What we know so far about the investigation into Jean Nassif
The Independent Commission Against Corruption is investigating allegations that illegal property developer Jean Nassif colluded with political power brokers to install local councilors who allegedly supported the developer’s interests in Sydney.
The allegations were sparked by the Hills Shire Council takeover by the NSW Liberals in a right-wing branch stacking operation that saw moderates, including the mayor, abandoned in 2021.
The corruption allegations have been denied by leading Liberals, including former party heavyweight Christian Ellis and Charles and Jean-Claude Perrottet, brothers of then-prime minister Dominic Perrottet.
But other councils were soon hit by attempted bribery and allegations that Nassif had made secret recordings of politicians to blackmail them.
Nassif’s company, Toplace, collapsed in 2023, leaving defrauded homeowners, unpaid creditors, and scores more. shoddily built apartment complexes followed in its wake. Nassif, who denied any wrongdoing, fled to Lebanon.
The exact scope and extent of the ICAC investigation has long been debated but was revealed on Wednesday.
real estate mogul
Nassif has been building his construction empire around Sydney since he founded Toplace in the 1990s, but he first came to public attention in 2019 thanks to a bright yellow Lamborghini.
In a viral video shared on social media and widely parodied, Nassif’s wife, Nisserine, was presented with a $480,000 vehicle as a gift, while the developer said, “Congratulations, Mrs. Nassif – did you like it?” He was seen saying.
Behind the developer’s ostentatious display of personal wealth, cracks were emerging in the Nassif brand.
He pleaded guilty to cocaine possession in 2019 after he was caught entering Star City Casino with the drug, but no conviction was recorded.
He allegedly provided 10 kilos of drug ice and encrypted phones to drug couriers in 2021, according to court documents.
A warrant for Nassif’s arrest in connection with the alleged bank fraud was issued in June 2023, but at that time he was already abroad in rural Lebanon.
ICAC said it would investigate whether political donations were made by or on behalf of Nassif and Toplace in exchange for “pursuing consequences” including damaging the political career of former Liberal minister David Elliott and the sacking of then-building commissioner David Chandler.
political operators
A group of Liberal Party members calling themselves Reformers attempted to branch out in 2018 to advance the party’s right wing at the expense of moderates.
Their funding sources were not transparent, but they allegedly used a database of “No” voters in the same-sex marriage referendum to recruit potential members and held events with speakers including Tony Abbott and Alan Jones.
Liberal moderate Kellyville MP Ray Williams used parliamentary privilege in 2022 to claim Nassif paid “significant sums of money” to Reformist Christian Ellis, then a lobbyist who listed Toplace as a client, and others to build support for the developers’ plans.
Williams suggested a branch stacking operation in Sydney’s Hills council district, in which six moderates were sacked and replaced with councilors from the Right, may have been funded by cash from Nassif.
The upper house inquiry in NSW failed to get to the bottom of the allegations, in part because several key witnesses, including Ellis, refused to appear and testify.
One of the witnesses at the inquest, businessman Frits Mare, revealed that Ellis had approached him asking for $50,000 to depose federal MP Alex Hawke; Mare said he immediately rejected the offer.
The ICAC said it would investigate whether Ellis, Jeremy Greenwood, Robert Assaf and Jean-Claude Perrottet solicited or accepted political donations in amounts that were undeclared and exceeded ceiling limits, including from banned donors. He will also research Charles Perrottet.
Powerful school boss
One of the big surprises of Wednesday’s ICAC announcement was that it would investigate Catholic Schools NSW chief executive Dallas McInerney as part of Operation Rosny.
McInerney is a powerful figure in the state’s education sector and has occasionally been discussed as a potential candidate for the Liberal Party in various elections.
The ICAC said it would investigate whether NSW Catholic Schools made undeclared political donations in amounts exceeding the donation limit to help recruit or renew Liberal Party members. ICAC claims the payments were “arranged and approved” by McInerney.
faulty towers
While the reformers were making their moves, Toplace’s empire was beginning to collapse.
Serious defects, including cracked concrete and water leaks, were detected at the company’s Skyview complex in the Hills and the Surroundings complex in Canterbury.
In Parramatta, Toplace’s massive Macquarie Towers project has stalled after inspectors found it was dug three times deeper than permitted and was not waterproof.
The company had suffered losses of at least $152 million from defective construction work, and authorities revoked its construction permit in July 2023.
Toplace was appointed into administration and investigators investigating the company’s finances found “interrelated company loans, creditors and payments from Bankstown to Beirut”.
Strathfield councilors
ICAC is also quietly investigating the role of Strathfield Labor councilors Sharangan Maheswaran and Karen Pensabene in the saga.
The corruption watchdog’s public hearings are expected to hear evidence about whether the pair engaged in conduct “involving a dishonest or partial discharge of their official functions and/or a breach of public trust” towards fellow Strathfield councilor Matthew Blackmore.
The ICAC said this included conduct that could involve blackmail and possible breaches of the Surveillance Devices Act.
Maheswaran is a lawyer acting on behalf of Toplace and Nassif. reporter He revealed that his phone and laptop were confiscated at Sydney Airport in March 2023. The seizure comes just days after dramatic police raids on Nassif’s home and office in Sydney.
“I am stunned that police now claim the power to seize personal electronic devices when no crime has been committed,” he said. reporter In that case. “We hope to resolve this matter in an appropriate court.”
In April 2021, Maheswaran and another Toplace executive, David Krepp, met with then-building commissioner David Chandler and his staff over Toplace’s problems with regulators.
Chandler told a parliamentary hearing the following year that he had read an email Toplace claimed to have received, which he called a “concussion”.
The email suggested that if Toplace paid $5 million into a trust account, they could “remove the building’s custodian from Skyview.”
Chandler told parliament: “I don’t know what substance abuse they might have used to suddenly believe this could work…”
Maheswaran was elected to Strathfield City Council in December 2021 and has continued to advise Nassif since then. He is no longer on the council.
Pensabene, a former Strathfield Citizen of the Year and one-time mayor, remains on the council. He is also chairman of the Strathfield branch of the Labor Party.
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Ben Cubby is an investigative reporter for The Sydney Morning Herald.Connect with: X or email.
