Liquidators move on two Clive Palmer contacts

Queensland Nickel’s liquidators have served Clive Palmer’s Bulgarian ­father-in-law and Kyrgyz woman Evgenia Bednova.

Clive Palmer. Picture: Liam Kidston

Almost two months after Queensland Nickel’s taxpayer-funded liquidators filed a half-billion-­dollar lawsuit in the state ­Supreme Court, they have ­managed to serve Clive Palmer’s Bulgarian ­father-in-law and Kyrgyzstani woman Evgenia Bednova.

But the mysterious Zhenghong Zhang, to whom Mr Palmer told QN to pay $4.5 million in November 2012, remains elusive.

The Weekend Australian can reveal liquidators have been unable to serve Ms Zhang — and Mr Palmer’s fugitive nephew Clive Mensink — with the papers, which demand she repay the cash unless Mr Palmer does it for her.

Ms Zhang is largely a mystery to special-purpose liquidators PPB Advisory. The information they have about her is scant and — in the case of details provided by Mr Palmer — contradictory.

Liquidators had a home ­address for Ms Bednova, to whom Mr Palmer directed QN pay $1m in November 2012, in the Kyrgyzstani capital, Bishkek, and for his father-in-law Alex Sokolov.

Their source material was a letter from Mr Palmer to QN chief fin­ancial officer Daren Wolfe in November 2012 directing more than $40m to nine recipients. Under each name are bank account details and an address.

However, Ms Zhang’s address is an entire floor of a high-rise building in central Hong Kong.

The Weekend Australian has confirmed the floor is occupied by an asset management and financial services firm. The company did not respond to questions yesterday about whether Ms Zhang was an employee or whether she had any connection to the address.

A spokesman for PPB Advisory confirmed that of the overseas defendants, Ms Bednova and Mr Soko­lov had been served.

Mr Palmer has given liquidators three different reasons for the cash transfer to Ms Zhang, whom he said was Chinese and was receiving the money to set up a Shanghai office of his business. The office was never established.

Court documents filed this week by PPB Advisory allege none of the reasons is supported by “independent credible records”.

Liquidators say Mr Palmer swore in court that the November 2012 payment was for “operations in China”, but it was recorded in company documents as “representation fees” and described as “travelling expenses” in internal emails within the Palmer Group.

Although Mr Palmer has argued that PPB Advisory’s lawsuit — which sues Mr Palmer, Mr Mensink and others over the QN collapse — should be stalled until all defendants are served, the court has disagreed. Queensland Supreme Court judge John Bond will hear the first main battle next week, when liquidators will argue that more than $200m worth of Mr Palmer’s assets should be frozen. QN was north Queensland’s largest private employer when it collapsed last year, under $300m worth of debts and costing almost 800 workers their jobs.

The former federal MP has ­denied any wrongdoing in relation to the collapse, when Mr Mensink was the sole registered director. However, liquidators allege Mr Palmer was acting as a shadow director and breached his fiduciary duties by allowing the company to trade while insolvent.