Mark “Jack” Johnson laughed off a suggestion funds were “washed” between Gandangara Local Aboriginal Land Council companies.
Mr Johnson, who was chief executive of the land council from 2007 until 2014, was the final witness in a three-week public hearing by the Independent Commission Against Corruption.
The inquiry has probed his employment contracts, including payments made to Mr Johnson's private company Waawidji Pty Ltd.
It has also examined the transfer of funds between the land council and three newly created subsidiary companies.
Transfers included some of the $9.7 million proceeds of the Gandangara Estate stage two housing development at Barden Ridge.
Counsel assisting the commission, Michael Henry SC, put it to Mr Johnson he had authorised the transfer of $5.67 million between the companies from July 2011 to December 2012.
Mr Henry said money was transferred from Gandangara Local Aboriginal Land Council (GLALC) to Gandangara Future Fund (GFF) and within a day was moved to Gandangara Management Services (GMS).
This was a “recurring theme,” Mr Henry said.
“Are you able to explain why any of those funds were being, in effect, washed through GFF?” Mr Henry asked.
Mr Johnson replied, “As in a washing machine?”
“Are we being promoted from Aboriginals to gangsters?” he said.
Are we being promoted from Aboriginals to gangsters
- Jack Johnson
When Mr Henry asked him to explain, he said, “I didn’t really understand the term washing, only apart from what I’ve seen in movies.”
Mr Johnson said he understood the transfers were part of the accounting system of finance manager Shalesh Gundar.
He denied that, as Mr Gundar’s boss, he would have issued instructions.
Mr Johnson said he wasn’t concerned about internal fund transfers, but only on money leaving the land council.
Mr Johnson agreed loan documents did not observe a board direction that funds transferred to GFF or GMS be secured loans at commercial rates.
He said it was a verbal understanding, which they had intended “fixing”, but “we never got to that point”.
Mr Johnson also denied he deliberately ignored a direction from the registrar of the Local Aboriginal Land Council to stop the transfers.
“I didn’t put the two together at that time,” he said.
“I became aware of this error on day two of my examination [in a private examination by the commission].”
Mr Johnson denied this was an untruthful answer.
The hearing will resume on June 16.