A Sydney restaurateur has avoided jail after lying to the state's corruption watchdog to protect his brother.
Valentine Yee, 52, pleaded guilty to two counts of give false/misleading evidence at public inquiry after 2019 Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) hearings into a $100,000 donation to NSW Labor from billionaire property developer Huang Xiangmo.
Yee initially told the ICAC inquiry he had donated $5,000 to Labor using "lucky money", before admitting to signing a false declaration document to help disguise the true origin of the 2015 donation.
He told the corruption watchdog he was "helping my brother, Jonathan", who was at that time the president of Chinese Friends of Labor.
Yee's parents own and operate Chinatown yum cha institution Emperor's Garden, which was mysteriously shuttered earlier this month.
In the NSW Local Court on Wednesday, Judge John Sfinas sentenced Yee to a two-year community corrections order for what he described as two lies to ICAC, the first relating to the false $5,000 donation and the second relating to a $10,000 donation from Emperor's Garden.
The maximum penalty for giving false or misleading evidence to ICAC is five years' imprisonment.
Judge Sfinas said he had taken into account that Yee was remorseful, that the lies were at the lower end of objective seriousness, that he had no criminal history and that the prosecution had been looming over him for one-eighth of his life.
However, he said the conviction itself was serious.
"While you have sought to explain your conduct, it is egregious conduct because it is lying to ICAC … I accept it is your brother you were effectively lying for or with, but when you lie to ICAC it effectively allows for corruption in this state to go uncovered," Judge Sfinas said.
Before Yee's sentencing, defence barrister James Glissan KC submitted that Yee had not been motivated by personal gain but "a misplaced and completely fatuous, frankly, loyalty to his brother".
He said Yee had corrected the record in front of ICAC and was otherwise a man of "significant integrity".
Two other people who lied to ICAC during the investigation code-named Operation Aero have been sentenced this year.
To Yip was sentenced to a two-year community corrections order in July, and Lei Mo was sentenced to nine months in prison to be served as an intensive correction order in April.
Jonathan Yee has been charged with a suite of offences and is yet to enter a plea.
His mother, May Ho Yee, has also been charged with give false/misleading evidence at public inquiry.
The Yee family are veterans of central Sydney's Chinatown. Jonathan and Valentine's father, Stanley Yee, opened the famous Emperor's Garden restaurant in 1979, which has become known for yum cha and takeaway cream puffs.
Stanley Yee is not accused of any wrongdoing.
The bakery and restaurant on Hay Street, Haymarket, closed earlier this month.
The Australian Taxation Office is pursuing the Emperor's Garden company for an alleged tax debt of more than $845,000 with a hearing set down in the Federal Court on Friday.
Emperor's Garden BBQ and Noodles, on nearby Thomas Street, remains open, but its building is listed for auction in September.
Yee declined to comment when leaving Sydney's Downing Centre on Wednesday.
