Fugitive property developer Jean Nassif will not give evidence before an anti-corruption inquiry on Friday after providing a “medical certificate”.
It came as the brother of former premier Dominic Perrottet was grilled over messages claiming he told Mr Nassiff how he could get an MP opposed to his projects “on his knees”.
The NSW Independent Commission Against Corruption is probing allegations Mr Nassif, a prohibited donor, gave money to a conservative and Christian faction within the NSW Liberal Party known as the Reformers to damage the reputation of then-MP David Elliott and former building commissioner David Chandler.
The probe previously heard allegations the Reformers received funds – including from another prohibited donor, hotelier Michael O’Hara, and from Catholic Schools NSW former chief executive Dallas McInerney – to bolster conservative ranks and take over the party writ large through branch stacking.
Mr Nassif had been due to give evidence before the Commission on Friday via video link, having fled to Lebanon in 2022.
However, counsel assisting Peggy Dwyer revealed at the end of evidence on Tuesday afternoon that Mr Nassif had “provided the Commission with a medical certificate”.
“His appearance has now been rescheduled for later in the public inquiry.
“An announcement as to when will be made in due course after following up.”
The postponement comes less than a week after ICAC had announced Mr Nassif would appear
Mr Nassif left for Lebanon in 2022 following multiple scandals, with NSW Police since issuing a warrant for his arrest over allegations of fraud.
His daughter Ashlyn Nassif earlier this year pleaded guilty to falsifying documents in relation to one of Mr Nassif’s developments.
Ms Dwyer also told the Commission Mr Perrottet’s brother Charles Perrottet would return to the witness box on Thursday despite planning on returning to Melbourne.
‘On his knees’
On Monday, Mr Perrottet – who is named in the probe alongside brother Jean-Claude Perrottet – was grilled by Ms Dwyer over differing explanations he had offered ICAC over messages to Mr Nassif, who fled to Lebanon in 2022. Dominic Perrottet is not named in the probe and is not accused of any wrongdoing.
Returning to the witness box on Tuesday morning, Charles Perrottet gave evidence that “one way in which you secured money from Jean for your friends” Reformers Christian Ellis and Jeremy Greenwood “was to suggest to him that you could achieve political outcomes”, Ms Dwyer said.
“I think that’s going a bit too far,” Charles Perrottet replied.
“I would suggest that I gave him updates and (would) suggest things”, adding later the updates were on things “that I knew he (Mr Nassif) would be interested in”.
“I’m not going too far, Mr Perrottet. I’m repeating your words to you from before morning tea,” Ms Dwyer said.
“You knew that one reason they wanted to get you to these meetings was so that Jean Nassif could see that this powerful political broker for the Liberal Party was at the meetings.”
Charles Perrottet replied “That would be a question for Jeremy (Greenwood).”
Mr Perrottet was also grilled over a May 2021 dinner with Mr Nassif at Nobu in Melbourne.
In a subsequent message, he told an employee of Mr Nassif’s Toplace, Labor Strathfield councillor Sharangan Maheswaran – who is named in ICAC probe – that he “told Jean that the best way to get the Building Commissioner off his back is to take the fight to (David) Elliot and dismantle his infrastructure”.
“If we can get 189 and Garth Oon payments,” he continued, referring to Toplace developments, “we can take Para(matta), Hills, Cumberland councils and the seat of Castle Hill.”
“He (Mr Elliot) will be completely isolated … he’ll be on his knees,” he said.
Mr Perrottet repeatedly claimed that he “lied” to Mr Nassif.
Asked about what he had told him at the Nobu dinner about “getting rid” of Mr Chandler, he told the Commission: “I may have humoured him.”
Later, Ms Dwyer put to Mr Perrottet: “That when you spoke to Jean Nassif, you were telling him about political outcomes that you were trying to achieve for him and for yourself?”
Mr Perrotter replied: “No, not for him.”
However, Mr Perrottet denied knowledge of $150,000 from Mr Nassif to Beckington when shown messages which Ms Dwyer claimed was him “thanking (Mr Nassif) for his financial support”.
“How does that fit with the evidence you just gave 10 minutes ago where you said that you would tell Jean Nassif some fibs about political outcomes you could achieve for him, so that you could get the money from Beckington?” Ms Dwyer asked.
Mr Perrottet replied: “I don’t understand how the two are related.”
The line of questioning prompted a sharp rebuke from Ms Dwyer.
“Mr Perrottet, I am gobsmacked genuinely by your obfuscation around this,” Ms Dwyer said.
“You had literally given evidence 10, 15 minutes ago that you told Jean Nassif lies to get him to pay money to Beckington.”
The Commission was then shown a call between Jean-Claude Perrottet and Mr Nassif in which the fugitive developer talked of giving “your brother (Charles Perrottet) another $100,000” for preselection, or to Jeremy Greenwood, or Christian Ellis.
“He would have seen Beckington as engaged to undertake advocacy on their behalf for his projects, and I’ve been humouring about the political assistance to getting him paid,” Mr Perrottet said.
‘Civil war’
Charles Perrottet was later shown a message from himself to his brother Jean-Claude and Mr Ellis in which he outlined a strategy for preselection in the electorate of Mitchell that included to “freeze the Baulkham Hills branch in perpetuity”.
“The Reformers were a key part of your strategy to dismantle the centre Right political infrastructure in The Hills?” Ms Dwyer said.
In response, Charles Perrottet said it was “fair and reasonable” to freeze the branch because of an investigation into allegations of impropriety, including that “if they hadn’t fraudulently changed the minutes, the branch would have been a Right branch”.
Ms Dwyer went on to tell the commission Mr Nassif wanted to see The Hills “taken over by the Right”.
Charles Perrottet claimed Mr Nassif “would not sign the statutory declaration on the Mitchell Club unless he was confident that the Right were in the ascendancy”.
Ms Dwyer shot back: “Mr Perrottet, you haven’t got a scrap of evidence to suggest that there was any statutory declaration that was in draft or being planned.
“You haven’t got a scrap of evidence for any of the allegations that you say he was making at that time.”
Charles Perrottet replied: “No, he didn’t sign a stat dec.”
The Mitchell Club, a Liberal Party fundraising body in Alex Hawke’s federal electorate of Mitchell, which takes in The Hills, was allegedly “going around” donation laws, the commission was previously told.
The commission was told on Monday Mr Perrottet had allegedly sought a statutory declaration from Mr Nassif in order to “expose this scheme (the Mitchell Club) of going around electoral funding laws by getting money from property developers for political outcomes”.
Later, Charles Perrottet claimed there was “effectively a civil war in the community” between the Right and the centre Right factions in The Hills.
He was shown a WhatsApp group he created – but did not recall creating – called “Back to Basics”, which included his brothers, Dominic and Jean-Claude, current upper house MLC Damien Tudehope, Christian Ellis, and others.
“Everyone in that group were key supporters of the Right faction,” Ms Dwyer said.
However, Charles Perrottet said he could not recall whether it was established to “get together to see what could be done in respect to recruitment models” and instead suggested it was motivated, in part, to support a single person.
In one message to the group, it was stated: “ … although between us, at times, we’ve had our differences, I’m sure we can put them to one side to try and protect and advance our common interests.”
Wife’s $15,000 fee
Earlier, Mr Perrottet was grilled over an email sent by himself in regard to his wife Anita Perrottet’s “monthly fee of $10,000” to be paid to her company Macquarie Consulting from Beckington, a consulting group founded by Reformer Christian Ellis and associate Robert Assaf.
“The subsequent invoice, after getting that text message from Christian (Ellis), sent by you on July 27, 2021, had her monthly invoice at $15,000,” Ms Dwyer said.
“So, it was $5000 a month, in effect, to reflect the amount you were worth?”
Charles Perrottet replied: “I’m not sure. That’s just the way it was structured.”
He later admitted to “some sort of conversation” about the increase in the monthly invoice.
In her own evidence, Ms Perrottet said she thought the money was “genuinely owed” for a “full year’s work”.
“So, did your wife then lie to the commission last week about the amount that was in fact covering your advice?” Ms Dwyer asked.
Charles Perrottet shot back: “No, as I said to you, I’m not sure how much I disclosed to Anita.”
Later, Ms Dwyer asked: “Did you deliberately hide it from your wife?”
“I wouldn’t say deliberately hide it,” Charles Perrottet replied.
“But, I wanted her to … feel valued.
“She was doing a lot of good work for Jeremy (Greenwood).”
Charles Perrottet said Mr Ellis would “inform Anita and I” about how to structure invoices.
“The conversation I had was with Jeremy in regards to the advice I gave. I’m not sure what conversations Jeremy and Christian had.”
In response, Ms Dwyer told Charles Perrottet, “You remember the exchange we had about lies and how difficult it is to remember them accurately?
“Mr Perrottet, this is literally what you have just said some five or 10 minutes ago … you said Jeremy Greenwood was the one who offered it. And, I said, did Christian Ellis also know about that? And you said he would have known.”
Recalling evidence from Mr Ellis to the commission, in which he said he could not recall “Charles doing consultant work for the company”, Ms Dwyer said “it appears that your friend, Mr Ellis, didn’t want to disclose this arrangement to the commission either”.
“The thing about telling lies involving three other people is that you really need to get them on the same page about the lie that you are telling,” Ms Dwyer said.
“I suggest to you that your friends have not given evidence consistent with the lie you’ve told.”
Charles Perrottet replied: “I don’t accept that.”
“Should the commission expect that when Mr Greenwood gives evidence shortly, he will suddenly have some recall of a financial arrangement to compensate you for that advice?” Ms Dwyer said.
Charles Perrottet replied: “I’m not going to speculate” about what Mr Greenwood will say.”
Pressed on his wife’s work, Mr Perrottet said he didn’t think Beckington paying her $150,000 for a year’s part-time work was a significant amount.
“Value is in the eye of the beholder,” he said.
Charles Perrottet told the commission his wife had held off on sending invoices until a year after work had started “because Beckington had cashflow problems” because of “difficulty extracting money from Jean Nassif”.
However, Ms Dwyer showed Charles Perrottet financial information showing Beckington “had actually been paid a significant monthly retainer” by Mr Nassif’s company Toplace since July 28, 2020.
“So, I can suggest you that there’s no proper basis for your suggestion that they had cashflow problems by July 2019,” Ms Dwyer said.
Charles Perrottet replied: “Well, that’s what Jeremy said to me.”
He said he did not have access to Beckington’s accounts nor would have been aware of their expenses, which Ms Dwyer said was “buying coffee and travelling in their cars”.
“I suggest to you that answer is fabricated, and I suggest to you that it does not make any sense that Mr Greenwood told Anita to hold off sending an invoice until June or July 2021?” Ms Dwyer said.
Charles Perrottet said he disagreed.
Pressed further that he was “devising everything about these invoices and how they would be paid”, Charles Perrottet again disagreed.
“No … Christian informed me,” he said.
The commission was also told of a cheque for $148,500 from Mr Nassif to Beckington.
Earlier, Charles Perrottet was told the revised invoice was sent on the same day a separate cheque was deposited by Mr Nassif’s company Toplace into Beckington’s account for $125,000.
Read related topics:Dominic Perrottet