Legal dispute with former director Ian Stewart was a director of Paladin Group but left the company in July 2019. In January 2020, Stewart said he would be willing to answer questions at a Senate Inquiry into Paladin. Later in 2020, Mr Stewart sued Paladin Group in South Australia alleging almost $50 million in unpaid wages, and revealed the company had made $1.3 million per week in profit during the Manus contract. Paladin argued that Stewart was entitled to nothing, and alleged the document he relied upon for his claim was a forgery, but failed in a bid to stop the matter from continuing.
Registered office locations In February 2019 the company transferred its Australian office to a building in
Canberra. The Australian Financial Review reported that
Serco,
Broadspectrum,
Spotless Group,
Blue Point Services,
Anitua (PNG-based firm) and
Canstruct (a
Brisbane-based construction firm who later acquired a $591 million contract to manage
Nauru Regional Processing Centre) indicated interest in the contract, but were not allowed to bid.
Removal of Craig Thrupp from contract In April 2019, it was revealed that Craig Thrupp was removed from the contract at the request of the Home Affairs, out of concern about an email account.
Money laundering case Kisokau Powaseu, a former colonel in the Papua New Guinean Defence Force, was detained in
Port Moresby in January 2019 on charges of money laundering relating to his time in the Papua New Guinean Defence Force. He was for a brief period, a local director of the company in Papua New Guinea and no further action has occurred in relation to these charges.
Civil case The company's former chief executive in PNG, Craig Coleman, was suing Paladin in February 2019 claiming breach of contract and that employees were sent to Manus under misleading pretences.
Alleged corruption In February 2019 it was reported that the family of one of PNG's most powerful politicians was directly benefiting from the business of Paladin. Paladin entered into a contract with
Peren Solutions, a company with links to the family of
Job Pomat, deputy leader of the ruling
People's National Congress Party,
speaker of the PNG Parliament, and key ally of
Prime Minister Peter O'Neill. Job Pomat, who was elected Speaker of Parliament in 2017, has denied any links to the firm, a position supported by Paladin which stated that Peren represents the traditional landowners of the site that the Lorengau facility is located at, and that they are under the leadership of Kepo Pomat. Some employees said they were made redundant at Paladin, before being offered the same jobs at Black Swan (a company owned by Paladin), for less money. One warehouse worker in Port Moresby who spoke to the Australian Broadcasting Network said he was making about AUD $1.50 per hour at Paladin, then was made redundant and rehired by Black Swan on $1.45 per hour.
Sexual assault case In April 2019 an Australian Paladin employee was arrested and jailed on Manus Island due to allegations of sexual assault. The employee was a former
G4S employee and had returned to Manus to work for Paladin. The alleged victim is a Paladin employee.
Australian government audit In March 2019, the Auditor General of Australia announced that he was reviewing all Australian Government contracts for the offshore processing of asylum seekers. This followed a request by the
Australian Labor Party for the Auditor to review the Paladin contract. Though, the Auditor General stated that offshore contracts had already been suggested for a performance audit, before Labor's request. In May 2020 the Auditor General's report was released, with the following findings: ==See also==