A Labor donor who attended a fundraising dinner at the centre of an explosive anti-corruption probe says he was shocked to learn his $500 donation was inflated to $5,000 on official records.
The Independent Commission Against Corruption is currently investigating a potentially unlawful donations scheme that may have helped to hide a $100,000 donation to Labor from Huang Xiangmo, a Chinese billionaire barred from donating in New South Wales due to his links to property development.
The inquiry heard Huang arrived at Labor’s Sussex Street headquarters with $100,000 in an Aldi shopping bag, which he gave to NSW Labor boss, Jamie Clements, in early April 2015.
Icac is examining whether “straw donors”, or fake donors, were used to hide the true origin of Huang’s $100,000 cash donation. Its inquiries have so far focused on a fundraising dinner organised by the Chinese Friends of Labor in March 2015, just weeks before the state election, where 12 separate donors gave Labor amounts that fell just below the legally-allowed cap.
Documents released by the Icac’s Operation Aero show at least one guest at the fundraising dinner was sent a receipt for a donation of $5,000, despite having paid $500 for his ticket.
To “Stanley” Yip, who runs a souvenir store in Haymarket, was sent a receipt for $5,000 following the dinner at the Eight Modern Chinese Restaurant.
He told investigators with the NSW Electoral Commission - which investigated the matter before referring it to Icac – that he never made the donation.
“The only money I spent on the Labor Party was the five hundred dollars ($500) for a single seat at the table. At no time did (I) donate $5,000. I don’t have that much money to spend on these things. I’m not a political person and don’t follow any one particular party, I only gave money to support Jonathon Yee who is a friend and neighbour.”
Jonathon Yee was the general manager of Sydney Emperor’s Garden Restaurant, a Labor party member and the Chairman of Chinese Friends of Labor.
An invitation to the Chinese Friends of Labor dinner, signed by To Yip, shows a payment amount of $5,000.
“My signature appears on the bottom of that document,” Yip said. “I don’t recall noticing the handwritten $5,000 in the top right corner of the document when I signed it.”
Yip told investigators he was shocked when he received a receipt for $5,000.
“So I ask him (Yee) why that’s five-thousand-dollar receipt. He just answer me, ‘it’s the, for the whole table’.”
Yip said Yee then gave him an electoral disclosure form that was already partially filled out.
“He (Yee) just told me, ‘Ah, that’s for the table, for the function’. He ask me, ‘just fill out the form’, and… he… type this one for me.”
Yee told NSW Electoral Commissioner investigators Yip had made a $5,000 donation.
“I don’t know what he said to you. But I’m sure he made a $5,000 donation to the ALP.”
Asked by investigators whether they had recorded receiving that money from Yip, he told investigators, “No … it’s not our practice.”
In the same interview he said he didn’t know how Yip was issued a $5,000 invoice for a whole table “when he only bought one seat”.
“I don’t work in the Labor party, I don’t know how they issue receipts … I don’t want to incriminate the Labor Party … I don’t know how that happened. I don’t know the process.”
Icac investigators have alleged to Yee he knowingly advised Yip that a Labor party tax receipt for $5,000 was for a table booking “knowing he only paid $500 for a seat”.
The inquiry continues on Tuesday and is set down for six weeks of hearings.
