Clive Palmer’s Queensland Nickel refinery paid golf course bills
Clive Palmer’s cash-strapped Queensland Nickel was paying bills for up to five of the tycoon’s golf courses and property developments in the months before it collapsed and cost nearly 800 jobs.
Former QN general manager of operations Ian Ferguson yesterday told the Federal Court that cash was channelled out of the refinery and into unrelated Palmer projects.
Mr Ferguson was hand-picked by Mr Palmer in March 2012 as the Townsville refinery’s commercial director and promoted to general manager of operations within weeks, despite admitting he didn’t understand how the refinery’s operations worked for at least a year.
He said Mr Palmer made him swear a “blood oath” that he would focus on the refinery and not real estate, but soon the resources mogul was “bouncing” property development ideas off his old friend, who gave Mr Palmer his first job as a Gold Coast real estate salesman in the 1970s.
The court heard the pair had an “oral agreement” that Mr Ferguson would be paid by QN and be the managing director of operations, but would scope out separate development opportunities such as golf courses and cattle stations.
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