Ken Talbot never intended to bribe former Queensland government minister Gordon Nuttall, and regretted giving a total of $300,000, according to the mining magnate's legal counsel.

Mr Talbot was one of 11 people who died in the Congo plane crash on Saturday, two months before he was due to attend trial over charges of bribery.

The founder and former CEO of Macarthur Coal left the company in June 2008 in the midst of allegations he bribed Nuttall was serving seven years of imprisonment for corruption.

Accused with paying secret commissions to Nuttall between 2002 and 2005, Mr Talbot was to face the Brisbane District Court on August 30. He had pleaded not guilty to the charges.

On Wednesday his lawyer Glenn Cranny said Talbot had never meant the payments to Nuttall as a bribe.

"Ken was a generous person that he gave this money to assist Mr Nuttall's kids and he had never, ever, ever expected or thought or considered that he would get some form of benefit from Mr Nuttall or the government as a result," the lawyer said.

In an interview with Mr Talbot before his death, the billionaire said the payments to Nuttall resulted from a common aspiration to "look after our kids".

"Look, we sat down one day and Gordon voiced his concern about the need to look after our kids," Mr Talbot said in his interview.

"He said one of his children was going to buy a house and he needed about $200,000."

Mr Talbot said he later asked an associate to give Nuttall the money.

"(The person) came back to me a day or so later and said 'Gordon actually wants $300,000'," Mr Talbot said.

"I thought that was pushing the friendship a bit but then I said OK, give it to him."

He said he would never have approved the payments if he had his time over.
The case against Mr Talbot will be formally dismissed once an official certificate of his death is issued.