Chinese billionaire Huang Xiangmo allegedly made illegal US$72,000 political donation in Australia: corruption watchdog

A Chinese billionaire who sits on Hong Kong’s election committee has been found by an Australian corruption investigation to have allegedly made a secret and illegal A$100,000 (US$72,000) political donation in the lead-up to a New South Wales state election.

Property developer Huang Xiangmo allegedly delivered the money in a plastic shopping bag to the general secretary of the New South Wales (NSW) Labor party in April 2015, four days after the same amount was withdrawn from his Sydney casino junket account, a report by the NSW Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) said on Monday.

The ICAC has sought advice from the public prosecutor on alleged offences by 18 people involved in a corrupt scheme to hide the donation, centred on a fundraising dinner at a Chinese restaurant in Sydney where Huang sat with state and federal opposition Labor leaders.

ICAC said a Huang employee withdrew the A$100,000 from his casino account several weeks after the dinner and a few days later Huang allegedly delivered it to the Labor party official.

“Mr Huang was the true source of the A$100K cash,” ICAC said.

Huang’s lawyer, Timothy Unsworth, said in evidence to ICAC it was a coincidence that A$100,000 was withdrawn from Huang’s casino account days before Huang met the NSW Labor boss. He also said that Huang did not take the cash to the Labor meeting.

Unsworth declined to comment to Reuters on the ICAC report.