Labor officials accused of attempting to convince witnesses to lie about disguised political donations may be a risk of interfering with evidence, a court has heard.
Former NSW Labor MP Ernest Wong and restaurant manager Jonathan Yee have been accused of carrying out a scheme to circumvent political donations laws during now-premier Chris Minns's campaign for the seat of Kogarah ahead of the 2015 state election.
They have been charged with knowingly giving false evidence to the NSW corruption watchdog, and procuring false testimony from witnesses of its investigation.
As the men sought bail at Downing Centre Local Court on Tuesday, a letter written by Wong and given to the wife of a witness was read to the room.
"If asked about the donation, you can't remember it clearly," the English translation said.
"As it was a matter from four years ago, you can say you've forgotten most of the stuff."
Wong's lawyer maintained translations should be taken as interpretations of meaning, not word-for-word and said there was "nothing that says 'you should give false evidence'".
But Judge Greg Grogin said strong bail conditions remained necessary.
"There are unacceptable risks of failing to appear and interfering with witnesses because of the nature of offences before the court," he said.
The pair have been ordered to surrender their passports and not approach or communicate with prosecution witnesses, though there are some exemptions for relatives.
Meanwhile, the premier has not been accused of any wrongdoing and maintained he had taken appropriate steps since the allegations were revealed.
"When I was made aware of it by the ICAC, I contacted the electoral commission, we made ourselves available for any interviews and we returned the money," Mr Minns told ABC radio on Tuesday.
"I've certainly done nothing wrong as it relates to these donations."
The allegations were spotlighted during a 2019 investigation by the Independent Commission Against Corruption, which eventually found Wong had concealed an illegal $100,000 donation and then tried to have fake donors lie about it.
In a deal with Wong, Yee agreed to procure a group of people to sign forms falsely stating they had each donated $5000 and conceal the true source of the donations, Chinese billionaire property developer Huang Xiangmo, ICAC revealed.
Mr Huang later delivered the cash donation - inside an Aldi shopping bag, according to a witness - to NSW Labor headquarters, the commission found in 2022.
As the ICAC investigation continued, Wong told the fake donors to keep telling lies when they were called to give evidence.
But they eventually told the commission they had not been the source of the donations.
Wong and Yee's matters will return to court on August 11.
