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September 15, 2026 — 5:08pm
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Jean Nassif’s comic turn before the Independent Commission Against Corruption inquiry into allegations that a group of conservative Liberal Party powerbrokers accepted illegal political donations from the fugitive developer cannot disguise the personal and public damage he has inflicted on NSW.
ICAC had endeavoured to have Nassif provide evidence over claims that he gave $2 million to be split between three Liberal apparatchiks – Jeremy Greenwood, Christian Ellis and Charles Perrottet – in exchange for political favours including moves to oust former NSW building commissioner David Chandler.
Outside ICAC’s jurisdiction, Nassif led the corruption watchdog on a merry chase, initially declining to appear, changing his mind, then providing a medical certificate excusing him from providing evidence. All this before he dialled in on Monday from his bedroom in Beirut.
Swearing to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth, Nassif set about settling the score with those who thwarted his dodgy empire, including Chandler, former police minister David Elliott and retired radio broadcaster Ray Hadley. He also asserted there was nothing wrong with offering millions of dollars to Liberal backroom boys in exchange for them using contacts to get stalled projects approved.
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The scandal of building defects in new developments erupted in 2018 with the evacuation of residents at the Opal and Mascot towers. Nassif became ensnared after Chandler imposed a prohibition on one of his Toplace Group projects, and he fled Australia for Lebanon in December 2022. Several months later, in his absence, the company collapsed. It left about 20,000 homeowners in 20 buildings across the state seeking remedy for more than 40 “serious and potentially serious” defects, and he was nowhere to be seen.
The ICAC inquiry has evolved into a major indictment of backroom wheeler-dealing in NSW politics and business. It was important that Nassif put his side of the story to clarify allegations, but it is no surprise his evidence turned into a circus.
Nassif fronted again on Tuesday and played the victim, even pointing a finger at the camera to declare ignorance of corrupt conduct and frequently resorting to ranting wildly.
While he hides out in Beirut, his daughter, Ashlyn, narrowly missed jail for doing her father’s bidding. The 32-year-old Toplace executive was sentenced to a six-month intensive correction order last week after pleading guilty to her part in her father’s fraud in falsifying pre-sale contracts for the Skyview Apartments in Castle Hill to help him obtain a $150 million bank loan.
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Regrettably, Nassif’s idiosyncratic and self-serving ICAC performance holds little solace for the thousands of homeowners and small business operators left out of pocket by Toplace’s collapse. Administrators say the company and various offshoots have about $2 billion in debts. Most won’t get their cash back. They are the real victims of Nassif’s schemes and antics.
In a sense, the people of NSW are his victims, too. Nassif tried to interfere with the way our democracy works and almost got rid of the building commissioner.
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