The 'I Knows Nuffink' defence reaches the height of absurdity during NSW ICAC Operation Spicer hearing

An exchange between junior counsel assisting the NSW Independent Commission Against Corruption Greg O'Mahoney and Queanbeyan property developer Lee Jay Brinkmeyer during an Operation Spicer hearing on 9 September 2014:

O’MAHONEY: Do you appreciate, Mr Brinkmeyer, that as a businessman who is spending company funds that you’ve written a $20,000 cheque to an organisation you know nothing about on the say so of a person whom you only have a mobile phone contact for without knowing precisely where the money’s going to go and having made no inquiries about where the money actually went, is that the effect of your evidence?

BRINKMEYER: Yeah. I mean, when you put that way - - -

O’MAHONEY: That’s it in a nutshell?

BRINKMEYER: When you put it that way it sounds bad but that’s - - -

O’MAHONEY: It sounds more than bad, Mr Brinkmeyer?

BRINKMEYER: That’s correct

O’MAHONEY: It sounds absurd, if you wouldn’t mind me saying?

BRINKMEYER: Well look, when I’ve made other donations in the past whether it - - -

Is PayWave picking your pocket at the checkout?

Tweed Daily News 3 September 2014:

PAYWAVE card payments have improved efficiency at the checkout, but the experience of one South Grafton man suggests you should be vigilant near one of the terminals.

Last week, Don Booth, of South Grafton, was waiting behind another customer at the cash register of a Grafton business.

As he watched the cashier, he noticed she did something different and asked her what happened.

He was shocked to find that instead of billing the customer in front of him, the terminal had picked up the card in his wallet and completed the transaction with his money.

"Because the girl at the checkout noticed it, we were able to fix it up straight away," Mr Booth said.

He said the girl at the checkout told him it was not her first experience of a payWave transaction going wrong.

"She said it happened in Coles to a customer, in the same way it happened to me," Mr Booth said.

Mr Booth said he would be taking extra care to check his next card statement.

Perhaps the rise in credit card fraud NSW Police Coffs Clarence Police Command has recently complained about may also be a result of flaws in wireless near field communication technology.

In October last year Among Tech posted this information on electronic pickpocketing:

The fact that you can use your smartphone to pay at a restaurant or a store is great and with NFC (Near Field Communication) technology you can do just that, but what else? Several months back a report from CBC showed us how easy it is to steal credit card credentials using an App and NFC technology which is integrated in most of the high end Android smartphones, but even after 6 months it is still possible to download one of these Apps and hack someone’s credit card and Google has made no changes to its software in order to make it harder for people to steal someone else’s credit card info.

Apps like SquareLess allow users to see a credit cards number, security code and expiration date which later can be used by hackers to purchase products online without the credit card holder to give them permission to do so. SquareLess is just one of the many apps available on the Play Store that allow you to do just this, which is a very serious issue. A study done by xdadevelopers that any of the following credit cards can be hacked using NFC:

American Express Blue Cards

Barclaycard

Chase Credit Cards

MasterCard PayPass

Visa payWave Cards

So, How can an App and NFC read credit card credentials? NFC technology is also what is used in stores to read our credit card, a credit card will give its information which allows you to make the transaction once it finds a valid payment terminal device but the credit card doesn’t look at what type of terminal device this is (since it doesn’t know this information), it is just interested in finding one. Making the smartphone function like a payment terminal can allow you to “fool” the credit card making it think it is what it is looking for, easily allow the app to read all the necessary credentials. In order to do so, all that is required is for the smartphone with NFC to be approximately 10cm close to the credit card. Here is a video demonstrating just how easy it can be done……

Channel 7 Today Tonight also broadcast an item on this subject in July this year.

Internet websites are now offering RFID-shielding passport holders/wallets/sleeves to prevent remote scanning and skimming of Paywave or touch-and-go-credit cards, although the effectiveness of these products is open to question.

NSW Independent Commission Against Corruption: Has the other shoe dropped for former premier Barry O'Farrell?

Retired as NSW Premier and Minister for Western Sydney effective 17 April 2014 and moved to the back bench after giving false evidence to the NSW Independent Commission Against Corruption, Barry O’Farrell Liberal MP for Kur-ing-gai for is recalled as a witness today.

The Sydney Morning Herald 9 September 2014:

Two weeks before the 2011 election, then opposition leader Barry O'Farrell announced a tax policy that benefited developer Brickworks while the company was allegedly bankrolling a researcher in his office and had secretly donated $125,000 to the Liberal campaign.

As Premier, Mr O'Farrell made good on the policy – to repeal a controversial property transfer tax – six weeks after the election.

The researcher, Matt Crocker, is now director of policy to Premier Mike Baird.
Mr O'Farrell is due to give evidence at the Independent Commission Against Corruption on Tuesday after the commission heard last week that Brickworks secretly funded Mr Crocker's position in his office while he was opposition leader.

Former Liberal fundraiser Paul Nicolaou told the commission that Brickworks paid for a researcher in 2009, 2010 and 2011 at a cost of $50,000 a year……

The ICAC has also heard Brickworks donated $125,000 to the Liberal-linked Free Enterprise Foundation, a federally registered organisation, which was then allegedly channelled back to the NSW Liberals for use in the 2011 state election campaign.

Brickworks is Australia's largest brickmaker but also has a property development arm. Property developers have been banned from donating to state election campaigns in NSW since late 2009.

Mr O'Farrell visited the Horsley Park headquarters of Brickworks subsidiary Austral Bricks on March 12, 2011.

During the visit Mr O'Farrell announced that if Coalition won the March 26 election it would repeal what he called Labor's "sneaky" home buyers tax – a levy on property transfers worth more than $500,000, announced by planning minister Tony Kelly in 2010.

Attending the announcement was a representative of the Property Council of Australia which had railed against the new tax as "a brake on investment" and "effectively ... a second stamp duty".

Six weeks after winning the election, Mr O'Farrell made good on his pledge to repeal the property tax with legislation introduced to the Parliament on May 9.

The repeal bill was introduced to the Legislative Assembly by Mike Baird, who was then the Treasurer and who became Premier in April this year after Mr O'Farrell resigned over giving false evidence to a previous ICAC inquiry…..

Can the Speaker in the House of Representatives deny knowledge of alleged laundered money routed through The Dame Pattie Menzies Liberal Foundation?

According to a report in The Sydney Morning Herald on 8 September 2014, Liberal Party MP for Mackellar and Speaker in the House of Representatives Bronwyn Bishop has been identified in evidence before the Operation Spicer investigation as being a director of the Dame Pattie Menzies Foundation Trust which received $11,000 from the Free Enterprise Foundation on December 9, 2010, which it then directed to the NSW branch of the party for use in the 2011 state election and The previous day, Mr Partridge has sent a cheque for $125,000 to the Free Enterprise Foundation with a note which read: "We trust this donation will provide assistance with the 2011 NSW State election campaign". Additionally, A $2000 donation to the Dame Pattie foundation from Australian Corporate Holdings, a company connected to Sydney property developer and sailor Syd Fischer, was also passed on to the NSW Liberals.

So sure was the foundation that these donations would not be queried that they were included on the relevant disclosure from:

The Dame Pattie Menzies Liberal Foundation Ltd disclosure of political donations and expenditure for the financial year 2010-11

Can Bronwyn Bishop deny all knowledge of this foundation receiving ‘laundered’ developer donations before passing them onto the NSW Liberal Party, when Australian Securities & Investment Commission records reveal that at least three current office bearers of The Dame Pattie Menzies Liberal Foundation Ltd (incorporated in NSW) are being questioned concerning allegations of corruption currently being heard during NSW Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) Operation Spicer hearings:

JOHN PEGG,  9 Bushlands Avenue, GORDON NSW 2072, appointed 15.11.93 appeared before NSW ICAC on 8 September 2014

BRONWYN KATHLEEN BISHOP, 21 Pacific Parade, DEE WHY NSW 2099, appointed 29.08.86

WARWICK JAMES WILKINSON,  6A Parriwi Road, MOSMAN NSW 2088, appointed 29.08.86

GILLIAN STOREY, Werong, YASS NSW 2582, appointed 23.11.92 

CHRISTINE MARGARET LIDDY, 103 Raglan Street, MOSMAN NSW 2088, appointed 20.02.04

DENISE ANNE FINK, Unit 11, 282 Sailors Bay Road, NORTHBRIDGE NSW 2063, appointed 20.02.04

DAMIAN JONES,  853 Barrenjoey Road, PALM BEACH NSW 2108, first appointed 06.01.05

NICHOLAS CAMPBELL, 6 Rhonda Close, WAHROONGA NSW 2076 appointed 13.12.13 appearing before NSW ICAC 9 September 2014

The company secretary since 2008 is:

SIMON JOHN MCINNES 5 Hillpine Avenue, KOGARAH NSW 2217, appeared before NSW ICAC 4 September 2014