NSW Labor MP owned loan business with crook

Aspiring NSW Labor property minister Stephen Kamper co-owned a commercial loan business with a convicted cocaine supplier nicknamed ‘The Falcon’.

NSW Labor MP Stephen Kamper.

Aspiring NSW Labor property minister Stephen Kamper co-owned a commercial loan business with a convicted cocaine supplier nicknamed “The Falcon”, and remained a shareholder for five years after the appropriateness of the association was first raised.

Australian Securities & Investments Commission records show Mr Kamper – one of Labor leader Chris Minns’ best friends and closest allies – was director and secretary of Kamper Loans from the company’s establishment in 2001 until October 2017.

The minority shareholder was Tony Atanasovski, who was convicted in 2012 for supplying a commercial quantity of cocaine and sentenced to a maximum of five years’ jail. He had a 49 per cent stake in the company until he died in October 2020.

Eight years after he was questioned by the Sydney Morning Herald in 2015 about Atanasovski’s interest in Kamper Loans, Mr Kamper still holds a 17 per cent stake in the business, in Rockdale in Sydney’s south, as part of a majority consortium with his brother, William.

But it took Mr Kamper, who also holds the shadow portfolios of small business and multiculturalism, 18 months to resign as company director and secretary.

A spokesman said Mr Kamper had disclosed “all these matters” on his register of parliamentary interests. He said Kamper Loans had ceased writing loans in 2004, while the legacy entity had generated zero income since 2010.

“The matter you raise in relation to Mr Atanasovski arose in 2015, more than a decade after Kamper Loans ceased writing new loans. Mr Kamper was only alerted to these matters through media reports,” he said.

“As is standard commercial practice in the mortgage broking industry, and as is required under mortgage broking commission contracts, the legacy entity is required to remain active, even after the businesses have ceased writing new loans, to allow for the payment of outstanding commissions generated by legacy transactions that took place between 2001 and 2004.”

The principal place of business is the Rockdale address of the Kamper family chartered accountancy firm.

Eight months after his election as the member for Rockdale at the 2015 election, Mr Kamper conceded he should have resigned as director given Atanasovski’s criminal past, but said he was “stuck with” the company as the 49 per cent stake meant he could not deregister the company.