Sigh. It’s awful to watch, via the AFR:
Chinese billionaire Huang Xiangmo is set to make a $135 million profit from a Sydney planning decision, after the deputy mayor of a local council failed to declare his $4 million interest in another company owned by the property developer.
Simon Zhou, an independent who holds the swing vote on Ryde Council and is a key supporter of the Labor mayor, has only ever disclosed that he knew Mr Huang as a Chinese community leader.
But The Australian Financial Review can reveal that at the time council agreed to support the redevelopment of Eastwood Plaza, Mr Zhou had a financial connection with Mr Huang.
The council in north-western Sydney, which has seen a surge in Chinese-born residents and complaints about over-development, had previously rejected Yuhu’s proposal.
Just weeks after final planning approval was received in August, Mr Huang’s Yuhu Group was in sale discussions, seeking at least $190 million for the site having purchased it for $55 million in 2013.
Despite sitting on council as an independent, Mr Zhou has strong ties to Labor, having previously worked at its NSW head office, given generously to the party and run as a Senate candidate for the ALP at the 2016 election.
The same Huang Xiangmo that is now banned from entering Australia, who set Bob Carr up in his pro-China think tank, who bribed Sam Dastayari, who left a trail of destruction across the NSW Labor right and who stood behind bag man Ernest Wong.
And, yes, who also met Peter Dutton for a private lunch before being exiled.