Former New South Wales Labor Party general secretary Jamie Clements was seen with a shopping bag filled with A$100,000 (US$67,600 at the current exchange rate) in cash after meeting Chinese billionaire and banned donor Huang Xiangmo (黃向墨), the state’s Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) heard yesterday.
The commission yesterday began its inquiry into a complex and potentially unlawful donations scheme that the commission has heard may have helped to hide a A$100,000 donation from Huang, whose associations with property development prohibit him from giving money to political parties.
The inquiry heard that Huang had visited Labor’s Sussex Street headquarters in April 2015, weeks after a Chinese Friends of Labor fundraising dinner in Sydney.
That dinner was purported to have raised A$100,000 in cash from 12 donors, but ICAC is investigating whether they were so-called “straw” or fake donors.
Labor’s then-community relations director, Kenrick Cheah, said that he knew of Huang’s impending visit, but believed Huang was in “agriculture,” not property development.
Internal e-mails show Cheah knew Huang was a major donor.
Cheah said he did not thoroughly investigate Huang, but knew Huang was important.
“I would say that anyone who is rich is important,” Cheah said.
He watched Huang arrive at heaquarters and go to meet with Clements, but could not recall whether Huang was carrying anything.
A short time later, Clements came out of his office and handed him an Aldi bag, Cheah said, adding that the bag was filled with stacks of A$100 notes wrapped in elastic bags.
Cheah remembers Clements saying: “Here is some donation money and forms. Check the forms. If it is all OK, then give it to finance.”
The forms were reservations for the earlier Chinese Friends of Labor fundraising dinner and Cheah said there were about 20 separate forms from different donors.
ICAC Chief Commissioner Peter Hall asked Cheah why Huang would bring in a shopping bag full of money.
“If the cash came from multiple donors, can you explain to me, why Huang Xiangmo, said to be an extremely wealthy individual would be carrying cash in a shopping bag on behalf of donors? Can you explain that to me?” Hall asked. “Why would a man of his stature be undertaking such a task of a delivery man?
Cheah said he supposed that Huang wanted to look like “the big man” who could bring a lot of money.
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