Aaron Bunch Journalist with Australian Associated Press | Collection of published work | + 61 484 008 119 | abunch@aap.com.au
Palmer Qld Nickel collapse trial resumes
The Clive Palmer Queensland Nickel collapse trial is set to resume after the mining magnate settled a massive chunk of the multi-million claims against him.
August 19, 2019
Clive Palmer’s court battle with Queensland Nickel’s liquidators is set to resume with a slimmed-down claim against the billionaire businessman.
Mr Palmer had been defending a $200 million lawsuit brought by two sets of liquidators, following the Townsville refinery’s collapse in 2016.
But the former federal MP settled the majority of the claims earlier in the month, including agreeing to repay $66 million in taxpayer money used to fund entitlements for sacked workers.
He’s now fighting just one team of liquidators over about $100 million for a handful of creditor claims related to his company, Mineralogy, and two Galilee Basin mining projects.
The Brisbane Supreme Court trial has previously heard Mineralogy allegedly received loans worth $115 million from the cash-strapped refinery but never repaid them.
A lawyer for the liquidators, Graham Gibson, says in the days before administrators arrived at the ailing refinery, “extraordinary” deals worth $235 million were allegedly signed with China First and Waratah Coal.
The shares in Mr Palmer’s allegedly “worthless” coal projects were of no commercial benefit to QN but allegedly benefited the mining magnate ahead of workers if the company went into administration, he said.
Mr Palmer has also been accused of acting as a shadow director of QN, which allegedly traded insolvently.
He denies the claims, saying they’re baseless.
The trial is scheduled to resume on Monday.