Sea of troubles in Ryde City councillor Simon Zhou’s wake

Ryde’s deputy mayor is on extended leave amid allegations of links to Huang Xiangmo.

Simon Zhou, left, with controversial Chinese property developer Huang Xiangmo.

The young Deputy Mayor of Ryde City Council in Sydney’s northwest has sought a special month’s leave of absence, telling colleagues he is overseas until further notice.

During his travels, Simon Zhou is not answering phone calls and his whereabouts are known to few.

Back in Australia, Mr Zhou has left behind his partner, Min Wu, and their two primary school-aged children, ensconced in the couple’s five-bedroom home at Oatlands, an upmarket estate near prestigious private school King’s in North Parramatta.

Simon Zhou's Oatlands home.

Mr Zhou has also left behind a sea of troubles. He is battling alleg­ations he failed to declare a ­recent $4m stake in a company owned by Chinese property developer Huang Xiangmo when he took part in council deliberations to approve­ a $100m multi-level shopping­ complex at Eastwood — to be built by Mr Huang’s main ­development company, Yuhu Group.

Clarity on this allegation — and others related to his relationship with Mr Huang — might have to wait until Mr Zhou returns.

Ryde councillors have referred Mr Zhou to the NSW Independent Commission Against Corruption for investigation, which can compel­ witnesses to give evidence.

But some interesting facts about Mr Zhou’s finances can be answered now.

The Australian has found a remarkabl­y healthy portfolio of real estate interests and companies in Mr Zhou’s name for a man with a trail of corporate collapses.

Just two years ago, before ­running for Ryde City Council as an independent and scoring the key vote that assured Labor Mayor Jerome Laxale’s re-election, Mr Zhou was coping with a failed gold-trading business and a $2.58m tax bill related to unpaid GST. Mr Zhou’s tax bill, which shows up in liquidation documents for one of his companies, Australian Coin Exchange, ­remains unpaid.

Yet he would seem to be suffering no signs of financial pressure. Mr Zhou still owns the Oatlands home he bought with Ms Wu in August 2016 for $2.2m. That was a year before the Australian Taxation Office got serious in chasing him and his longtime business partner Chris Wang, who owed $20m in unpaid taxes.

Mr Zhou has another impressive residence at Dural in Sydney’s west. He bought that property, complete with a tennis court, in October 2014 for $2.1m.

Before he was elected to Ryde council in September 2017, Mr Zhou also leased a property at 65 Herring Road, Marsfield, paying $730 a week and claiming it as his residence. It put him smack in the middle of the Ryde council area, making him eligible for election. After appealing for votes to the area’s large Chinese population and winning, he terminated the lease and returned to his Oatlands home, outside the council border.

When Mr Zhou cut a deal with Mr Laxale for deputy mayor, he ­received no perks apart from the $30,000 stipend all councillors ­receive.

But apparently Mr Zhou ­decided he needed more real ­estate and staff. He rented an upstairs­ office for $500 a week in Rowe Street, Eastwood, the suburb’s bustling heart, just a block from the Eastwood building Mr Huang wanted to ­develop. Mr Zhou also employed­ a personal assistant, Ste Lin, at his own cost.

Then there’s Mr Zhou’s $4m stake in Pymble Corporate Centre, a property bought by Mr Huang’s Yuhu Group in late 2016 for $80m. For reasons that ­remain unclear, a 5 per cent shareholding was issued to Mr Zhou through a company Mr Zhou set up called Zymble. ­Another Pymble stake was issued to a company owned by Mr Zhou’s former business partner, Mr Wang, and his wife, Yang Yang.

A month before he was elected to Ryde council in 2017, Mr Zhou told the Australian Securities & ­Investments Commission that he had transferred his Pymble Huang-related stake to a company called ZW Holding, owned by Cai Lihong. She lives in one of Mr Zhou’s properties. Mr Zhou has said the stake went to his mother, and later to a business associate. It is now clear the stake went to ex-business partner Mr Wang.

Mr Zhou has not paid his collapsed­ company’s $2.58m outstanding tax bill, but it would seem Mr Wang has paid his: he still runs a gold-trading company in Sydney’s CBD, and has taken over one of Mr Zhou’s former companies.

Where is Mr Huang? He is banished­, his residency visa rescinded last December on ASIO advice that he was a security risk. The tax office is chasing him for $140m in alleged unpaid taxes, and has taken steps to freeze his assets.

When Simon Zhou started out with political ambitions, he joined the Labor Party and one of Mr Huang’s former community ­organisations.

He ran for an unwinnable Senate­ spot before quitting the party and turning independent. His trail still leads to Mr Huang.