A forensic audit of billionaire Clive Palmer’s legal bills uncovered “sophisticated altering of the invoices” to steal $30 million from the mining magnate’s company, a court has heard, triggering his long-time solicitor to hand in his practising certificate.
The polarising former federal MP and Trumpet of Patriots chairman alleges Sam Iskander, who had represented Palmer in legal matters as recently as this year through his firm Alexander Law, stole tens of millions of dollars from his mining company Mineralogy between 2016 and July.
The Queensland Law Society confirmed Iskander had surrendered his practising certificate following the accusations being aired, with the long-time solicitor consenting through legal counsel in the Supreme Court on Friday to account freezing and injunctive orders.
Clive Palmer has been politically active in recent years with enormous donations to his campaigns.Credit: Getty Images
This masthead does not suggest the allegations are true, merely that the accusations had been made.
Justice Melanie Hindman outlined details of a forensic audit included in an affidavit when approving the application, describing the allegations as “obviously extremely serious”.
“It seems there’s been some sophisticated altering of the invoices, so to someone receiving the amended invoices there’s nothing on their face that will point out there’s been some sort of doctoring involved,” the judge told the court.
In one supposedly doctored invoice in March, the listed fee for work was listed at $7500, but this was allegedly amended to $20,625.
“A very significant difference in just one item on one account,” she said.
Hindman also referred to another example where, “perhaps more disturbingly”, an invoice originally showed there was no charge for an hour of legal work before being amended to include a fee that was allegedly paid.