Watchdog ‘spent millions’ as billionaire fined $10,000
Abe Maddison |
A marathon legal battle sparked after Clive Palmer’s dinosaur-inspired takeover of a championship golf course and resort has ended with a $10,000 fine.
The Queensland District Court convicted Palmer Leisure Coolum and fined it $10,000 for breaching takeover laws during an acquisition of a Sunshine Coast resort.
The mining magnate Mr Palmer bought the five-star 324-room Hyatt Regency Coolum, on 150 hectares and with a two-kilometre beachfront, for a reported $80 million in July 2011.
The resort lost its hosting of the Australian PGA Golf Championship but Mr Palmer would bring in more than 160 life-size dinosaurs and an exotic car museum.
In 2012, Mr Palmer’s company committed offences while proposing to buy out a group of timeshare investors in the resort called The President’s Club.
A spokesperson for Palmer Leisure Coolum said that it had taken more than 10 years for the matter to be finalised.
Mr Palmer’s mining company Mineralogy would pay the $10,000 fine, he said.
“The legal fees on this matter have cost the Federal Government millions of taxpayers dollars,” he said.
In April 2012, Palmer’s company lodged a bidder’s statement with ASIC that proposed a bid for all of the timeshare group’s shares and the corresponding villa interests.
The Corporations Act requires that offers for the securities under a takeover bid must be made within two months after the public proposal of the takeover bid.
No offer was made to the group’s members within this period.
The company was subsequently charged, along with Mr Palmer, who was accused of aiding, abetting, counselling or procuring the company to commit the offence.
Palmer and his company applied in April 2018 for the charges to be permanently stayed, signalling the start of the long court battle.
In 2020, the matter reached the High Court, which refused to intervene.
The resort pleaded guilty in June 2026 and on Tuesday, the company was fined $10,000.
The charges carry a maximum penalty of two years’ imprisonment and fine of $11,000 for an individual, and fines of $55,000 for a corporation.
The charge against Mr Palmer was adjourned until November 2.
AAP