https://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/national/clive-palmer-shrugs-off-criminal...

COLOURFUL businessman Clive Palmer has shrugged off criminal charges and joined a group of family and friends on another luxury cruise around the Mediterranean.

Mr Palmer, his wife Anna, their two young daughters, and other relatives have spent the past seven days cruising around Italy, France and Spain on the giant ship Norwegian Epic.

Mr Palmer’s Bulgarian father-in-law Alexander Sokolov also joined them on the cruise, but there was no sign of Mr Palmer’s runaway nephew Clive Mensink, who left Australia in 2016 when the Palmer-owned Queensland Nickel refinery went bust, throwing almost 800 people out of work.

Mr Mensink’s son Ryan, who worked at Queensland Nickel for four years, and his partner Amanda Schunemann were among the group enjoying the luxury holiday with Mr Palmer, shopping, sightseeing, and eating out at up-market destinations around western Europe.

The Norwegian Epic, which was one of the largest cruise ships in the world when it was launched eight years ago, and features a water-slide, several pools, and enormous staterooms for its most valued guests, departed Civitavecchia, the port nearest the Italian capital of Rome, on May 2.

It spent the next seven days travelling to Livorno in Italy, Cannes in France and the island of Palma de Majorca, before returning to Rome via Barcelona in Spain and Naples in Italy.

Cruises on the Norwegian Epic, a floating mini-city run by 1700 staff, cost up to $3500 for seven days.

Ms Schunemann posted updates on her Instagram and Facebook pages, noting the group had flown business class on Vietnam Airways, and stayed at a luxury hotel in Rome with sweeping views of the city before boarding the giant ship, along with 4100 other passengers.

News Corp saw Mr Sokolov and an unidentified older woman head out from the vessel for a daytrip in Barcelona on Sunday, May 6, while Mrs Palmer, her two young daughters and several associates also left about lunchtime, travelling separately from Mr Sokolov

It’s possible his wife, and Anna’s mother, Stilyana Sokolov, accompanied her family on the trip.

Mrs Palmer and her associates returned to the ship 10 minutes before the gates closed, loaded up with bags of shopping.

On Monday, May 8, the ship arrived in the southern Italy port city of Naples, where the entire group headed out for a daytrip early in the morning.

They climbed into a grey minibus and went to Sorrento, a stunning Italian coastal town. Mr Palmer was wearing his trademark white trousers, pink shirt, and a baseball cap bearing the word Cannes.

The group arrived back at the ship about 5pm with several purchases, including a new suitcase that Mr Palmer was wheeling as they made their way through the Naples cruise ship terminal.

The family also spent 24 days cruising around the Mediterranean last year, as Mr Palmer faced numerous questions in the Federal Court over the collapse of Queensland Nickel, the Townsville-based refinery he owned, and which Mr Mensink was the sole director.

At the time he was fiercely criticised for heading off on such an extravagant holiday just a month after appearing in court with a vomit bag and claiming he was seriously ill.

Liquidators are probing whether money was diverted from Queensland Nickel to prop up Mr Palmer’s now-failed political party, the Palmer United Party. The company collapsed under the weight of $300 million in debt and taxpayers forked out to cover workers’ entitlements.

Mr Palmer did not answer calls or respond to text messages from News Corp.

As his business empire comes under close scrutiny, Mr Palmer was last month charged by the corporate regulator ASIC with one count of aiding, abetting, counselling or procuring the commission of an offence by another person.

The charge alleged Mr Palmer announced a proposal in 2012 to buy shares of another company that owned properties in his troubled resort at Coolum, but failed to follow through with his proposal within two months, as required by law.

His company Palmer Leisure Coolum Pty Ltd has also been charged with proposing or announcing a bid then failing to make an offer within two months.

He has denied any wrongdoing and dismissed the charges as baseless, politically-motivated, and doomed to fail.

In separate proceedings, two warrants have been issued for Mr Mensink, Queensland’s Nickel sole director, to answer questions about company’s collapse, but authorities are unable to force him back from overseas because he is not facing criminal charges.

News Corp tracked him down in the Bulgarian capital of Sofia in February, where he lives with glamorous Bulgarian girlfriend Gabriela Konstantinova, and continues to receive a wage of $4000 a week from one of Mr Palmer’s companies.



the whole bloody family is CORRUPT...