‘You want the country to be ruled by crooks ... I am a man of honour’: Jean Nassif’s explosive ICAC tirade

Fugitive developer Jean Nassif has unleashed a furious rant at his enemies, repeatedly thundering that he was not corrupt and claiming his daughter was forced to plead guilty to falsifying documents on his behalf when he dialled in to a corruption inquiry from Lebanon.

In a highly agitated appearance, Nassif fronted the Independent Commission Against Corruption from his bedroom in Beirut for a second time, where he screamed over the top of counsel assisting Dr Peggy Dwyer, SC, and insisted he was an “honourable, honourable man”.

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.

Instead, he demanded that Dwyer ask him about former police minister David Elliott, who Nassif repeatedly claimed was corrupt and responsible for destroying his company, Toplace, which collapsed in 2023 with $1 billion owed to creditors.

The commission is investigating whether Nassif paid $2 million in illegal donations to Ellis, Greenwood and Charles Perrottet in return for political favours. It is also looking at whether Nassif tried to damage the political career of Elliott and have the former building commissioner David Chandler sacked.

Nassif maintained that all he wanted from Greenwood and Ellis was their help with his stalled building projects, and told the commission he was not interested in Dominic Perrottet becoming premier because he wanted to be “friends” with all factions of the Liberal Party.

He said he had never heard of the Perrottet family until “the boys” at Beckington introduced him to Dominic’s brother Charles. He has denied paying for political influence, instead telling the commission that he was paying Beckington to support his developments.

“I was not involved with paying politics to get my projects approved,” Nassif said.

“If they did any corrupt work I am not involved with it, I was not aware of it.”

Dwyer read Nassif a transcript of an intercepted phone call conversation he had with an associate.

“The premier is my best friend, if you have any issues anywhere now, they’re my friends and my boys. I’ve got my hand on the state government, and you’re going to see changes,” Nassif said after Dominic Perrottet became premier in early October 2021.

Dwyer asked Nassif if he believed at the time that because the right faction of the Liberal Party had secured the leadership and Dominic Perrottet was promoted to premier, his developments would be approved and Chandler would be removed from his position.

“I thought so, but it didn’t happen,” Nassif said.

Nassif said he had been convinced by the Beckington “boys” that they would get rid of Elliott from Perrottet’s new ministry.

“I knew then that Mr Elliott is staying, and I lost my mind because I was convinced that when the right rose, all the crook, racist, left politician should leave their seats as ministers because they’re being unjust,” Nassif told the commission.

Nassif also defended his daughter Ashlyn, who was last week sentenced after pleading guilty in a Sydney court to falsifying documents to secure a $150 million loan for Toplace.

Nassif accused the police of forcing Ashlyn to plead guilty.

“They’re corruptly damaged a 22-years-old, young, smart, beautiful, hard-working, honest girl, because of their dirty mind and corrupting, they forced her, my daughter has been forced to plead guilty,” Nassif said.

Ashlyn, who is 32, was handed a six-month community corrections order after the court was told that Nassif abandoned his daughter when he fled Australia and left her to “fend for herself”.

Nassif said he did not leave Australia to avoid a parliamentary inquiry into illegal political donations but rather flew to Dubai before it began, to receive an international business award.

“I’m not scared to give evidence at all … 22 December, 2022, I received international award for number one businessman from Arabic background around the world,” Nassif said.

“I received that award, that’s why I left.”

Nassif said he was too busy to participate in the parliamentary inquiry, which he believed was corrupt. He stayed overseas because he was being threatened.

“I stayed overseas because I received threatening killing messages by the dozens … if I go back, I’ll be killed,” Nassif said.

Nassif was also asked about an extortion attempt and said a number of men confronted him on Chandler’s behalf to pressure him to pay $5 million. Dwyer asked if Nassif would email the names of the men involved to the commission.

“I’m not going to email anything to the commission because I can see we are not going anywhere in this investigation,” Nassif said. “The deep state is still in control of the country.”

Patrick Quintal, a resident and strata committee member in the Toplace Vicinity complex in Canterbury, tuned in to Nassif’s evidence on Tuesday.

“It is plain that he is completely divorced from reality,” Quintal said.

“I would love him to show up in my apartment so I could walk him through the building and show him all the defects and issues one by one. He’s putting up a grand performance to stop haemorrhaging his public image, but you don’t have to look far to see the truth.”

At Vicinity, owners are still picking up the tab after major structural defects were discovered in parts of the 276-apartment complex, which straddles three buildings on a site next to the Cooks River.

Floor-to-ceiling cracks had appeared in a basement car park and roof beams in some apartments had sagged, while poor waterproofing turned some apartment balconies into waterfalls when it rained.

The residents, many of whom say they were misled about the state of the building before buying their homes, have had no choice but to pay the ever-spiralling repair bills.

“It makes me angry,” said Quintal, “I’m looking at his performance at the ICAC and I can only say this guy is living in a different realm.”

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Alexandra Smith is a senior writer and former state political editor of The Sydney Morning Herald.Connect via X or email.Jessica McSweeney is a reporter at The Sydney Morning Herald covering state politics and urban affairs.Connect via email.Ben Cubby is an investigative reporter for The Sydney Morning Herald.Connect via X or email.AdvertisementAdvertisement