Clive Mensink will return for court grilling but still wants expenses paid

Clive Palmer’s nephew Clive Mensink will cut short his year-long overseas jaunt to fly back for cross-examination.

Clive Mensink has agreed to return to Brisbane for cross-examination in the Federal Court. Picture: AAP

Clive Palmer’s nephew Clive Mensink will cut short his year-long overseas jaunt to fly back to Brisbane for cross-examination in court over the failure of Queensland Nickel.

After months of flitting between Hong Kong, Finland, Russia and Britain, Mr Mensink has finally agreed to comply with two Federal Court summonses ordering him to be publicly examined under oath.

But his lawyers are negotiating for his expenses — including return flights from London, hotels and meals — to be paid for by Queensland Nickel’s liquidators, who are trying to claw back $300 million owed by Mr Palmer’s company to creditors.

Mr Mensink was Queensland Nickel’s sole director when it fell into administration in January last year, leaving nearly 800 workers without jobs.

He was a no-show at the Federal Court in Brisbane yesterday, despite a summons, so he could be cross-examined by Walter Sofronoff QC, for general-purpose liquidator FTI Consulting.

The court has the discretion to issue an arrest warrant for witnesses who defy summonses.

Mr Sofronoff told Federal Court registrar Murray Belcher that Mr Mensink had agreed to return to testify on February 20 and 22.

Mr Mensink’s solicitor, Sam Iskander, confirmed “some negotiations as far as expenses and so forth” were under way.

Queensland Nickel’s former chief financial officer Daren Wolfe told the court yesterday that Mr Palmer regularly instructed him by text message to give interest-free loans from the company to other entities in the Palmer group. The loans were never repaid, with Mr Wolfe confirming Mr Palmer’s corporate empire had a policy of “loan forgiveness” every financial year.

Despite being chief financial officer and holding a bachelor of commerce degree, Mr Wolfe conceded to Mr Sofronoff that he never considered whether sending QN’s money to other Palmer companies would hurt the refinery company.

A damning administrators’ report by FTI Consulting revealed Mr Palmer used QN as a “cash cow” to prop up his other businesses, with QN bleeding more than $200m in forgiven loans to elsewhere in the Palmer empire.

Mr Wolfe also admitted to officially witnessing a controversial agreement between QN and some of Mr Palmer’s other companies two days before 237 refinery workers were sacked and five days before QN was plunged into voluntary administration.

The deal committed the cash-strapped QN and its parent companies to buy $135m worth of shares in China First, Mr Palmer’s company that had two coal-exploration permits in Queensland’s Galilee Basin but no mine, in the next three years.

It also purported to forgive millions of dollars in loans from QN to other Palmer Group companies.