Anna Katzmann said Huang could only use the money to pay debt to ATO or for living or legal expenses

This article is more than 1 year old

This article is more than 1 year old

A judge will today reveal her reasons for slapping a $140m asset freezing order on controversial businessman and political donor Huang Xiangmo after an application by the Australian taxation office.

At an urgent hearing in Sydney on Monday, federal court judge Anna Katzmann ordered Huang not to dispose of assets worth up to the $140.9m claimed by the ATO, including more than $6m worth of property in Sydney and an apartment in Hong Kong.

The judge said Huang Xiangmo could only use the money to pay his debt to the ATO, or for “ordinary living expenses” of up to $10,000 a week. He is also allowed to pay legal expenses of up to $50,000.

She also ordered Huang’s wife, Huang Jiefang, not to sell a $12.8m mansion in Mosman.

Chinese billionaire property developer Huang Xiangmo. Photograph: Yuhu

The amount claimed by the ATO reportedly represents a tax bill it hit the couple with last week.

Neither was represented in court on Monday. Huang Xiangmo could not be reached and Huang Jiefang did not respond to an email sent to an address provided in Katzmann’s orders.

The orders also reveal that Huang Xiangmo has previously engaged two big four tax partners to work for him, Deloitte’s Spyros Kotsopoulos and KPMG’s Brent Murphy.

There is no suggestion either has done anything wrong.

Katzmann told the ATO to attempt to serve her orders and other court paperwork on Huang by leaving copies at the Sydney offices of Deloitte, KPMG and two law firms, HWL Ebsworth and Unsworth Legal.

On Tuesday, the ATO’s lawyers moved to secure their foothold on the Huangs’ Sydney property portfolio by filing documents with the NSW titles office relating to the Mosman mansion and two pieces of land in Chatswood, a house and a flat, held by Huang Xiangmo, that are together worth about $6.4m.

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The documents were not available from the land titles office yesterday afternoon.

Katzmann will hand down her judgment at 4.30pm today ahead of a case management hearing on Friday morning.

Huang Xiangmo, a Chinese billionaire property developer who arrived in Australia in 2011, assiduously cultivated influence with both sides of Australian politics, donating $2.7m to both Liberal and Labor parties and appearing in photographs with prime ministers and ministers. Labor senator Sam Dastyari was forced to resign from parliament after revelations he had asked Huang for money to pay personal legal bills and warned Huang he was under surveillance.

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Huang’s permanent residency visa was summarily cancelled – and his application for Australian citizenship refused – by the Morrison government last December on character grounds, and after Asio warned political parties against accepting any more money from Huang. Of particular concern was his long-running involvement with the Australian Council for the Promotion of the Peaceful Reunification of China, which has been accused of being a front for Chinese government efforts to expand its global influence.

Despite his exile from Australia, Huang has re-emerged as a key figure in the Independent Commission Against Corruption’s current investigation into Labor party donations this month.

Icac has heard allegations that Huang gave the NSW branch of the ALP $100,000 – personally delivered in cash in an Aldi shopping bag – in breach of electoral regulations which prohibits property developers donating.

From Hong Kong, Huang has denied being the source of the money but has refused to give evidence to Icac.