A key witness to an anti-corruption probe received a night-time home visit from his former boss to deliver “festive greetings” the same day he was summonsed to give evidence, despite the Chinese festival taking place two months earlier, an inquiry has heard.
Steve Tong, an engineer who says he has no interest in politics, has given evidence to the Independent Commission Against Corruption that his name was falsely put on donation records by his superiors at a property development firm, Wu International, which has links to the former state Labor MP Ernest Wong.
Those records purport to show that Tong made a $5,000 donation to Labor at a 2015 Chinese Friends of Labor fundraising dinner attended by the former Labor leaders Bill Shorten and Luke Foley.
The Icac inquiry is examining allegations NSW Labor officials attempted to use a series of straw donors to cover up an unlawful $100,000 donation made to Labor by the Chinese billionaire Huang Xiangmo.
The commission heard on Wednesday that Tong was served with a summons to give evidence to Icac on 19 November. Call records show he received a flurry of 12 phone calls in three days from another Wu International employee, Yueran “Kenny” Zhan.
Zhan gave evidence that he and Wu International’s Australian boss, Alex Wood, visited Tong’s Sydney home at night on 19 November, the same day the summons was served.
He struggled to recall the reason for the trip, but said it was likely to deliver Tong “festive greetings” for the mid-autumn festival, an important occasion for Chinese communities.
Counsel assisting, Scott Robertson, pointed out to Zhan that the festival took place in September, almost two months earlier.
“It might have come and gone but it was possibly a late festive greetings,” Zhan said, through an interpreter.
The chief commissioner, Peter Hall, accused Zhan of lying. He accused Zhan of visiting Tong to discuss the Icac investigation.
“You are making this up, aren’t you? You are making this up? You are lying aren’t you?”
Zhan said he couldn’t recall everything about the visit due to the passage of time.
Evidence has claimed that Huang dropped an Aldi shopping bag filled with cash to Labor headquarters several weeks after the dinner, handing it to then Labor general secretary Jamie Clements.
The former MP Ernest Wong has been accused of arranging the donation from Huang, and then soliciting false donation records from acquaintances to cover it up. Official records purport to show 12 donors made 20 donations of $5,000 on the night of the fundraising dinner, but a number have since given evidence that they gave no such money to Labor.
The commission has also heard that Wong had close links to individuals at Wu International. Wood worked in Wong’s office, and Wong has been in email contact with others from the firm, records show.
On Thursday, it was revealed that Zhan had been told to go and pick up Tong and take him to NSW parliament to meet Wong.
It has previously been suggested that Wong used the meeting to tell Tong to “keep his mouth shut”.
Zhan said he could not recall what Wong and Tong had discussed during the meeting, because he was busy on his phone, was looking outside at the view, and has forgotten due to the passage of time.
Earlier, the commission heard from Jiayi “Winnie” Huang, who worked as a staffer for Wong when he was a state MP and helped organise the 2015 fundraising dinner.
Wong has previously claimed the usual practice at such dinners was that cash donations made on the night were processed at reception.
But Winnie Huang, who is not related to Huang Xiangmo, worked on the reception desk on the night. She said she did not see large amounts of cash.
“I did not see it, to the best of my knowledge at that night,” she said.
She also told the inquiry that she continues to tutor Wong’s children in Chinese languages. She was at Wong’s house as recently as last week. Robertson asked whether the pair had ever discussed her evidence or the progress of investigations by Icac and the NSW electoral commission.
“Did Mr Wong give you any advice or suggestions as to how you should deal with your appearance before this inquiry,” Robertson asked.
Winnie Huang said he had not, but that he knew she was going to give evidence.
