By Lucy Cormack and Jenny Noyes
Sydney property developer Jean Nassif and his daughter secured approval for a $150 million credit application by allegedly deceiving Westpac with fraudulent pre-sales contracts, with the businessman admitting in secret phone taps the documents were “fake”, police claim.
The financial crime investigation will allege Mr Nassif and his daughter Ashlyn Nassif, who is a lawyer, lodged fraudulent documents with the bank to meet conditions of the loan for the five-tower “Skyview” residential complex in Castle Hill.
Developer Jean Nassif and his wife Nisserine.Credit: Instagram
Ms Nassif was arrested and charged over the alleged fraud this week, with a court hearing the charges were “part of a sophisticated and planned situation” and “extremely serious in nature”, given her position as a legal practitioner of the NSW Supreme Court.
Mr Nassif, who is the director of developer Toplace, is residing in rural Lebanon and has not been charged over the alleged scheme. However, investigators will claim he is a co-accused. Detectives wish to speak with the developer.
A parliamentary inquiry is also seeking contact with Mr Nassif as it looks at allegations of impropriety over development decisions at Hills Shire Council. The inquiry is due to hand down its final report on Thursday.
Details of the alleged financial fraud emerge after four police raids at businesses in Sydney’s CBD and Concord, including the Toplace office, as well as a home in Chiswick on Tuesday.
Ashlyn Nassif, daughter of property developer Jean Nassif, arrives at her mother’s home in Concord after she was released on bail on Wednesday.Credit: James Brickwood
Following the raids, Ms Nassif presented herself to police to be charged with dishonestly obtaining a financial advantage by deception and publishing false or misleading material to obtain an advantage.
The arrest comes after detectives established Strike Force Calool in April 2021, tasked with investigating alleged financial crime by Mr Nassif as the director of Toplace.
At the centre of the investigation is a credit application for a $150 million cash facility that Westpac approved for Toplace’s development of three buildings as part of the Skyview site. A key condition for approval was that Toplace secure $10.5 million, or 20 per cent, of presales in one of the residential buildings.
Under the terms, presales had to be conducted “at arm’s length” with 10 per cent deposits. The bank also required the presales to be “legal, valid and binding” with “no side agreements”.
Ashlyn Nassif departs Surry Hills Police Station.Credit: Brook Mitchell
However, police will allege data was manipulated and that multiple contracts were not genuine or at “arm’s length” from Nassif’s associates. Side arrangements were also allegedly made with subcontractors to offset monies owed to them by Toplace.
In lawfully intercepted phone calls, it is alleged that Mr Nassif requested the movement of contracts of sale from one building to another, admitting that the contracts are “fake”, “never going to be completed anyway” and describing the deposits as “my money”.
Mr Nassif’s daughter, who is a 27-year-old managing partner of Sydney law firm EA Legal Pty Ltd, allegedly used a colleague to sign a solicitor’s undertaking that contracts given to Westpac were legitimate. EA Legal was allegedly featured as the “vendor’s solicitor” in qualifying presale contracts supplied to Westpac.
The bank was allegedly deceived into thinking that all presale conditions had been met, and accepting the solicitor’s undertaking as true and accurate, approved progress claims on the $150 million cash facility.
Ms Nassif was released from custody on Wednesday after her family posted $2.6 million bail in the Downing Centre Local Court. Strict bail conditions include that she stop all forms of communication with 24 people, including her father, and that she surrender her passport.
Prosecutors did not oppose bail on Wednesday, when Ms Nassif appeared via video link wearing an orange tie-dyed sweater. She waved two cuffed hands to the camera after being told her mother, sister, fiance and brother-in-law were in court to support her, and her sister blew a kiss.
Magistrate Greg Grogin said the charges against Ms Nassif were serious given her job and that her alleged actions were part of a “sophisticated and planned” situation.
Ashlyn Nassif, daughter of Sydney developer Jean Nassif, arrives at her family home.Credit: Janie Barrett
However, he added that she came before the court with no criminal record and as a person of good character. The court heard Ms Nassif’s family had agreed to forfeit $2.6 million if she failed to appear at a future date. The matter will return to court in two weeks.
Her barrister Gregory Stanton told the court that her father was “ex-jurisdiction”, meaning he was outside NSW, and that his client had already been instructed not to speak to him.
Stanton said he had been preparing to make the argument, regarding his client’s risk of flight, that “the son/child (sic) shall not bear the iniquity of the father”, referencing the prophet Ezekiel.
The upper house inquiry pursuing Mr Nassif was sparked after extraordinary claims by NSW Liberal MP Ray Williams.
He told parliament last year that he had heard allegations senior members of his party had been “paid significant funds in order to arrange to put new councillors on The Hills Shire Council” who would support future development applications for Mr Nassif’s company.
Mr Nassif has written to the committee saying he was unable to attend the inquiry because he is overseas, but strongly disputes the claims that prompted the probe.
“The allegations were dealt with already by the ICAC and the person making the allegations has not offered a shred of evidence,” he previously told the committee.
He said he had not left the country to avoid the inquiry, rather it was a pre-planned holiday.
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