Daily Advertiser, July 16, 2013
Just who are Humphrey Xu and Lydia Zhang ?
Mr Xu is the company’s director, while Ms Zhang currently holds the title of general manager at ACA Capital Investments and was previously a director as recently as three years ago.
Curiously, Mr Xu is purported to never hand out business cards to people he deals with, as part of his efforts to keep out of the spotlight.
Deputy mayor Andrew Negline, who has extensive experience doing business in the Asian landscape, describes this as unusual practice among Asian business circles.
“When an Asian businessperson doesn’t hand out a business card, they are holding you with discontent,” he said.
Ms Zhang is the point of call for what little public contact ACA Capital Investments chooses to make.
“Lydia (Zhang) is the fall guy,” Councillor Negline said.
“She takes the hits – she can say things with no accountability.”
Both Mr Xu and Ms Zhang split their time between ACA Capital Investments’ offices in Sydney and China and have been doing business in Australia for more than 20 years.
Prior to being elected to council last year, Julian McLaren had dealt with Ms Zhang on a number of occasions.
He believes, given the amount of time the pair have spent in Australia, they should be well aware of the commercial landscape.
“There is no doubt in China that business is transacted in a very different manner to how it is in Australia,” he said.
“Given Lydia and Humphrey are residents of Australia they should be very aware of our rules, regulations and processes.”
Cr McLaren claims to no longer be in contact with Ms Zhang now that he is a sitting councillor.
But most Wagga councillors have never been introduced to either Mr Xu or Ms Zhang, who have dealt mainly with director-level staff at council.
It’s believed that the bulk of official communications between ACA Capital Investments and Wagga City Council regarding the trade centre have gone through council commercial and economic development director Peter Adams.
Mayor Rod Kendall has told The Daily Advertiser that he has had limited dealings with the ACA Capital Investments duo outside of signing documents requiring his approval.
Despite this, it is believed Ms Zhang has attempted to cultivate a relationship with at least one Wagga councillor behind the scenes and she is in regular contact with Member for Wagga Daryl Maguire.
Mr Maguire, currently in China, is steadfastly refusing to comment on any aspect of the trade centre deal until its development application is finalised.
Cr Kendall has often talked about the “good for Wagga” test in relation to the trade centre project.
But does council continuing to negotiate with these two individuals pass muster?
The Daily Advertiser put this question to Cr Kendall, but he declined to comment.
Cr Negline believes the duo have no respect for the people of Wagga and its council.
“During this process we’ve been treated like country bumpkins,” he said.
Introducing Humphrey Xu A.K.A Harry Xu A.K.A Jian Xu
http://www.mailtimes.com.au/story/1445395/alp-donor-guilty-of-sham-marriage-migration-fraud/
ALP donor guilty of sham marriage and Migration Fraud
By Richard Baker, Philip Dorling, Nick McKenzie
A Chinese businesswoman who has been a generous Labor Party donor and long-time benefactor of influential federal MP Joel Fitzgibbon engaged in a sham marriage and swore false statutory declarations to obtain permanent Australian residency.
Fairfax Media has uncovered evidence of Helen Liu's migration fraud despite the Immigration Department aborting its own probe into the matter without conducting a thorough investigation or interviewing key witnesses. The federal opposition is now demanding to know why the Department of Immigration and Citizenship failed to conduct a proper investigation after its immigration spokesman, Scott Morrison, referred the case of ''a possible act of migration fraud'' involving Ms Liu and others to the department's secretary last year.
Fairfax Media has spoken to key players involved in the sham marriages that occurred more than 20 years ago - none of whom was contacted by Immigration - and obtained documentary evidence to show that Ms Liu obtained permanent residency after she and her then Chinese boyfriend and business partner, Harry Xu, married two young Australians in a bogus arrangement that fooled immigration officials.
The revelation comes at an awkward time for Labor, which has made immigration an even bigger election issue through Prime Minister Julia Gillard's comments on the 457 visa system for foreign workers.
Ms Liu and her companies have donated thousands of dollars to the ALP's NSW branch and paid for two trips to China for Mr Fitzgibbon in 2002 and 2005, which the then opposition MP failed to declare. Ms Liu is also close to Foreign Affairs Minister Bob Carr and his wife, Helena.
It can be revealed that the two Australians who married the Chinese pair, David Shultz and Grace Clague, did so on the basis that they believed they would be at risk of persecution if they returned home.
Mr Shultz and Ms Clague, who were about 20 and 18 at the time, had two of their three children together during the period they were supposedly married to the Chinese pair, who were several years older. The supposed couples never consummated their marriages or lived under the same roof.
Contrary to Ms Clague's statement that she was told the Chinese couple were at risk of persecution, Ms Liu has regularly returned to China to do business with top politicians, received millions of dollars in loans from the Bank of China and swore in a Federal Court affidavit in 1997 that her father was a ''ranking official'' in the Chinese government and many other of her relatives occupied ''high-level positions in the Chinese government''.
Ms Clague, who is the daughter of Aboriginal activist Joyce Clague and Colin Clague, who was an ALP candidate in the 2011 NSW election, said she and Mr Shultz were ''young, naive and stupid'' when they agreed to marry the Chinese couple.
Ms Clague said she and Mr Shultz had become friends with the couple after being introduced through a man who worked for an immigration consultant. ''They seemed honest, caring people and I believed their lives were at stake,'' Ms Clague said.
''I saw their love, I wanted to be part of it and share it … the final decision was made when I was told their lives were at stake.''
More than two years after the marriages, believed to have taken place in 1989 or 1990, Ms Liu received permanent residency after signing two statutory
declarations stating she was in a long-term and genuine spousal relationship with an Australian.
The marriages and residency applications were overseen by migration agents later de-registered for improper conduct.
Making false declarations to the Commonwealth and entering sham marriages for migration purposes are criminal offences that can result in a custodial sentence or substantial fines.
Despite Mr Morrison's referring the matter to Immigration Department secretary Martin Bowles, immigration officials closed the file last year, claiming there was ''insufficient evidence'' to proceed.
Documents released under freedom-of-information laws show senior Immigration Department officials regarded the case as politically ''highly sensitive'' because of Ms Liu's association with Mr Fitzgibbon, a former defence minister who was last year chief government whip.
Mr Morrison said he would again write to Mr Bowles to seek an explanation on his department's failure properly to investigate the fraud allegations.
''The investigation of possible migration fraud should not be subject to any sort of political censorship,'' he said on Friday.
In response to questions, an immigration spokeswoman said the department took ''allegations of fraud seriously''.
Ms Liu and Mr Xu used their permanent residency to obtain Australian citizenship and build a property empire worth $40 million by the mid-1990s, when their personal and business relationship soured.
Ms Liu also cultivated several useful contacts in the NSW ALP, most notably Mr Fitzgibbon, his father, former federal MP Eric Fitzgibbon, and Senator Carr, who was then premier.
She rose to prominence in March 2009 after revelations of her substantial financial support of the ALP and the Fitzgibbon family.
Ms Liu helped fund Joel Fitzgibbon's first federal election campaign in 1996.
The Immigration Department has refused on privacy grounds to release any documents under freedom of information that record its handling of Mr Morrison's request for the weddings and residency applications to be investigated.
But in other documents released in response to a separate FOI request, the department has revealed that senior immigration officers described the Liu inquiry as "highly sensitive" in the context of "media attention in regard to her relationship with former defence minister Mr Joel Fitzgibbon and his father Mr Eric Fitzgibbon".
The office of former immigration minister Chris Bowen, a close ally of Mr Fitzgibbon, was briefed on the processing of FOI applications relating to Mr Morrison's request for an investigation.
Ms Liu is engaged in litigation against Fairfax Media with the aim of forcing the disclosure of confidential sources that provided information about her business dealings and association with Joel Fitzgibbon.
New claims over Fitzgibbons' trip
ASSOCIATES of controversial businesswoman Helen Liu claim Chinese intelligence services asked them to cultivate a relationship with Defence Minister Joel Fitzgibbon and his father after they were flown first-class to China in 1993.
Sources with close ties to the company that paid for the Fitzgibbons' trip also allege that Chinese agents had electronically monitored the pair on their visit to Shandong province.
It was on this trip that Mr Fitzgibbon, who was then a NSW ALP official, and Eric Fitzgibbon, then a federal MP, first met Chinese-born Helen Liu, who has since become what the Defence Minister has described as "a very close" family friend.
Sources intimately familiar with the details of the 1993 trip allege Chinese intelligence services eavesdropped on the private conversations of Eric Fitzgibbon, who as a serving Australian MP had attracted their interest.
According to the sources, Chinese intelligence officials expressed interest in the Fitzgibbons' preparedness to accept benefits from Mr Xu and Ms Liu, and encouraged them to continue to develop their relationship with the Fitzgibbon family back in Australia.
Mr Xu was first introduced to Eric Fitzgibbon through a NSW business acquaintance in the early 1990s. Sources claim he boosted Mr Xu's credentials as the businessman sought to negotiate a major property development in China.
After one meeting on the trip, where it is claimed Eric Fitzgibbon told Chinese businessmen that Mr Xu was "as big as Kerry Packer" in Australia, the then MP allegedly asked his benefactor, "Are you happy with that?"
Eric Fitzgibbon yesterday said he had never likened Mr Xu to Mr Packer and maintained he had "done no paid work" for Mr Xu or Ms Liu. He said he last saw Mr Xu about 18 months ago at a banquet at the Chinese embassy in Canberra.
When asked about the 1993 trip, Joel Fitzgibbon said in March this year that he went in a private capacity and that his father "was invited to turn the first sod at a tourist development in China".
Both Mr Fitzgibbon and Eric Fitzgibbon deny receiving $US20,000 for their services on the all-expenses-paid 1993 trip. Eric Fitzgibbon declared the trip in the House of Representatives register of members' interests.
In late 1995, Diamond Hill International subsequently contributed $20,000 to Mr Fitzgibbon's election campaign for the February 1996 federal election. At the time, the donation was declared by the NSW Labor Party as a donation to a "party unit" with no direct reference to Mr Fitzgibbon.
Sometime in 1996 the personal and business relationship between Mr Xu and Ms Liu broke apart and she took control of several joint companies including Diamond Hill International, Wincopy and Vision Wise Holdings.
Mr Fitzgibbon's office has confirmed that he assisted Ms Liu in obtaining legal advice in the late 1990s.
Wincopy, under Ms Liu's control, subsequently donated $20,000 to Joel Fitzgibbon's 1998 re-election campaign. Her companies gave a further $50,000 to the NSW ALP between 2001 and 2007.
Mr Fitzgibbon has been living in a Canberra townhouse owned by Ms Liu's family.
She also gave him an expensive suit, which he later returned because, his office said, he would have had to declare the gift to Parliament.
Mr Fitzgibbon put his ministerial career in jeopardy after it was discovered earlier this year that he had failed to declare Ms Liu had paid for two trips to China he had made when he was an opposition frontbencher in 2002 and 2005.
Ms Liu, who is now living in China, has denied ever being involved in spying.
ASIO released a statement in March saying it had "no information relating to Ms Helen Liu which would have given rise to any security concern regarding her activities or associations".
Sources with close ties to the company that paid for the Fitzgibbons' trip also allege that Chinese agents had electronically monitored the pair on their visit to Shandong province.
It was on this trip that Mr Fitzgibbon, who was then a NSW ALP official, and Eric Fitzgibbon, then a federal MP, first met Chinese-born Helen Liu, who has since become what the Defence Minister has described as "a very close" family friend.
Sources intimately familiar with the details of the 1993 trip allege Chinese intelligence services eavesdropped on the private conversations of Eric Fitzgibbon, who as a serving Australian MP had attracted their interest.
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The sources, who are close to Ms Liu's then business partner, property developer Humphrey Xu, confirmed the trip was organised and paid for by Mr Xu through his company Diamond Hill International.According to the sources, Chinese intelligence officials expressed interest in the Fitzgibbons' preparedness to accept benefits from Mr Xu and Ms Liu, and encouraged them to continue to develop their relationship with the Fitzgibbon family back in Australia.
Mr Xu was first introduced to Eric Fitzgibbon through a NSW business acquaintance in the early 1990s. Sources claim he boosted Mr Xu's credentials as the businessman sought to negotiate a major property development in China.
After one meeting on the trip, where it is claimed Eric Fitzgibbon told Chinese businessmen that Mr Xu was "as big as Kerry Packer" in Australia, the then MP allegedly asked his benefactor, "Are you happy with that?"
Eric Fitzgibbon yesterday said he had never likened Mr Xu to Mr Packer and maintained he had "done no paid work" for Mr Xu or Ms Liu. He said he last saw Mr Xu about 18 months ago at a banquet at the Chinese embassy in Canberra.
When asked about the 1993 trip, Joel Fitzgibbon said in March this year that he went in a private capacity and that his father "was invited to turn the first sod at a tourist development in China".
Both Mr Fitzgibbon and Eric Fitzgibbon deny receiving $US20,000 for their services on the all-expenses-paid 1993 trip. Eric Fitzgibbon declared the trip in the House of Representatives register of members' interests.
In late 1995, Diamond Hill International subsequently contributed $20,000 to Mr Fitzgibbon's election campaign for the February 1996 federal election. At the time, the donation was declared by the NSW Labor Party as a donation to a "party unit" with no direct reference to Mr Fitzgibbon.
Sometime in 1996 the personal and business relationship between Mr Xu and Ms Liu broke apart and she took control of several joint companies including Diamond Hill International, Wincopy and Vision Wise Holdings.
Mr Fitzgibbon's office has confirmed that he assisted Ms Liu in obtaining legal advice in the late 1990s.
Wincopy, under Ms Liu's control, subsequently donated $20,000 to Joel Fitzgibbon's 1998 re-election campaign. Her companies gave a further $50,000 to the NSW ALP between 2001 and 2007.
Mr Fitzgibbon has been living in a Canberra townhouse owned by Ms Liu's family.
She also gave him an expensive suit, which he later returned because, his office said, he would have had to declare the gift to Parliament.
Mr Fitzgibbon put his ministerial career in jeopardy after it was discovered earlier this year that he had failed to declare Ms Liu had paid for two trips to China he had made when he was an opposition frontbencher in 2002 and 2005.
Ms Liu, who is now living in China, has denied ever being involved in spying.
ASIO released a statement in March saying it had "no information relating to Ms Helen Liu which would have given rise to any security concern regarding her activities or associations".
Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/national/new-claims-over-fitzgibbons-trip-20090529-bqb5.html#ixzz2ZBYnnXfX
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