“He took a bag out of his boot and gave it to me. He said, this is for your help on Treacy Street. I was surprised. I said ‘why?’ And he said “just take it.”
Badalati said he had later called Hindi and said, “Philip gave me money for Treacy Street.”
He said in his test that Hindi had admitted “finally” that he also received cash from Uy.
“My belief at the time was that it was Wensheng Liu’s money,” Badalati said.
Badalati told the investigation that Uy met him and Hindi in a Rhodes park on another occasion in 2016 and had given them $ 100,000 in cash each.
“He opened his boot and gave us two bags each. [He said] “Thank you for your assistance in Landmark.”
“It simply came to our notice then. A month later, the council was put in administration.
The three councilors were part of the former Hurstville council before merging with the former Kogarah council in 2016. Sansom, a Labor councilor who became an independent, was not re-elected to the merged Georges River Council. Badalati, a Labor councilor, and Hindi, a Liberal, won seats on the new council they held until 2021.
The hearing was said that the ICAC would closely examine the circumstance of a trip that the Badalati, Hindi and Hindi woman – a real estate agent – made to China with Uy in April 2016 and that she paid the expenses. of travel counselors.
“The trip is important because it came just one week before Mr. Hindi and Mr. Badalati, along with Mr. Sansom, voted on both the developments of Treacy Street and Landmark Square at a council meeting on April 20.” Heger told the consultation in his initial communications. .
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In his opening remarks, Heger said that at least since 2007, Badalati and Sansom had met with Uy in China or Hong Kong quite regularly, and that they spent their weekends together “eating, drinking, doing karaoke “.
“Mr. Sansom has described them as’ boys’ weekends, ‘” Heger said.
“This fact alone raises a potential conflict, given that as of 2014, Mr. Sansom and Mr. Badalati were considering the urbanization of Treacy Street as councilors, but did not declare any conflict of interest in relation to with these promotions “.
The investigation continues before Commissioner Stephen Rushton.
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