An extensive analysis of the trove of evidence released by the ICAC this week reveals for the first time the panic that consumed key figures in the scandal engulfing NSW Labor. The documents also shed light on how an alleged scheme to circumvent donations laws led to the death of businessman Quanbao ''Leo" Liao. On June 25 last year, the family of Mr Liao contacted Chatswood police expressing concerns about the 69-year-old, who hadn’t answered his phone since the previous day. The police traced his mobile phone to his office, which was 50 metres from the police station, where they found his body on the building’s rooftop. Next to his body were two suicide letters for his wife and another for his wife and daughter, revealing he was involved in “some sort of political donation” in March 2015 and had decided to end his life to preserve his reputation. “My whole life I have worked hard and I hope that everything I've done, I’ve done the best and to protect you and your mother and make your living even better,” Dr Liao wrote to his daughter.

Leo Liao took his own life when he found he was implicated in the scandal. “I would not want you and your mother to become relatives of a criminal.” The police report said Dr Liao’s fragile mental health was “exacerbated” because he was due to give evidence to the ICAC at 2.30pm on the same day his body was found. “Please don't feel sad about my death. I've told you before the fortune teller said I can only live until I am 63. I'm already 69 so I've already won. Kiss,” he wrote to his wife. On September 14, 2016, two days before Ms Murnain sat in Mr Dastyari’s car, the NSW Electoral Commission had sent statutory notices to Dr Liao and others who had falsely claimed to have donated $5000 for a Chinese Friends of Labor dinner held in Sydney’s Chinatown on March 12, 2015.

The scramble to get people to pretend they had donated was to hide the real source of the money - a banned donor who had exceeded the donation cap of $5000 per political party. The money was from billionaire property developer Huang Xiangmo who is alleged to have handed then party boss Jamie Clements the now infamous Aldi shopping bag containing $100,000 in cash. Labor's 2015 fundraising dinner at the Emperor's Garden Restaurant in Chinatown. Pictured are Ernest Wong, second from left; Bill Shorten, third from left; Huang Xiangmo, second from right; and Luke Foley, far right. Labor’s community liaison officer Kenrick Cheah had taken the money home for the night and the following day, April 9, 2015, the cash was deposited into an ALP bank account. But it wasn’t just the straw donors who were in a panic in mid-September 2016 after receiving “please explains” from the electoral commission – a false disclosure can attract a two-year jail term. The ALP had also been slapped with a notice to produce documents. Under the Election Funding, Expenditure and Disclosures Act a person involved in a scheme to circumvent political donation regulations can face 10 years' imprisonment. One of the central figures in this alleged scheme was then MP Ernest Wong, a close associate of Mr Huang’s. Mr Wong, a former Burwood councillor, had filled a casual vacancy in the NSW upper house in early 2013 after Eric Roozendaal resigned and went to work at Mr Huang’s Yuhu Group.

At 6.45 on that Friday evening in September, Ms Murnain met with Mr Wong at the back of Parliament House. She said he was distressed, sweating and speaking quickly. “What the shit?” Ms Murnain blurted out on hearing about Mr Huang’s donation. Loading Within an hour she was distressed and crying as she relayed the predicament while circling Sydney’s CBD in Mr Dastyari’s car. No doubt Mr Dastyari, the former NSW party boss, had pricked up his ears at the mention of Mr Huang’s name as only the previous week he’d lost his frontbench position when it was revealed he’d allowed Mr Huang and another Chinese donor to pay some personal bills. (His fall from grace over his relationship with Mr Huang would come later.) At the end of 2015 the electoral commission’s auditors noticed a number of these donors of $5000 in cash were waiters and waitresses. The auditors were suspicious as to how these people would have the resources to make donations which equated to a third of their annual salary after tax.

The electoral commission investigated. Many of the donors falsely claimed their source of sudden wealth for their $5000 cash donation was “Chinese lucky money,” also known as “red packets,” which are sums of money given by family and friends. NSW Labor's community relations director Kenrick Cheah leaves The NSW Independent Commission Against Corruption. Credit:AAP The initial inquiry identified two crucial witnesses who were both close friends of Mr Wong’s. One was Jonathan Yee, the owner of The Emperor’s Garden restaurant and the person whose family and wait staff had made many of the $5000 donations. Mr Yee had strong links to Labor and was the party's candidate for lord mayor of Sydney in 2012. The second was Kenrick Cheah, who helpfully told investigators about Mr Huang and his bag of cash and handing it to Mr Clements. Both Mr Cheah and Mr Yee were offered immunity from prosecution by the electoral commission if they helped. They refused.