Ex-ally Bill Schoch wants Clive Palmer investigated

CLIVE Palmer’s former top executive and political running mate wants the tycoon formally investigated for ­alleged misleading conduct.

Question Time 26th May

CLIVE Palmer’s former top executive and political running mate wants the tycoon formally investigated by federal Attorney-General George Brandis and his Queensland counterpart for ­alleged misleading conduct.

Bill Schoch ran Mr Palmer’s Sunshine Coast dinosaur park and campaigned as the Palmer United Party’s contender for the seat of Fisher at the federal election last September, but was sacked three months later. The Liberal Party’s Mal Brough won the seat.

Senator Brandis and Queensland Attorney-General Jarrod Bleijie are being urged by the auditor and one-time leading ­adviser to Mr Palmer and his flagship company Mineralogy to examine his record as an ­employer.

In a document leaked to The Australian yesterday, Mr Schoch accuses Mr Palmer of making a “false” representation about his employment terms, allegedly contravening consumer law. He claims in the document that “Clive Frederick Palmer as the person involved in relation to the employment terms of terminated senior employee William Matthew Schoch” was in breach of sections of the law that deal with “misleading conduct relating to employment”.

Mr Schoch also claims that the Palmer United Party’s founder is “continuing contravening conduct” because “Clive Palmer has knowingly made a false fact to be caused to be represented to be as true”.

Mr Schoch’s complaint to Senator Brandis and Mr Bleijie states: “Intervention is requested on the grounds Clive Palmer, the controlling director and sole shareholder of the Palmer Group, is a significant employer in Queensland and Australia, and internal corporate governance checks and balances are lacking or ineffective, necessitating intervention in the public interest.”

The alleged “false fact” relates to Mr Palmer directing that an invoice be sent to Mr Schoch in April, four months after his sacking, for an amount of $633,150.14.

An itemised breakdown of the invoice shows Mr Palmer wants to charge Mr Schoch for his ­accommodation, food, beverages, laundry, golf and internet use while he was living at the Sunshine Coast resort as its resident manager.

The perks were allegedly part of his employment package.

The invoice states: “You have neglected to settle this account on your termination of your appointment and we seek payment of this amount of $633,150.14 in full within seven days.”

The invoice went to Mr Schoch soon after he launched legal proceedings in the Queensland Supreme Court, in which he claimed that he was owed almost $5 million due to a breach of contract by Mr Palmer.

The matter is subject to a strike-out application by lawyers for Mr Palmer, who denies wrongdoing and told Mr Schoch to “sue me” while sacking him.

The case threatens to spill into the public arena sensitive commercial intelligence about Mr Palmer’s legal disputes with the Chinese company Citic Pacific and his attempts to raise funds from overseas investors.

Citic Pacific’s lawyers told the Federal Court in Perth this month that Mineralogy wrongfully siphoned more than $12m from his Chinese business partners last August and early September, with some of the funds allegedly used to cover the PUP’s expenses in the federal election campaign.

Citic Pacific has called for a “searching inquiry” and a “forensic accounting exercise” to trace the missing money. The matters, which are part of confidential ­arbitration proceedings, are likely to be referred to police.

Mr Schoch’s evidence to the Supreme Court in his civil action indicates that he was closely involved in confidential negotiations with Citic Pacific and global resources giants Glencore and BHP Billiton. His statements refer to specific chains of email correspondence, top-level meetings with resources executives, and efforts that he and lawyers undertook to persuade the Australian Taxation Office to refund tens of millions of dollars to Mr Palmer.

Mr Palmer did not respond to questions from The Australian yesterday.

The Weekend Australian revealed on Saturday that Mr Palmer’s main companies did not pay income tax for the past six financial years because they were not profitable, while the tax office propped up Mineralogy with a $45m refund last September after he successfully argued that he had paid too much capital gains tax in 2007 following a windfall payment from Citic Pacific.