirmed that later the same day, Gary Wong withdrew $100,000 cash and left the casino under surveillance.

The Star City investigator said a big gambling win had been registered for Mr Huang’s account on the same day of the $100,000 withdrawal. The $5m deposit, of which $2m was used in gambling chips, jumped to $9.97m within hours.

But “things turned for the worse” with Mr Huang’s gambling money falling over the next month to just $680,000 when the account was closed and remaining funds were withdrawn in May.

Mr Robertson produced phone records in ICAC evidence from the day of the $100,000 casino cash withdrawal on April 3, 2015 that showed it coincided with a concentrated batch of mobile calls involving Mr Huang, Gary Wong and Mr Huang’s then personal assistant Tim Xu.

He said records showed Mr Huang, a known high roller, was in Australia at the time of the Star City gambling account’s operation.

Mr Huang now lives in Hong Kong after losing his Australian residency visa a year ago when ASIO rated him a “foreign interference risk”.

Earlier on Thursday, former NSW Labor MP Ernest Wong told ICAC he still believed low-paid waiters used their own money for donations.