Wrong time, wrong place for Clive Palmer’s rendezvous

Palmer said he spent $250,000 to fly a woman from Kyrgyzstan to Singapore in April 2011 for a Forbes conference.

Clive Palmer did not respond to questions about the apparent discrepancy.

When Clive Palmer was asked in the Federal Court about spending $250,000 to fly a mysterious woman from Kyrgyzstan to meet him in Singapore in April 2011, he testified it would have been for a Forbes conference.

However, Forbes has told The Weekend Australian it did not hold any conferences in Singapore in that year. In fact, Forbes Asia’s ­director of events and communi­cations Janelle Kuah confirmed the annual Forbes Global CEO Conference for 2011 was held in an entirely different country, Malaysia, for a weekend in September.

Mr Palmer did not respond to questions from The Weekend Australian yesterday about the apparent discrepancy.

He gave the evidence under oath last month at a public examination into the collapse of his Queensland Nickel company, which failed early last year leaving 800 workers jobless and creditors $300 million out of pocket.

The founder of the now-­dormant Palmer United Party was cross-examined by Walter Sofronoff QC, for liquidator FTI Consulting, about instructing Queensland Nickel to pay Evgenia Bednova $1m in November 2012.

It was one of several payments totalling $43m that Mr Palmer ordered on the same day, including $8m to his Bulgarian­ ­father-in-law and $15m for his Bora Bora resort.

Mr Palmer testified that he had met Ms Bednova in Bishkek, the Kyrgyzstan capital, when he was the world secretary-general of the World Leadership Alliance.

“I was over there also sort of in a dual role, looking at mineral ­opportunities in the country,” Mr Palmer told the Federal Court, saying he had met Ms Bednova in “professional circumstances”.

She acted as his companies’ representative in the central Asian country, and Mr Palmer said he believed she had been to Australia.

Mr Sofronoff: “Did you meet her in Singapore?”

Mr Palmer: “I could have … it was a Forbes conference in Singapore. And I did have a meeting with a number of people from our group from around Asia. She could have been there.”

Mr Sofronoff: “Why would she have been there?

Mr Palmer: “Well, it would be a commercial thing to discuss … business.”

The resources magnate was terse when asked about spending $250,000 to charter a jet to fly Ms Bednova from Bishkek to Singapore in April 2011, when she was the only passenger on the flight. Mr Sofronoff: “Do you recall she was the only passenger on that jet and you met her at the airport?”

Mr Palmer: “Is this the examinable affairs of the company?”

Mr Sofronoff: “She’s a woman you paid $1m to, Mr Palmer.”

Mr Palmer: “Not of …(Queensland Nickel’s) money … my personal money.”

Liquidators are also trying to question the former Fairfax MP’s nephew, Clive Mensink, the sole registered director of Queensland Nickel when it collapsed. He has been on an overseas holiday since June, and has failed to comply with two summonses to return to Australia to testify.

Late last month, Federal Court judge John Dowsett ordered Mr Mensink to return to Australia by March 27.

He was also required to inform liquidators yesterday which European city he wanted to depart from, but T he Weekend Australian understands he did not meet the deadline.