Zion Graphics and Hills Banners, two companies at the centre of a story broken by Buzzfeed relating to printing work completed for the NSW Liberal Party, have denied to Australian Printer that they have ever done business with each other.
The Buzzfeed story contends that NSW Liberal MP Alex Hawke has used Zion Graphics, a print management company, to source print work for his electorate, totalling some $500,000, using Castle Hill company Hills Banners to print the jobs.
Zion Graphics is owned by Rudy Limantono, the president of the Bella Vista branch of the Liberal Party.
Buzzfeed then reported on a discrepancy in prices quoted by Hills Banners, and prices charged by Zion Graphics.
A legal letter sent on behalf of Rudy Limantono, addressed to Buzzfeed reporter Alice Workman, and obtained by Australian Printer, notes that, “Our clients have not provided printing jobs to Hills Banners. Our clients have today contacted Hills Banners, who have unsurprisingly confirmed that they have not obtained printing jobs from our clients, but their clients include Xian Graphics which is based in Melbourne. The allegation that our clients provide such jobs to Hills Banners is therefore false and it is beyond belief that you could have made such a fundamental error in your article.
“Our clients have not paid any bribes to Mr Hawke, nor have they politically supported Mr Hawke so as to obtain printing jobs in return for which they charged exorbitant amounts of money and undertake no work. Far from being a bogus printing company that does not own a printer, our clients operate, as you dismissively stated in the body of the article, a print management business – they create printing designs, which when finalised are outsourced to a number of selected printing companies.”
Attached to the legal letter were donor disclosure forms dating back to 2015, totalling $6475 in donations made to the Liberal Party by Rudy Limantono.
Ahmed, a shareholder in Hills Banners, who did not wish to give his surname, says the company specialises in large banners, pull-up banners, and mesh banners, and does not even have the equipment needed to print large runs of brochures.
He says, “I have never met the owner of Zion, and we have never done any work together.
“We have a little digital printer for brochures, not the offset size runs that Zion would have needed.
“We have had Channel 10 and Channel Seven call today. I do not know where Alice from Buzzfeed got her information.
“We have never dealt with Zion, and never even dealt with a company that starts with Z.
“We got a phone call from Buzzfeed, a colleague of mine took the call, I also talked to them. They did bring up Zion Graphics, but we only discussed brochures with them.”
Australian Printer has contacted Alice Workman, who says she is unable to comment.
More to come.
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