



Nathan Tinkler's Wall St move harmed by ICAC allegations, says lawyer


Michaela Whitbourn, Kate McClymont

Nathan Tinkler arrives at ICAC on Friday.

Nathan Tinkler arrives at ICAC on Friday. Photo: Ben Rushton

The lawyer for Nathan Tinkler has claimed corruption allegations involving the embattled coal mogul and state Liberal MPs have jeopardised his Wall Street dash to raise half a billion dollars, and should be immediately withdrawn.

"The damage to Mr Tinkler's commercial interests are vast," his lawyer, Harland Koops, said in a dramatic conclusion on Friday to the businessman's second stint in the Independent Commission Against Corruption witness box.

"He goes to Wall Street next week with an endeavour to raise half a billion dollars and they say to him, 'You are a corrupt businessman running a Tinkler scheme to bribe politicians in the state of NSW' and they show him the door."

Commissioner Megan Latham replied: "Nobody is entitled to say that to him because there have been no findings."

The ICAC is investigating allegations that Mr Tinkler was involved in a corrupt scheme to pay illegal donations to Liberal Party candidates before the 2011 election.

In his opening address, counsel assisting the inquiry, Geoffrey Watson, SC, said "a number of the threads tie back to one person, Nathan Tinkler" and that the evidence would show "it was he who had the ultimate control" and "who made the decision to fund the illegal [electoral donation] activities".

Mr Koops said there was "no evidence or evidence so insubstantial and inadequate to form a basis for the allegations" and demanded they be withdrawn "immediately".

Ms Latham said Mr Koops' application was "at best premature".

"Mr Tinkler is just going to have to stand on his own merits and rebuff any suggestion that there's been any finding of corrupt conduct. He strikes me as being someone quite capable of doing that."

Mr Tinkler told the ICAC his group of companies was not "politically connected" and he had no knowledge of payments his company Boardwalk Resources made via an intermediary to state Liberal candidates Tim Owen and Bart Bassett before the 2011 election.

The inquiry has heard that Mr Owen, a former member for Newcastle, received $35,000 from the company and Mr Bassett, who holds the western Sydney seat of Londonderry, received $18,000.

But Mr Tinkler said he believed the $53,000 had gone to the federal Liberal Party.

Buildev, a property development company in which Mr Tinkler is the majority shareholder, allegedly made donations to Liberal MPs before the election in breach of NSW laws banning donations from developers. The same restrictions do not apply to the federal party.

"Buildev is not me," Mr Tinkler said. "I'm not a property developer. That's not what I do."

He said he knew nothing about a text message in which he was allegedly referred to as the "big man" who was going to make a $120,000 donation. 

"One thing that has become apparent to me through this whole inquiry is how many people have used my name ... including Buildev, for their advantage," he said.

"All these people that I don't know, trading on my reputation."

After telling the inquiry he was a "minority shareholder" in Buildev, Mr Tinkler admitted he had a 49 per cent shareholding at the time in question.

He denied he funded an anonymous leaflet campaign against former Newcastle Labor MP Jodi McKay, which contributed to her election loss in 2011. 

"Putting something in someone's letterbox is hardly a big deal," he added. 

Ms McKay has given evidence that Mr Tinkler offered her a "bribe" before the last election and she rejected the offer and reported him to authorities.

Mr Tinkler dismissed the claim as "ridiculous". He said Ms McKay had asked him for his "support" and he believed this meant a donation, although she "never directly asked me for cash".

He rejected suggestions from Mr Watson that this evidence was a lie.

Mr Tinkler agreed he made a $50,000 donation to the Newcastle Alliance, a group than ran an anti-Labor campaign called Fed Up before the last election.

Later on Friday, corrupt former Labor minister Joe Tripodi denied he improperly did favours for Buildev over its plans for a coal loader in Newcastle.

Asked why he agreed to fly to Newcastle on Buildev's helicopter when he was a humble backbencher with an electorate in Sydney, Mr Tripodi said: "I have a genuine interest in that area of policy. Ports and port reform."

Mr Tripodi will return to the witness box on Monday.

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