Former NSW MP Ernest Wong has told an anti-corruption inquiry he didn't sell the head table at a Labor fundraiser to Chinese billionaire Huang Xiangmo for $100,000.
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Mr Wong on Friday also denied lying to the Independent Commission Against Corruption in Sydney.
ICAC is examining whether Mr Huang, who is now banned from Australia, was the true source of $100,000 said to be donated by 12 people from a 2015 Chinese Friends of Labor dinner.
As a property developer, Mr Huang was prohibited by law from making donations to NSW political parties.
Mr Wong, who was the patron of CFL, on Friday denied telling anyone the head table with then federal and state leaders Bill Shorten and Luke Foley had been taken for $100,000.
The former upper house MP then accepted, after being presented with an email, that he'd told someone the table had "been taken for $100k" - but said he just didn't want the email recipient to take the table.
"I did not sell seats on the head table," he said.
Mr Wong accepted he'd prepared a budget in connection with the event that suggested the income received from the head table would be $100,000.
The inquiry has heard Mr Huang sat at the table with Mr Shorten and Mr Foley.
There's no suggestion the party leaders had any involvement in the conduct under investigation.
Counsel assisting the inquiry Scott Robertson on Friday asked Mr Wong if it was his "serious evidence" that he allocated five seats on the head table with the Labor leaders and "didn't receive a cent from this generous donor".
Mr Wong said it was and then denied Mr Robertson's subsequent suggestion he was giving false evidence.
"I want to suggest to you, that that is false evidence you've given to this commission, and in point of fact you did sell the head table, you sold it to Mr Huang and you sold it for a sum like $100,000 - do you accept that or not?"
"No," the former Labor MP replied.
At one stage Mr Wong was shown an email from Jonathan Yee, who helped organise the event, which said the head table had a target of $10,000 per person and Mr Wong was responsible for that table.
Mr Wong said the email followed a meeting conducted in "in Chinese or Cantonese" and "Jonathan Yee can't write Chinese at all".
The inquiry previously heard Mr Wong told NSW Labor's then-general secretary Kaila Murnain in September 2016 that Mr Huang had donated to the state party.
Ms Murnain said Mr Wong was "distressed and agitated" when he told her a person who said they had donated money to the ALP hadn't and the money had, in fact, come from Mr Huang.
She said she couldn't remember the donation amount but connected it to the money raised at the 2015 CFL dinner at the centre of the ICAC inquiry.
Ms Murnain was suspended from the top job on Wednesday after her first day of public ICAC evidence.
Mr Wong is expected to continue his evidence before the inquiry on Monday.
Australian Associated Press
