Clive Palmer charged with fraud, director breaches
Clive Palmer faces up to five years in jail after being charged with fraud and dishonest use of his position as a company director over the funding of his political party.
Mr Palmer was charged following an investigation by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) into the activities of Mr Palmer's businesses and his political party the Palmer United Party.
ASIC alleges the improper transfers took place in the weeks ahead of the 2013 election in September.
After an advertising blitz in the lead up to the election, Mr Palmer swept into parliament in that election, securing a seat in the house of representatives as the member for the Sunshine Coast seat of Fairfax while the Palmer United Party snared two senate seats.
The corporate watchdog alleges that between August 5, 2013 and September 5, 2013, Mr Palmer dishonestly obtained a benefit or advantage for his company Cosmo Developments and/or the Palmer United Party and others by authorising the transfer of $10,000,000 from another of his companies, Mineralogy, despite the money being held by the mining group for other purposes.
Clive Palmer has been charged with fraud and dishonest use of his position as a company director over the funding of his political party.Credit:ninevms
It is alleged that he dishonestly used his position as a director of Mineralogy to obtain that advantage.
ASIC also alleges that more than $2 million was dishonestly obtained by Mr Palmer to the benefit of now defunct public relations firm Media Circus, which ran the 2013 election campaign. Media Circus was sold to another company in 2016 and is no longer in operation.
It is alleged that Mr Palmer dishonestly used his position as a director of Mineralogy in obtaining that advantage as well.
The maximum penalty for an offence is $340,000 or imprisonment for five years, or both.
However, ASIC said that if circumstances of aggravation are established, the maximum penalty at the time the offences are alleged to have occurred is increased to 12 years imprisonment.
The corporate watchdog had flagged the charges in February. The regulator was again quizzed on the topic at a committee hearing this week.
Mr Palmer has been contacted for comment. He has previously described the allegations as having "no merit".
The flow of payments between Mr Palmer's private companies and the funding of its political party were revealed in detail following the collapse of Queensland Nickel in 2016.
The allegations of transfers of money from Mineralogy to Media Circus and Cosmo Developments were also raised in the long running legal battle between Mr Palmer and the tenant of land owned by Mineralogy, Sino Iron -- a group owned by Chinese conglomerate CITIC.