Clive Palmer tried to repay $11 million to China after siphoning revelations

CLIVE Palmer tried to repay $11 million to China days after revelations he had siphoned huge sums to fund his political campaign.

Clive Palmer after the mining tax repeal vote yesterday.

CLIVE Palmer tried unsuccessfully to repay $11 million to China five days after revelations from a Federal Court hearing, bank statements and legal documents raised serious claims he had wrongfully siphoned huge sums to bankroll his political campaign.

Documents filed in the Supreme Court in Brisbane show a bank cheque for $11,345,013 was authorised by the Palmer United Party leader on May 13, following the legal action launched by Citic Pacific and reports in The Aus­tralian days earlier.

One day after the May 13 bank cheque was offered to the Chinese company, Mr Palmer told the ABC’s Lateline that the damaging allegations levelled against him were “scandalous”.

He added that he had received “an appropriate apology”.

Host Tony Jones asked: “Now Clive Palmer, one final question, it’s a personal one actually because you would have seen in The Australian arguments made by your partners in Western Australia, Citic Pacific, that you’ve somehow taken a large sum of money from a fund set aside to manage the port facilities in WA and possibly used that to fund your election campaigning. I don’t think I’ve heard your response to those allegations yet. What is it?”

Mr Palmer replied: “Well it’s certainly scandalous and I can’t say — but there’s always been a resolution of that matter and it’s been pointed out to people and they’ve made the appropriate apology to us.”

Mr Palmer told Lateline that Citic was not pressing to have the matters investigated, adding: “I think it’s just another make-up by the Rupert Murdoch press, really. It doesn’t seem to have any substance. These things happen about me regularly ’cause people don’t like me, they don’t like the fact that I’m concerned about our pensioners and I will stand up for them. There’s been an apology given and I can’t divulge who it is under the terms of it.”

In the three months since Mr Palmer’s Lateline claims, actions against him over $12.167m in Chinese funds, which he withdrew from a National Australia Bank account and were for management of services at the port of Cape Preston, have mushroomed into a Queensland Supreme Court breach-of-trust case.

Mr Palmer and his companies are accused in this case of dishonest and fraudulent conduct.

Mr Palmer, who rejects the accusations, has responded with legal proceedings accusing the Chinese company of an abuse of process, and of running a baseless case to damage his reputation. He has said he was entitled to use the Chinese funds as he saw fit, including to pay for election advertising for the federal election last year.

In the documents inspected by The Australian in the Supreme Court, legal letters show that Mr Palmer was ordered by an arbitration tribunal on May 30 to repay at least $1,705,369 to the Chinese company. The result in the ongoing Brisbane arbitration proceedings, which are being conducted confidentially by retired Supreme Court judge Richard Chesterman QC, contradicts Mr Palmer’s claims he has been getting judgments in his favour in this dispute.

A June 16 letter by one of Mr Palmer’s solicitors, Nino Odorisio, a partner of the firm HopgoodGanim, refers to three further “bank cheques in the amount of $1,705,369, $9,639,644 and $1,879,410 tended (sic) in payment in the amount ordered to be paid by (Mr Palmer’s company) pursuant to the interim award … and other amounts claimed by (the Chinese companies) …”

Lawyers for Citic Pacific, China’s international investment vehicle that has poured about $10 billion into a disastrous iron ore development based on Mr Palmer’s tenements in Western Australia, returned the two largest cheques. The Australian understands the cheques were returned as the Chinese decided they wanted the courts to make findings about the conduct of Mr Palmer and his companies, which are accused by Citic Pacific of acting fraudulently and dishonestly.

In a separate letter Mr Palmer wrote in June, he accused the Citic companies of “deliberately avoiding their legal obligations” and of refusing to pay his company, Mineralogy, royalties from the shipments of iron ore that began in December. The dispute over royalties is being waged in the West Australian Supreme Court.

Mr Palmer, who has assured voters that as a politician he has not been involved in the management of his businesses for months, signed the June 8 letter as “Clive Palmer, consultant, Mineralogy Pty Ltd”.

Lawyers for Citic replied: “Our clients note that you have purported to sign your letter of 8 June in the capacity of ‘Consultant’ to Mineralogy. Our clients do not accept that you have ceased to be a director of Mineralogy. Our ­clients intend to continue to engage with you in any commercial discussions in your ­capacity as a director of Mineralogy.”

More than 200 pages of confidential documents from the Supreme Court case in Brisbane remains unavailable for copying as a result of an order last week by judge David Jackson, pending hearing of Mr Palmer’s alle­gations there had been an abuse of process.