by Ganesh Sahathevan
Despite the Top Group , Sydney City School Of Law license trading, pump and dump scandal including even the PwC scandal , the National Anti Corruption Commission headed by former NSW judge Paul Brererton seem unconcerned.
Meanwhile, Top Group continues to enjoy access to Commonwealth Government funding, and its Sydney City School Of Law, to produce law graduates who qualify for admission to practise before the NSW Supreme Court, in which Brererton served as a judge.
The matter of Top Group and its Sydney City School Of Law has been in the public domain for more than 7 years. The NACC and Brererton should not need a referral to commence investigation.
TO BE READ WITH
Wednesday, June 14, 2023
PwC scandal extends to Top Education Group's pump and dump IPO - ABC says PwC and PwC partners acquired pre-IPO shares, while PwC was advising TEQSA : Top's IPO relied on the TEQSA and NSW LPAB approvals
by Ganesh Sahathevan
Top Group's IPO was a classic pump and dump
Linton Besser and Echo Hui of ABC Investigation reported this morning:
PricewaterhouseCoopers began work on a top-level consulting contract with the federal government's regulator of tertiary colleges 24 hours before agreeing to acquire a $5.5 million stake in one such college, the controversial Top Education Group.
In addition, eight senior partners of PwC — including two who oversaw the firm while it misused confidential Treasury data, prompting a global crisis — personally invested another $2.5 million in the company a year later.
The investments in 2016 and 2017, totalling $8 million, were made in the run-up to the May 2018 float of the company on the Hong Kong securities exchange. PwC's former chief executive Tom Seymour sat on Top Education Group's board until last year.
Despite this significant shareholding in the college, PwC continued to take on consulting work for the Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency (TEQSA), even though Top Education Group was directly impacted by TEQSA's regulatory decisions.
The ABC Investigations revelation add to the evidence that the Top Group IPO was a case of license trading that involved a classic pump and dump (see story below), enabled by the NSW LPAB and TEQSA. Top Group's IPO relied on the TEQSA and NSW LPAB approvals, dislcosed prominently in the IPO prospectus.
Top's share price has never recivered, and keeps testing new lows.
To Be Read With
Monday, March 20, 2023
HK listed Top Group's IPO was a classic case of license trading, and questions remain about any contributions to the NSW Liberals political fund - NSW AG Mark Speakman who issued the license remains silent
by Ganesh Sahathevan
Mark Speakman
The Top Group IPO was a classic pump and dump, and it was based on the license to award law degrees granted by NSW Attorney General Meak Speakman and his NSW Legal Profession Admission Board. Much has transpired to complicate matters since the IPO and the collapse in share price and market capitalisation, but the Speakman remains silent.
In Hong Kong and other Asian markets there will be questions raised and an investigation intot he pump and dump and political funding, but in Australia there has been nothing of that sort. Of course, Speakman is also the minister in charge of the state corruption agency, and is part of the panel that determines who heads it.
TO BE READ WITH
Sunday, September 15, 2019
Top Group IPO a classic case of license trading: Post IPO spike & collapse in market cap raises obvious questions about any political party beneficiaries ,but Peter Hall & ICAC not interested
The graph above shows the movements in Zhu Minshen's Top Group's share price since its IPO and listing on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.
It is easy to see that there was an initial spike after which share price and market capitalisation collapsed.
Anyone familiar with Asian markets will see that the Top Group listing and movement in share price follows the well trodden path of companies that list as soon as hard to get approvals are obtained and then sold via an IPO. In the case of Top Group the relevant approval was the "first and only" license to grant Australian law degrees granted a private company, granted by the NSW Legal Profession Admission Board,after consultation with the Law Council Australia.
It has already been shown on this blog that the granting of that license coincided with donations from Top and Zhu to the NSW Liberal Party. Consequently a inquiry into who the beneficiaries of the IPO were seems a logical step for an inquiry into political donations in NSW, but not it seems for Peter Hall QC and ICAC.
See
Peter Hall QC and ICAC have been provided information about Top Group by Dr Amen Lee, but ICAC will still not call Zhu Minshen
AND
TOP Education Institute's Bachelor of Laws : Political donations,HK Stock Exchange IPO seem to have left regulators confounded, speechless
Friday, May 26, 2023
Former NSW Speaker has become director of penny stock company that has lost 90 % of IPO high -Jonathan O'Dea appointment as non-executive director of the Communist Party China linked Top Education Group Ltd a reflection of former ICAC head Peter Hall's incompetence in investigating political donations
by Ganesh Sahathevan
The former Speaker Of The NSW Legislative Assembly Jonathan O'Dea has been appointed non-executive director of the Communist Party China linked Top Education Group Ltd. His choice of post political employment is intriguing , for Top Group has lost over 90 % of its market capitalisation since its listing in 2018.
Top Group continues to be a source of scandal due in part to the incompetence of former ICAC chief Peter Hall. Hall refused to call Top Group's founder , principal and major shareholder Zhu Minshen in the course of his investigation into political donations by the Communist Party Of China, despite the evidence before him that clearly linked Top Group to that scandal.
To Be Read With
Monday, May 22, 2023
Former Speaker Of The NSW Legislative Assembly Jonathan O'Dea appointed non-executive director of the Communist Party China linked Top Education Group Ltd -Another NSW Liberal link to the scandal plagued Top Education Group
by Ganesh Sahathevan
Liberal MP Jonathan O'Dea at an ACETCA event.
The former Speaker Of The NSW Legislative Assembly Jonathan O'Dea has been appointed non-executive director of the Communist Party China linked Top Education Group Ltd.
O'Dea was Liberal member for Davidson, and an ally of Gladys Berejiklian. Top Group received approval from the NSW LPAB to award law degrees around the time Top and its founder Zhu Minshen donated AUD 44 275 to the NSW Liberal Party. That apporval was renewed under the watch of former NSW Attorney General Mark Speakman, who is the crurrent leader of the NSW Liberals,and Leader Of The Opposition.
Monday, March 20, 2023
HK listed Top Group's IPO was a classic case of license trading, and questions remain about any contributions to the NSW Liberals political fund - NSW AG Mark Speakman who issued the license remains silent
by Ganesh Sahathevan
Mark Speakman
The Top Group IPO was a classic pump and dump, and it was based on the license to award law degrees granted by NSW Attorney General Meak Speakman and his NSW Legal Profession Admission Board. Much has transpired to complicate matters since the IPO and the collapse in share price and market capitalisation, but the Speakman remains silent.
In Hong Kong and other Asian markets there will be questions raised and an investigation intot he pump and dump and political funding, but in Australia there has been nothing of that sort. Of course, Speakman is also the minister in charge of the state corruption agency, and is part of the panel that determines who heads it.
TO BE READ WITH
Sunday, September 15, 2019
Top Group IPO a classic case of license trading: Post IPO spike & collapse in market cap raises obvious questions about any political party beneficiaries ,but Peter Hall & ICAC not interested
The graph above shows the movements in Zhu Minshen's Top Group's share price since its IPO and listing on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.
It is easy to see that there was an initial spike after which share price and market capitalisation collapsed.
Anyone familiar with Asian markets will see that the Top Group listing and movement in share price follows the well trodden path of companies that list as soon as hard to get approvals are obtained and then sold via an IPO. In the case of Top Group the relevant approval was the "first and only" license to grant Australian law degrees granted a private company, granted by the NSW Legal Profession Admission Board,after consultation with the Law Council Australia.
It has already been shown on this blog that the granting of that license coincided with donations from Top and Zhu to the NSW Liberal Party. Consequently a inquiry into who the beneficiaries of the IPO were seems a logical step for an inquiry into political donations in NSW, but not it seems for Peter Hall QC and ICAC.
See
Peter Hall QC and ICAC have been provided information about Top Group by Dr Amen Lee, but ICAC will still not call Zhu Minshen
AND
TOP Education Institute's Bachelor of Laws : Political donations,HK Stock Exchange IPO seem to have left regulators confounded, speechless
Thursday, December 22, 2022
Amen Lee, ICAC witness, is now chairman of Top Education Group Ltd, licensed by the NSW LPAB to grant law degrees in NSW
by Ganesh Sahathevan
Amen Lee, ICAC witness, is now chairman of Top Education Group Ltd, which is licensed by the NSW LPAB to grant law degrees in NSW.
TO BE READ WITH
Wednesday, October 30, 2019
Amen Lee is part of Top Education Group's Controlling Shareholder Group: Fresh questions for NSW LPAB,AG Speakman ,and NSW Libs over issuance of Top's LLB license and political donations ; Peter Hall's position at ICAC increasingly untenable
In his current inquiry into Chinese donations to the Labor Party ,ICAC Commissioner Peter
Hall QC(picture above) seems reluctant to go anywhere near the matter of Zhu Minshen and his Top Group,whose
donations to the NSW Liberal Party may have consequences for Hall's former colleagues at the NSW Bar and Bench who manage the Legal Profession Admission Board, the body that has provided Zhu the status of a law school vice chancellor.
While Liberal Party donor Zhu Minshen has been, this far, the focus of attention with regards Top Education Group and its license to issue LLB degrees, f Dr Amen Lee, former Executive Chairman of the Australia China Trade, Economic and Cultural Association's (ACETCA), appears to have had an equal even if less prominent role in the matter.
In August this year Amen Lee told ICAC:
"If I do attend these (fundraising) events they are paid for by Top Education or ACETCA. I have not and would not attend as an individual," Dr Lee said. Top Education is a company of which Dr Lee said he was a director and shareholder.
The above suggests that there is some overlap between Top Group and ACETCA.
All of the above raises many questions as to who else supported Top's introduction into state and federal political ,and legal circles.
Wednesday, December 21, 2022
Corruption in issuance of NSW coal mining licenses inevitable, but issuance of a "first and only" license to grant law degrees to a Communist Party China linked entity perfectly normal -NSW ICAC
by Ganesh Sahathevan
Nine and others reported in 2013:
Then in 2018 former ICAC chief David Ipp was reported to have said:
David Ipp, QC, formerly a judge of the Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC), believes the New South Wales Government’s mining licence approval process is at risk of corruption, particularly given its handling of the Ridgelands coal mine renewal in the state’s Upper Hunter region.
“When a government goes to the trouble of creating an elaborate procedure for the granting of mining tenements and doesn’t respect its own laws it’s a recipe for corruption,” he told NSW paper Newcastle Herald.
“There is little point in creating this elaborate process if the government doesn’t comply and respect its own procedures. It becomes an illusion.”
On 20 December 2022. former NSW Labor mining minister Ian Macdonald faces a fresh prison sentence after being found guilty of misconduct in public office for bypassing a competitive process to give a lucrative coal licence.
Meanwhile NSW ICAC has remained silent about the issuance, and then renewal of a license to grant law degrees to the Communist Party China linked Zhu Minshen (recently deceased) and his Top Education Group. Zhu described it as the "first and only" license to issue law degrees granted a private company that is not a university. The license was renewed even after Zhu's involvement in the Sam Dastiyari scandal led to Dastiyari's resignation from the Senate.
TO BE READ WITH
Sunday, January 24, 2021
Zhu Minshen's law school has approval of TEQSA, the NSW LPAB (chaired by NSW Chief Justice Bathurst),but not certified by the Council Of Australian Law Deans -Inconsistency raises questions afresh about professional standards at the NSW LPAB, TEQSA and Law Council Australia
by Ganesh Sahathevan
From left to right: Prof Eugene Clark, Hon George Brandis, Dr Minshen Zhu
In "Silent Invasion" Professor Clive Hamilton describes how Zhu Minshen and his Top Education Institute(and other Chinese entities) interfere in Australian politics.The section on Zhu and Top begins :
"Few people noticed, but the fishy smell around Zhu Minshen's Top Education Institute was noticeable a few years before it began wafting from the front pages of the newspaper (such as the AFR in 2013)".
In 2012 the NSW Legal Profession Admission Board , a statutory body chaired by the Chief Justice NSW and under the purview of the Attorney General NSW ,began the process that led to Zhu and his Top Group being granted the "first and only" license to issue law degrees granted a private company that is not a university.
The notoriety that Zhu and Top Group had gained since 2013,and especially in 2016 seems to have been ignored in the process of evaluating Zhu's application, despite the very high standards of probity the LPAB ,the Chief Justice and the AG profess for anyone seeking admission to practice in NSW.
It has also been reported by this writer that
Zhu Minshen's new Chinese website says the Law Council of Australia "officially approved" Top Education Institute's application to issue law degrees
Now it has been discovered that Zhu Misnhen's Top Education Group Law School, also known as the Sydney City School Of Law, is not certified by the Council Of Australian Law Deans and its Australian Law Schools Standards Committee.
The Australian Law Schools Standards Committee (ALSSC) is established under Standard 12 of the Australian Law School Standards. The ALSSC’s functions are to:
consider and determine applications from law schools for certification as compliant with the Standards; and keep the Standards under review and to propose to CALD amendments from time to time.
The ALSSC is comprised of eight committee members from both within and outside the law school sector.
A list of the Australian Law Schools that are certified as at 9 March 2020 is available here.
https://cald.asn.au/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/Certified-Law-Schools-as-at-9-Mar-2020.pdf
Readers can see for themselves from the PDF link above that Zhu Misnhen's Top Education law school is not among those listed as being certified by the CALD.
That Zhu Minshen's law school has been approved by TEQSA, the NSW LPAB which is chaired by NSW Chief Justice Bathurst),but not certified by the Council Of Australian Law Deans is an inconsistency that raises questions afresh about professional standards at the NSW LPAB, TEQSA and Law Council Australia.
END
Thursday, September 29, 2022
Only public hearings of a Federal ICAC can uncover misconduct at quasi-judicial bodies such as the NSW LPAB, and the anomalies in its business with the Communist Party China linked Zhu Minshen and his Top Education Group
by Ganesh Sahathevan
While debate continues about the extent to which the proposed Federal ICAC's inquiries ought be public, the mystery that continues to surround the apparent misconduct at the NSW Legal Profession Admission Board and the anomalies in its dealings with the Communist Party China linked Zhu Minshen and his Top Education Group serve to provide a useful case study for the argument that the inquiries ought to be public.
The NSW LPAB is a quasi-judicial body which is chaired by the Chief Justice Of NSW. As detailed in the story below, the secrecy that it is afforded given its status allowed it to grant Zhu Minshen favours never granted any other individual and private entity. In this case the favours were granted despite Zhu's Communist Party China ties, and the political donation scandal that he was embroiled in.
TO BE READ WITH
Tuesday, January 21, 2020
Did the Law Council Australia and the NSW LPAB ignore ASIO advice in granting Zhu Minshen the right to grant LLB degrees, and entree into Australia's legal system?
AAP reported in November 2019:
In fact, questions about Zhu Minshen were raised by the former Commonwealth Attorney General George Brandis as early as 2016:
Former AG George Brandis raised questions about Zhu Minshen and Top Education Group which remain unanswered, but Zhu and Top are today even more entrenched in the NSW and Australian legal system, thanks to the NSW LPAB and its chairman the CJ NSW, and the AG NSW
Despite all of the above, the Law Council Australia as well as NSW LPAB seem determined to continue supporting Zhu and Top Group:
Zhu Minshen's new Chinese website says the Law Council of Australia "officially approved" Top Education Instituter's application to issue law degrees
The NSW LPAB and Law Council Australia may attempt to deflect questions about all of the above by asserting that they are not required by law to seek the advice of ASIO when determining who may or many not grant law degrees in Australia. If they did, and even if the answer is legally correct, it would demonstrate poor judgment; entree into the legal system is always a matter of national security:
“....perhaps the only accredited degree program in Australia that counts agitating for a foreign power towards its qualifications": Why the Law Soc Australia & NSW LPAB's business with Zhu Minshen is a matter of national security
Retiring ASIO boss issues a chilling warning that China seeks to 'take over' Australia
- Retired ASIO boss Duncan Lewis has warned of Chinese takeover of Australia
- Mr Lewis has claimed Chinese authorities wanted to be in 'position of advantage'
- His comments come after Liberal MPs were denied visas to travel to China
