ASIC pursuing Clive Palmer for ‘range of issues’

ASIC is reviewing­ the collapse of Clive Palm­er’s failed Queensland Nick­el for potential breaches of corporate law.

Clive Palmer leaves the Southport Yacht Club after dinner with his wife Anna last night

The Australian Securities and Investm­ents Commission is reviewing­ the collapse of Clive Palm­er’s Queensland Nick­el for potential criminal and civil breaches of the corporate law by the MP and businessman.

ASIC commissioner John Price told the Senate economics committee yesterday that the corporate watchdog was “looking carefully” into numerous aspects of Mr Palmer’s role in the Queensland Nickel failure, includ­ing possible conflicts of interest, corporate donations to the Palmer United Party and the use of pseudonyms by Mr Palmer.

Queensland Nickel collapsed into voluntary administration last month, with debts of more than $100 million, including $16m in redundancy entitlements owed to sacked workers.

Last month, The Australian revealed­ that the Fairfax MP used an email address in the name of “Terry Smith” to covertly run Queensland Nickel. That sparked fresh calls for him to resign from parliament and guarantee redund­ancy entitlements for 237 workers sacked this month.

It was also revealed that Mr Palmer donated $15m through Queensland Nickel to the PUP before the 2013 election.

Mr Price said ASIC had “a number of current inquiries around a range of issues with Queensland Nickel” and was “working closely with the­ ­administrators”.

“We’re looking at issues around corporate donations,’’ he said. “We’re looking at allegations around shadow directorships. We’re also looking at various issues­ around statutory reporting requirements. We are making indepen­dent inquiries to various matters. It’s far too early to come to a concluded view.”

Mr Price said while operating under a pseudonym was not illegal­, under corporations law it could be in certain circumstances. “For ASIC’s purposes, it becomes relevant to things like, has there been a false statement lodged with us where an alias has been used ... so you need to go through all the facts to establish whether there’s an issue.”

The ASIC review of Mr Palmer’s donations would focus on whether millions had been handed to the PUP to the detriment of Queensland Nickel.

“If a political donation is made and it doesn’t directly or indirect­ly benefit a company, that may be an issue,’’ Mr Price said.

“If a polit­ical donation is made and an officer who is involved in that decision may benefit from that donation, it may be an issue.”