Corruption watchdog examines hotel developer’s role in ‘pretend donors’ to NSW Labor
A hotel developer behind two major projects on the Gold Coast and Sydney’s Circular Quay is under scrutiny after claims he handed $100,000 in cash to a NSW Labor party boss in the lead up to the 2015 state election.
NSW ‘s Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) is conducting a six-week inquiry into allegations Labor received the funds from “pretend donors” including property mogul Huang Xiangmo, the founder of the Yuhu group responsible for Gold Coast’s Jewel and Sydney’s One Circular Quay projects, who is said to have given the cash in an Aldi shopping bag to NSW Labor’s then general secretary, Jamie Clements.
Labor’s financial records show $100,000 was received at a Chinese Friends of Labor fundraising dinner in March 2015, the collection of smaller individual donations made mainly by employees and family members of Jonathan Yee, general manager of the Sydney Chinatown venue Emperor’s Garden Restaurant.
NSW Labor’s then community relations director, Kenrick Cheah, told investigators Huang had attended Clements’ office more than three weeks after the dinner and handed over a $100,000 cash donation placed in an ALDI shopping bag.
Scott Robertson, the counsel assisting the commission, said ICAC will investigate if “pretend donors” were employed by NSW Labor to conceal the fact that Huang was the real source of funds.
“The implausibility that restaurant workers would have the financial capacity to make lump sum donations of $5,000 or $10,000 led the electoral commission to suspect that the $100,000 in cash was donated on behalf of a person other than those who appeared on disclosures,” said Robertson.
Sheridan Randall, 29th August 2019
