Craig Thomson MP has had two supporters set up a trust fund to pay his legal bills it was announced today. He alludes the supporters did it independently of him which is not believable at all. There is a fair chance that the trust fund announcement is in response to the article I posted a week ago (21/4/13) in relation to the Transport Workers Union setting up a slush fund to pay his legal bills. (Click here to read the post)
Craig Thomson follows the twitter account for this site and has for at least a few weeks if not months, when he started I am not sure. You can check here @Kangaroo_Court click on the followers button on the left and go down about 50 followers as of today. He might have un-followed by the time you check but the screen grab of my Twitter account below which I took today shows it where it says “@DobellThommo FOLLOWS YOU”
The trust account set-up was reported on the SMH website today which said:
“A fund has been established to allow supporters to chip in to help pay Craig Thomson’s mounting legal fees.”
“In a letter headed ‘‘Craig Thomson Legal Defence Fund’’ the embattled former Labor MP has now urged friends to contribute to an account established by two of his supporters.”
And “Mr Thomson said he was aware that “two retired guys” had established the trust fund and he was “very, very grateful”.
‘‘They are two private people they are not trade union officials nor are they Labor Party officials,’’ he said.
“Asked whether they were former ALP branch members, Mr Thomson said he would not comment” (Click here to read more)
The trust account raises more questions than it answers. When I wrote the previous post about the TWU setting up a slush fund to pay his legal bills it left Mr Thomson with a major headache. Other media possibly started asking questions about how he was paying his legal bills and if they hadn’t started asking questions what if they did in the future.
Answer? Set up the trust account were money can be funnelled into by anyone and everyone including unions with no one knowing and if the media ask who is paying his bills the answer is easy. It is being paid by the trust fund Craig Thomson will tell the media to conceal the fact that the Transport Workers Union are paying the bills.
The trust account still leaves many unanswered questions such as: Mr Thomson has already been billed $50,000 by his lawyer but it is unknown if it has been paid and if it has who by?
And Mr Thomson has been aware for a number of months that he was in for a large legal bill. So what was his plan to pay the legal bills before the two white knights came along with the trust account?
And here are some questions raised in the comment section of the previous post by H.W.S that still need to be addressed which was prior to the trust fund announcement:
A wise solicitor would have any guarantee that his or her potential fees would be paid in writing backed up with a lawfully enforceable agreement and with some tangible security backing it up. Promises are fairies breaking wind.
Counsel appearing would normally look to the solicitor for fees, subject to some personal arrangement.
Defalcation after the election may well be suspected/expected if the lawyers’ security is not cast in stone.
When sleeping with dogs, beware of fleas!
If there are such written/oral guarantee/s then the guarantor’s potential liability may (?) be classed as an asset in the hands of the person taking the benefit of the guarantee.
If there are such arrangements known to legal reps, then to suggest to the court otherwise or not fully disclose could be a problem. Matter for the lawyers! (Click here to read the previous post)
Were the lawyers waiting for the trust fund to be set up to be guaranteed payment? I do not think so! So many questions so few answers.
I do not know for a fact that the trust fund is a response to my previous post but it seems likely to me for the reasons above. This site is followed by Labor Party and Liberal Party politicians and also Craig Thomson which the above shows. He had to take some action and soon, before too many people started asking too many questions about who was paying his legal bills. But like I said the trust fund raises more questions than it answers and hopefully others will keep asking the questions about where the money is really coming from to pay his legal bills.
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