The former director of Queensland Nickel is in hot water over revelations that his company, which is now in voluntary administration and understood to owe $70-$80 million to creditors, bankrolled his political party to the tune of more than $20 million.

In January this year, the company sacked 237 workers, who have gone without $16 million in redundancy entitlements. The fate of the remaining 500 workers remains under a cloud.

Yet Mr Palmer boasted on ABC's Lateline on Wednesday night, that his former workers received "55 Mercedes-Benz" and "13000 overseas holidays" when times were good.

"We've kept nearly 2,500 people employed for nine years and we still haven't gone into liquidation ... all that should be applauded really."

After resigning as a director of Queensland Nickel in April 2014, Mr Palmer briefly became a director again in January 2015.

Under a grilling by interviewer Tony Jones, Mr Palmer argued that his company was in a healthy position when he made the donations, and it was within his rights to use his own "dividend" to donate to the party.

"This is a private company, 100 per cent owned by me, with no bank debt. Rather than me take a dividend in 2013, the money was donated to PUP ... it wouldn't have been there anyway.

"I had a dividend that was due to me as an investor. I decided not to take it and to put ... the money into PUP.

"Now, at that time, the company was paying $25 million a year in Carbon Tax ... it was in their [investors'] interests to support a party that would abolish the Carbon Tax."

Mr Palmer said he could not recall paying his party nearly $6 million when he was director in 2015, but claimed that it would not have been a problem if he had indeed made the donation, as the company was not showing signs of instability at that stage.

"In September 2015, when the audited accounts were signed, the projection for the company was a $73 million surplus for this year. Then the nickel price declined rapidly. I thought things would be OK when the nickel price was $4.50 ... but its gone down to $3.80 ... I don't control the international nickel price".

Reports suggest that Mr Palmer used the alias "Terry Smith" to continue running his troubled company while insisting publicly that he was staying at "arm's length" due to his parliamentary duties.

A company executive named "Terry Smith" had been sending emails approving capital purchases by the firm.

FTI Consulting is investigating whether Mr Palmer was a "shadow director" of Queensland Nickel.

Questioned about the alias, Mr Palmer denied that "Terry Smith" was a pseudonym, claiming it was not unusual for him to use different email addresses.

"I've been sending hundreds of emails all over the place every day, Tony. I log into airports, I use other people's emails but that's fine. What's the point? I'm saying to you I've approved expenditure ... that's one of my roles ... and I've done that by e-mail. There's no denying that. I've said that. What's the problem?"

Mr Palmer has previously argued that he was not personally responsible for paying out the entitlements of Queensland Nickel workers, as he had stepped down as the company's director.