Alleged fake donor says he funded Labor donation with Chinese 'lucky money'
An alleged straw donor has been accused of inventing a “nonsense” after claiming to have used Chinese “lucky money” to fund a $5,000 cash payment to New South Wales Labor.
The Independent Commission Against Corruption is examining whether a series of straw donors, or false donors, were used to mask the true source of a $100,000 donation to NSW Labor.
The commission has heard testimony that the money came from Huang Xiangmo, a Chinese billionaire and banned donor, who is alleged to have paid for seats next to Bill Shorten and Luke Foley at a 2015 fundraising dinner. Icac is investigating whether records of 20 donations of $5,000 were falsified to cover up Huang’s gift.
A previous witness, Labor’s former fundraising director Patty Barrett, has stated she never saw cash donations as large as $5,000 at any dinner event during her entire career.
Valentine Yee, the son of a prominent Chinatown restaurateur, is one of those who purportedly gave $5,000 to NSW Labor on the night of the dinner. Yee is not a supporter of the Labor party, and said he counted himself more as a conservative.
Yee faced a barrage of questioning at Icac on Thursday as he sought to explain how he made the $5,000 donation.
He was forced to repeatedly revise or alter his evidence throughout the day, was accused of inventing falsehoods to protect his family, and denied allegations he had not “donated a cent” to Labor and had never attended the 2015 dinner.
Yee insisted that he had both attended the dinner and made the $5,000 donation.
Yee said he had $5,000 in cash from a series of “lucky money” gifts he had received from family for Chinese New Year the month prior to the dinner. Lucky money is a reference to cash gifts exchanged at occasions of significance for the Chinese community.
Yee said he would have received 50 separate cash gifts of an average of $100 as lucky money.
Counsel assisting, Scott Robertson, responded: “Are you seriously saying that 50 people gave you an average of $100 in lucky money in 2015? Is that your serious evidence?”
Yee responded: “Yes.”
The chief commissioner, Peter Hall, labelled his answer a “nonsense”.
“It’s nonsense isn’t it? That’s a nonsense answer?” Hall said.
Yee, the chief financial officer at Sydney’s Emperor’s Garden restaurant, denied it was a nonsense answer.
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Yee’s mother also donated Labor $10,000 in cash at the fundraising dinner, according to Labor records.
Both Yee and his mother gave “strikingly” similar statements to the NSW electoral commission in 2016, when it first began investigating donation irregularities associated with the dinner, Icac heard.
Robertson said the two statements were “identical”, something he described as an “astonishing coincidence”. Even full stops and commas were in the same place, he said, and Yee’s mother’s statement similarly claimed to have funded the donation using
lucky money.
“Mr Yee, come on. Seriously. Seriously,” Robertson said. “With respect to you, much of what you’re saying is utterly hard to believe, utterly hard to believe. It just does not stand to reason based on these documents.”
Yee insisted the similarities between the statements were a coincidence and said he had not had any influence on what his mother wrote.
Hall responded that he was “flabbergasted”. “What’s puzzling me is that an intelligent man could have given the answer you just gave,” Hall said.
Yee was warned that lying to Icac can attract a prison sentence, and was given a brief adjournment to consider whether he wished to change his answer. Following the adjournment, Icac heard that Yee would be recalled at a later date.
Yee giggled at times during his evidence. At one point, Robertson asked him what it was about the evidence that was so funny.
“Sorry, is there something funny? Are you laughing because you’ve been caught out in another lie? Is that why you’re laughing and giggling?”
The inquiry continues on Thursday.