One of the 12 listed cash donors at a Chinese Friends of Labor dinner has admitted he lied about donating to the NSW ALP at the event and falsified forms declaring his mother had also given money.
Valentine Yee returned to the Independent Commission Against Corruption on Monday after being given the weekend to speak with counsel and reconsider the "utterly hard to believe" answers he gave last Thursday.
He admitted $25,000 worth of donations were not given by himself, his mother and the family business as he had previously claimed, but came from banned Chinese property developer Huang Xiangmo.
Mr Yee and his mother each purportedly gave $5000 to NSW Labor at the 2015 dinner, which raised $100,000 cash, all of which is alleged to have come from Mr Huang.
His mother May Ho was also said to have given $5,000 to Country Labor, while the family business - the Emperor's Garden restaurant in Chinatown - gave two $5,000 donations.
Mr Yee said on Thursday he and his mother had obtained the combined $15,000 through "lucky money" gifts at the previous month's Chinese New Year, and donated to support brother Jonathan's political ambitions.
However, on Monday, Mr Yee, who is the restaurant's chief financial officer, admitted he, his mother and the business had been listed as event donors at the behest of Jonathan, the CFL convenor, who was closely connected to former NSW MP Ernest Wong.
The money had, in fact, come from Mr Huang, according to Mr Yee, who also said Jonathan was friends with the banished billionaire.
Mr Huang was prohibited from making donations to NSW political parties.
"In light of what you've told us this morning, you obviously accept that much of what you told this commission on Thursday was a lie, correct?" counsel assisting the commission Scott Robertson asked Mr Yee.
"Yes, sir," Mr Yee responded.
Mr Yee said his mother had been stressed since Thursday's hearing and couldn't sleep, and had mentioned self-harm.
The Yee family had on Sunday met in a private room at Emperor's Garden, where he said they agreed to be truthful with authorities.
"We had a family meeting and I thought, this thing, it's not going to ... I think it's best for everybody to tell the truth," Mr Yee said.
"My father was more relieved we decided to go down this track."
He also admitted he had falsified his mother's electoral commission disclosure form for her $5000 donations for NSW Labor and Country Labor, copying and pasting from his own document.
On Thursday, Mr Yee was reminded by Mr Robertson that lying or providing misleading evidence to ICAC was punishable by up to five years jail.
He said at the time that he and his mother had coincidentally provided the exact same disclosure, almost down to the letter, to the electoral commission.
"It's more of a family thing, supporting family ... I understand I've broken a law here, I can totally understand that," Mr Yee told the inquiry on Monday.
"But I guess him being a family member of ours, the Yee family ... family in the tradition of the Chinese is quite important."
Despite recanting much of his previous evidence, Mr Yee insisted he had attended the CFL dinner but couldn't remember the table where he sat.
He admitted his previous testimony that he and his parents gave their cash donations to Jonathan at an event table was false.
May Ho will appear at the inquiry on Tuesday.
Australian Associated Press
