Jean Nassif coerced and left daughter to ‘fend for herself’, court hears

Fugitive property developer Jean Nassif coerced, controlled and ultimately abandoned his daughter to “fend for herself”, a lawyer for the disgraced young woman has told her sentencing hearing.

The public rift in the Nassif family, and Ashlyn’s sentence on Monday to a six-month community corrections order, comes as the NSW corruption watchdog probes Jean over allegations he made illegal donations to a Liberal faction to smooth the cracks in his crumbling empire.

Ashlyn Nassif, 31, was arrested in March 2023 as Jean’s property company Toplace began to fall apart.

That same month, Toplace towers in Canterbury and Castle Hill were found to be riddled with serious defects, owners were left with multi-million dollar repair bills and the NSW Building Commission was shutting the business down.

Jean fled to Lebanon in late 2022 and never returned, even after his daughter was charged. He has previously denied any wrongdoing.

The court heard Ashlyn was a lawyer working for Toplace and had been captured in audio recordings with her father, agreeing to move apartment contracts around to secure a $150 million loan from Westpac.

Jean had instructed Ashlyn to move owners’ contracts from one building to another to make it appear they had sold $10 million worth of planned units with 10 per cent deposits collected, the court was told.

“Hi Daddy, sorry, I managed to get some to move over to Building C … I have about 11 now,” Ashlyn said in November 2021, in the audio recordings played to the court.

“I need time to get deposits sorted with (another firm) but I will mark it as paid on schedule.”

Jean told her to send the paperwork through to Westpac, asking if it was $10 million.

“Yes it’s around $10m, and it’s with all the sales advices as well… So it doesn’t look bad, it’s fine. It’s just if he asks for receipts, I’ll need some time,” Ashlyn replied.

She instructed another solicitor to send the letter to Westpac saying they had cleared the hurdle for Westpac to release the money.

Ashlyn pleaded guilty to providing false and misleading information, but her lawyer told the court she would never have sent the letter it if it wasn’t for her father.

“It’s appropriate that yesterday was Father’s day,” her lawyer Murugan Thangaraj SC told Burwood Local Court on Monday.

“This young lady is carrying all of this, he should be part of it.

“If she wasn’t working for him, and if he wasn’t her father, she never would have committed those offences.

“But for the situation with her father, she never would have done anything wrong.”

The loan was ultimately paid out by Westpac, and then refinanced, so the bank did not lose any money. It was paid it’s $750,000 fee, making it essentially a victimless crime.

Thangaraj told the court Jean was a bad father who had tried to control Ashlyn, told her to lose weight “so she could show her off”.

He pressured her to become a lawyer and do his bidding, he said, and then left the country and Ashlyn to fend for herself.

“How any person could leave their child to face charges which are for his company’s benefit? How he could leave her to fend for herself, sell her property for legal fees … force her to move back in with mother and sibling?” Thangaraj questioned during the hearing.

“She’s hardly the wealthy heiress of which she is portrayed. Maybe, many business collapses ago.”

Ashlyn lost her practicing certificate, her engagement, her career, and has been endlessly in the media for three-and-a-half years since she was charged, her lawyer said.

The court heard some of her private information had even been leaked to an organised crime network in the fallout from her father’s disappearance.

Judge Christopher Halburd said it appeared Jean would never face justice, and agreed he had controlled his daughter.

“She was under the sway of her tyrannical father, we are dealing with a young solicitor who made a stupid choice which ruined her life,” Halburd said.

He said some media had made remarks about Ashlyn’s appearance, including her clothing, which mirrored how her father treated her.

Ashlyn sobbed loudly in court.

Ashlyn told the court Jean had called her while she was at dinner with her mother, screaming at her to send the document. She was shaking, she told the court in a letter, and went back to the office to send it off.

“What we are talking about isn’t an ongoing scheme, it was a single document that was signed and sent off, she didn’t sign the document,” Halburd said.

“She sent it off under pressure from her father.”

Ashlyn was an executive in the company, but had not done it for her own gain or greed, Halburd said. Instead, she had succumbed to her abusive, coercing and controlling father’s pressure.

“The defendant is convicted and placed on a community corrections order for six months, no point in having supervision,” the judge said.

The Independent Commission Against Corruption last week heard recordings of Jean calling Dominic Perrottet “my boy” in October 2021, around the time he was instructing Ashlyn, and just before Perrottet became NSW premier.

According to counsel assisting ICAC, Jean had allegedly given $2 million to a conservative Liberal Party faction, comprised of Christian Ellis, Jeremy Greenwood and Perrottet’s brother Charles, in violation of the prohibition on developer donations.

The developer wanted NSW Building Commissioner David Chandler, who was trying to shut Toplace down, to be removed, ICAC has been told.

Jean Nassif had pledged to give evidence at the ICAC via videolink, but then called in sick instead.

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Perry Duffin is a crime reporter for The Sydney Morning Herald.Connect via X or email.AdvertisementAdvertisement