Clive Palmer denies refinery squeezed to meet debts

Clive Palmer has denied using Queensland Nickel company as a “cash cow” to pay the debts of his corporate empire.

Clive Palmer arrives at court in Brisbane.

Clive Palmer has denied using his stricken Queensland Nickel company as a “cash cow” to pay the debts of his corporate empire.

Queensland Nickel collapsed early last year, owing $300 million and costing nearly 800 workers their jobs.

An argumentative Mr Palmer was cross-examined under oath in the Federal Court by Queensland Nickel’s liquidators, who are trying to claw back cash owed to the company’s creditors — including $70m to federal taxpayers.

He rejected a suggestion by John Peden QC, for general purpose liquidators FTI Consulting, that Queensland Nickel had acted as a “cash cow” for his flagship company Mineralogy.

“Absolutely not,” Mr Palmer said. “Queensland Nickel had no money.”

The court heard Mineralogy financial documents showed Queensland Nickel paid Mineralogy’s $1.2m legal bill to Link­laters in March 2011.

Mr Palmer, a former federal MP for the Sunshine Coast seat of Fairfax, had difficulty answering questions about whether Mineralogy had handed over certain financial records last week, as ordered by the Federal Court. Mr Peden suggested a “general journal” account was missing, that should have detailed $48m in loans that were forgiven by Mineralogy in the financial year to June 30, 2016.

Mr Palmer protested his ignorance about the internal accounting processes of his company, of which he is both shareholder and ultimate owner.

“I don’t know anything about accounts, I don’t know anything at all,” he said. “I don’t know who does everything in my companies, I’ve got thousands of people.”

He argued with both Mr Peden, for FTI Consulting, and Tom Sullivan QC, for special purpose liquidators PPB Advisory, becoming frustrated with their questions, and at one stage alleged FTI was “funded by the Chinese government”.

FTI is being bankrolled by litigation funder Vannin Capital (based in London with seven offices around the world, none in China). The special purpose liquidator is being paid by the federal government to try to recoup the $70m it paid to cover redundancy entitlements of Queensland Nickel’s sacked employees.

Mr Palmer’s outburst prompted Mr Peden to remind him he was under oath, and to “refrain from giving a speech about some other matters”.

The Palmer United Party founder told the court that Mineralogy currently owed him about $65m. He also said he had recently had a major court win in Western Australia over an unrelated iron ore royalties dispute, which would see Mineralogy be paid more than $100m this year, and then $300m annually for 30 years.