A Chinese student organiser and gold trader linked to ALP Senate candidate Simon Zhou used a shell company to donate $45,000 to the Labor party while working for the shadow assistant minister for treasury in last year’s federal election campaign.

Xin “Filip” Shu, then 26, began working casually for Labor’s Matt Thistlethwaite during the election campaign, after finishing stints with several gold traders, including one now known to be involved in a $143m gold-trading tax scandal.

Shu has strong ties to Zhou, the ALP Senate candidate who resigned last week after a Fairfax-ABC investigation exposed his role in the gold-trading operation, his relationship with the Chinese Communist party-aligned donor Huang Xiangmo, and his membership of the pro-Beijing Chinese Council for the Promotion of the Peaceful Reunification of China.

The pair are friends on Facebook, and Shu worked for Zhou at the Australian Gold and Silver Exchange (AGSX), which was named in the administrative appeals tribunal as being involved in the gold-trading scheme.

Guardian Australia can now reveal that Shu, shortly before he began working with Thistlethwaite, created a company called NE Management Group, for which he is the sole director, officeholder and shareholder.

The company’s principal place of business is listed as a $2.1m home in Dural, in the northern suburbs of Sydney.

Land title records reveal the home is owned by Zhou.

A week before the election, NE Management was used to make a $45,000 donation to the federal Labor party.

On the same day as NE Management’s donation, Shu used another of his companies, BFJ Funds, to give $25,000 to the NSW branch of the party.



BFJ is a Sydney-based firm that says it trades in foreign exchange markets, precious metals, oil and stocks, and is 80% owned by Shu and 20% by a Chinese-based businessperson.

Its principal place of business is a residential apartment in inner-Sydney, which Shu also lists as his personal address. No one was present when Guardian Australia visited the unit on Wednesday morning.

It is understood Shu was a non-ongoing casual and only worked about 28 hours in Thistlethwaite’s office. The last time he worked in the office was in August last year.

A spokesman for Thistlethwaite said Shu volunteered to work for the office during the election campaign, and assisted on a limited and casual basis to translate material.

“The normal employment checks were undertaken, and a police check was requested through the Department of Finance,” he said.

That conflicts with Shu’s LinkedIn account, which describes his position with Thistlethwaite’s office as “policy adviser”.



Thistlethwaite had no knowledge of Shu’s company, NE Management, the spokesperson said.

All questions regarding the donations from NE Management and BFJ Funds were referred to NSW Labor.

The Coalition has sought to target Labor over its links to Zhou and the gold-trading scheme.



Last week, it was revealed that four companies linked to Zhou – AGSX, AUGS Markets Pty Ltd, Gold and Silver Exchange Sydney, and AGSX Investables Group – had donated $120,000 to the NSW branch of the Labor party.



The treasurer, Scott Morrison, used question time to allege that “gold-plated fraud” had “wormed its way into the Australian Labor party”.

Shu has also worked as an overseas student organiser for the Australian Chinese Workers Association, a group that has actively campaigned for the Labor party.



Thistlethwaite has had past links with the Australian Chinese Workers Association.

He appeared with the group in August 2013, posing for photos with its members.



The group appears to have volunteered for Thistlethwaite’s campaign in the 2013 election.

Shu was approached for comment multiple times, but did not respond.

Guardian Australia is not suggesting Shu was directly involved in the gold-trading scheme being investigated by the Australian taxation office.

The Labor party has been contacted but has yet to comment.