What we learnt from ICAC week eight

See what we learnt from Operation Rosny week seven here.

It was the “deep state”, your honour.

Among many wild claims made by disgraced property developer Jean Nassif in his audiovisual appearance at the Independent Commission Against Corruption’s Operation Rosny inquiry this week, he blamed the deep state and corrupt politicians for his downfall.

The self-described Godfather grabbed the headlines in an action-packed week at the inquiry that began with a blackmail claim aired by a former mayor of Strathfield; took a sharp turn into Nassif’s Lebanese bedroom; then back to Strathfield where a key figure in the inquiry – former councillor Sharangan Maheswaran – made his first appearance.

Here are five things we learnt in week eight.

Reality bites

“I am a man of honour,” Nassif thundered over the video link, wagging his finger at counsel assisting Dr Peggy Dwyer, SC, and insisting that any acts of corruption were committed against him by politicians and regulators who sought to scrutinise his crumbling real estate developments.

Nassif accused the commission of not wanting to hear the truth as Dwyer pressed him on payments he had made to “the boys”, a reference to Liberal operatives Jeremy Greenwood and Christian Ellis, whose lobby firm, Beckington, was contracted to do work for Nassif.

His woes were all the fault of former police minister David Elliott and former building commission chief David Chandler, he said.

He warmed to the theme so much that he had to pause transmission to get up and switch on the air-conditioning in his bedroom at one point.

Behind the belligerence and finger-pointing, it’s worth noting that Nassif didn’t dispute a core assertion the inquiry is examining – that he paid Liberal Party operatives to use their influence to, as he put it, “unblock my development”.

The accidental creditor

It emerged on Wednesday that two Liberal Party operatives accused of washing illegal political donations through their companies are listed as creditors wanting to claw back more than $2 million from Nassif, whose company, Toplace, collapsed in 2023 with debts of at least $1 billion.

Counsel assisting Dr Peggy Dwyer, SC, told the commission that Beckington, which ex-Liberal powerbroker Christian Ellis and his business partner Jeremy Greenwood co-founded, and JPG Advisory, Greenwood’s firm, appear as creditors in publicly available documents.

Dwyer said Ellis had claimed that Beckington was owed $1,433,000 by Toplace, and Greenwood’s company JPG Advisory appears as a creditor owed $721,700.

This was apparently news to Greenwood.

“Yeah, I definitely haven’t put in a form, sorry, it might be those outstanding invoices, but I’ve never submitted anything,” Greenwood said.

Computer says no

Real estate agent Mohammad Abedin rocked up to give evidence on Thursday in a natty three-piece suit and a hot-pink tie, but his credibility began to look a little threadbare under questioning.

Abedin denied that former Strathfield councillor Sharangan Maheswaran had written his evidence statement for the ICAC for him, but he was unable to explain why a document titled “Mohammad Abedin statement.docx” had been sent by Maheswaran to the lawyer who witnessed it.

After earlier telling the corruption inquiry he never shared the contents of his ICAC statement with anyone, Abedin suggested he might have shown Maheswaran an earlier “funny” version, and he had used artificial intelligence tool ChatGPT to prepare his final statement.

When counsel assisting Juliet Curtin pointed out that Abedin did not have ChatGPT, the Homebush real estate agent suggested he had used a different phone that included the app while he was overseas in Bangladesh.

He blamed ChatGPT for inconsistencies with his written statement and evidence given in the public hearing.

‘He surveillanced me’

An ex-mayor of Strathfield, Matthew Blackmore, told the inquiry he received blackmail threats from a fellow ex-councillor, Sharangan Maheswaran, who also happened to be an executive with Nassif’s Toplace.

“He had surveillanced [sic] me for five months, and he was going to use that against me,” Blackmore said.

Blackmore was later replaced as mayor by Labor councillor Karen Pensabene, who had been scheduled to appear at the inquiry as a witness but who has been excused due to ill health.

It also emerged that Maheswaran did not declare his close association with property developer Nassif when nominating for council in 2021.

Counsel assisting Peggy Dwyer, SC, told Maheswaran the commission had records suggesting he was paid $926,177 from Nassif’s company, Toplace, between July 2020 and March 2023, but Maheswaran disagreed.

“I thought it was higher than that,” he said.

Meet the new boss

Maheswaran said he raised concerns with Nassif about the contract with Beckington but Nassif had said he was keeping the contract only to be closer to their “boss”.

Maheswaran said he understood the term “boss” to be a reference to Charles Perrottet, an ex-Liberal Party powerbroker, brother of former premier Dominic and an executive at BP.

The ICAC is investigating allegations that Perrottet shared in $2 million promised by Nassif in exchange for the promise of certain political outcomes.

Maheswaran described a meeting he had at a CBD restaurant with Greenwood, Perrottet and Ellis when the men discussed going into a hospitality business venture using the money Beckington was paid from Toplace.

He said he had an assumption that Perrottet had an expectation of being paid, and there may have been a mention of a referral fee, but he couldn’t recall exactly how he believed this.

More to come …

Paul Keating’s famous parliamentary put-down – “I want to do you slowly” – might well be applied to the inquiry’s approach to cross-examination if next week’s witness list is anything to go by.

Maheswaran is set to challenge current titleholder Jeremy Greenwood for most appearances as an Operation Rosny witness. The former Strathfield councillor and Toplace executive is slated for another full day’s appearance on Monday, followed by further stints in the witness box on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday.

The only other witness listed for next week is private investigator Shane De Kauwe, who was allegedly engaged by Maheswaran to undertake surveillance work. He is to appear at the inquiry on Tuesday.

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