Clive Palmer claims legal win to plead ASIC case
Royalties billionaire Clive Palmer has set the scene for more legal fights over a Federal investigation and charges linked to allegedly dodgy dealings more than a decade ago.
Mr Palmer's legal team won the go-ahead to promptly front three Federal Court appeal judges as the Queenslander tries to revive a scuttled abuse of power action against former Australian Securities and Investments Commission commissioner James Shipton.
On another legal front, Queensland's Supreme Court has passed to its Federal counterparts an attempt by Mr Palmer to scuttle charges over the allegedly unlawful diversion of $12 million to his political campaign in 2013.
While the Queensland court this week rejected the lion's share of Mr Palmer's appeal aimed at killing charges laid in 2020, it ruled the Federal Court should determine questions related to a Brisbane magistrate's handling of Corporations Act allegations.
Hotly-contested charges laid in 2018 and 2020 as a result of ASIC investigations continue to grind through the Queensland legal system after Mr Palmer last year failed to scuttle them in the High Court.
In addition to various appeals, Mr Palmer and his operating company Palmer Leisure last year launched a Federal Court civil action blaming Mr Shipton for alleged misconduct related to the 2018 charges.
ASIC allegedly was improperly influenced as its officers investigated reports that Palmer Leisure failed in 2013 to proceed with a promised takeover for a company that operated time shares in Mr Palmer's Coolum Resort.
Mr Shipton was the ASIC commissioner from January 2018 to late 2020.
Federal Court judge Stewart Anderson threw out the misfeasance case against Mr Shipton in March this year after finding the Palmer allegations were drawn from inferences, assertions and speculation.
Ruling on Tuesday that Mr Palmer and Palmer Leisure be given an accelerated appeal process, Justice Craig Colvin said the cases against Mr Shipton may well lack the necessary evidence.
But the allegations 'impugned the conduct of the most senior officer of the regulator at the time', he said.
Justice Colvin said it was likely more efficient for the leave application and any appeal be heard together.
Mr Palmer would normally have to front a single Federal Court judge seeking leave to appeal against Justice Anderson's judgment.
Under the special processes decided by Justice Colvin, three judges will hear Mr Palmer's leave to appeal application and then rule on the substance of any appeal they allowed to proceed.
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