Nassif erupts at ICAC as inquiry probes alleged political favours scheme

Jean Nassif, the property developer now hiding in Beirut, appeared by video link before the Independent Commission Against Corruption on Monday afternoon to answer questions about his financial arrangements with political figures and consultants. Within hours, the hearing descended into confrontation. Nassif refused to engage with the counsel assisting, Peggy Dwyer SC, when she tried to ask him about a dinner he had attended with Charles Perrottet at Nobu in Melbourne. Instead, he launched into an angry tirade, accusing MP David Elliott and former building commissioner David Chandler of corruption, insisting repeatedly that he was the victim of a corrupt political system. When Dwyer asked him to stay calm, he shot back that she was preventing him from telling the truth, threatening to withdraw entirely from the inquiry if she would not let him speak.

The core allegation Dwyer was attempting to explore involved Nassif's offer of a $1 million bonus to consultants Jeremy Greenwood and Christian Ellis. According to Nassif's own testimony, the money was meant to reward them for developments they could get onto the government's fast-tracked development list—or, as he put it, for "any way they can manage to get through or unblock the politics involved on the top of my projects for the last 15 years." Text messages between Greenwood and Ellis, which Dwyer read aloud, discussed why Perrottet was not prioritizing Nassif's Toplace development "considering what it brings." When confronted with these messages, Nassif insisted he had no knowledge of what Greenwood and Ellis were planning behind the scenes, that he had simply hired a consultant to solve his problems, and that he was not corrupt. He denied paying for political favours and denied that Perrottet was being paid through intermediaries to provide them.

Nassif's appearance marked a dramatic moment in week eight of the inquiry, which has sprawled across multiple corruption allegations involving Liberal Party figures, property developers, and local councillors. The commission is investigating whether illegal donations were made in exchange for political favours, and whether networks of consultants, developers, and politicians worked together to fast-track certain projects through government processes. Nassif's own recorded phone calls, intercepted by authorities, captured him bragging about his influence in state government—conversations he now dismisses as nonsense.

The inquiry has also turned its focus to Strathfield Council, where former mayor Matthew Blackmore faced intense cross-examination about his relationships with developers and allegations that Labor councillors Sharangan Maheswaran and Karen Pensabene engaged in unlawful conduct, including surveillance and potential blackmail, to pressure him into resigning. Blackmore, who worked at a property agency managing properties for another former Strathfield mayor, Antoine Doueihi, had introduced a real estate colleague to developer Charlie Demian. When questioned about whether he had shared information about council votes on Demian's development proposals, Blackmore became defensive, sharply refuting suggestions that he had misremembered conversations. He acknowledged that he had taken a photograph of Maheswaran near his home, with Maheswaran's car parked outside a brothel, and that he had discussed the photograph with his colleague Mohammad Abedin. When asked whether he had suggested to Abedin that he wanted revenge on Maheswaran, Blackmore said he was very upset and angry at the time and would not be surprised if he had made such comments.

Maheswaran, sitting in the hearing room next to his barrister Sebastian De Brennan, challenged Blackmore's account of their meetings. De Brennan suggested that when Blackmore claimed Maheswaran said he had him under surveillance for five months, Maheswaran had actually said he knew of Blackmore's connections to Doueihi and Demian for that period. Blackmore refused to change his evidence, standing by his account of what had been said. He was excused for the day but not released from his summons, meaning the commission could recall him if needed.

The human toll of the alleged corruption network has already become visible. Nassif's daughter, Ashlyn Nassif, a solicitor, admitted to falsifying documents to secure a $150 million bank loan for Toplace. She avoided a jail sentence, with the judge noting she had been under the sway of her father and had made a stupid choice that ruined her life. As Nassif remains in Lebanon, beyond the reach of the fraud allegations waiting for him in New South Wales, the inquiry continues to map the connections between property developers, political consultants, and elected officials—a network that, if the allegations are proven, reveals how development approvals and government favour may have been traded for money and influence.