Clive Palmer’s wife to give evidence

Clive Palmer’s wife is being compelled to give evidence under oath as liquidators probe alleged sham transactions.

Clive Palmer.

Anna Palmer is being compelled to give evidence under oath as liquidators probe alleged sham transactions of more than $100 million while zeroing in on her husband Clive Palmer’s finances.

Orders were issued quietly in a Brisbane court yesterday for compulsory questioning of Mrs Palmer as well as senior accountant Derrick Vickers, a partner in PwC.

A further order was issued to require Domenic Martino, an accountant and long-time business ally and friend of the tycoon, to give evidence.

The three are also being compelled to bring a large range of documentation.

Mrs Palmer was a director of two companies controlled by her husband, Waratah Coal and China First, when they entered into share-based transactions which led to them lodging general security charges against Queensland Nickel of $100m and $135m shortly ­before QN’s collapse. Investigations by the then administrators, FTI Consulting, resulted in a report to creditors last year that the transactions appeared to be invalid and may be unreasonable and uncommercial.

Mr Vickers is understood by the liquidators to have been a key adviser to Mr Palmer, founder of the now-defunct Palmer United Party, at the time of the transactions. PwC has been the tycoon’s accountancy firm for many years.

The orders were issued by Federal Court Registrar Murray Belcher after Chris Curtis, a lawyer for FTI Consulting, asked that the court be closed so that evidence could be heard in secrecy. Affidavits and other supporting material handed to Registrar Belcher were sealed.

Mr Belcher asked Mr Curtis if he was concerned that naming the individuals in open court would alert them to the fact that summonses for their appearance for questioning were imminent, possibly resulting in an attempt to “avoid service”.

Separately, special purpose liquidators funded by the federal government to investigate Mr Palmer’s conduct have been frustrated by the extended holiday in Europe and “up towards the Arctic” of Mr Palmer’s nephew, Clive Mensink. Mr Mensink, who was not served a summons, has so far avoided compulsory examination about the siphoning of hundreds of millions of dollars which left taxpayers with a bill of about $80m for staff entitlements at the refinery. The refinery collapsed with the loss of almost 800 jobs and $300m in debts in early 2016.

Mr Curtis told Registrar Belcher that he was reluctant to disclose in open court the nature of matters about which the three would be questioned, but he said that it related to “two groups of transactions” early last year.

The Australian, the only media outlet in the court, objected to the oblique nature of the proceedings which had hitherto not named the three being sought for questioning.

Registrar Belcher, who declined Mr Curtis’s request to close the court, subsequently named the three.

It is understood solicitors for the liquidators immediately rushed to serve notices on the three to require them to be questioned on February 16-17.

The court heard that the Australian Securities and Investments Commission was given notice of yesterday’s action, however, it was not known to Mr Palmer or his wife or their associates. The matter was not publicly listed by the Federal Court.