‘You like?’ Jean Nassif’s $10m ice deal, zero regrets and one-way ticket out of trouble

″It is not a bribe!” Nissy Nassif proclaimed angrily when questioned over a frocks-for-favours incident involving a designer dress worth thousands of dollars that Nissy had gifted a reporter who had written a fawning piece about her.

“Oh my god! I’ll tell you what a bribe is. A bribe is when someone is offered money in an envelope to write nasty, horrible things about someone, that’s what a bribe is!” she fumed to the Herald in April 2020.

But as his second wife was helpfully spelling that out, she couldn’t have known what her then-husband, dodgy developer Jean Nassif, was up to.

For the past seven weeks, the Independent Commission Against Corruption has heard that Jean Nassif, 58, was paying money to a group of hard-Right Liberal operatives to obtain “nasty, horrible things” in an attempt to destroy the careers of his perceived adversaries: former Building Commission chief David Chandler and former police minister David Elliott.

In one intercepted call in September 2021 between Nassif and Jean-Claude Perrottet, brother of former NSW premier, Dominic, Nassif is heard saying of Elliott: “I f---ed him sideways. I forced the boys to ah, ah, get rid of his branch at Baulkham Hills, you know?”

The inquiry has heard that lobbyists Jeremy Greenwood and Christian Ellis, along with their friend Charles Perrottet, split $2 million of Nassif’s money that was paid by the banned donor to secure less than honourable political outcomes.

Nassif’s money was allegedly washed through lobbying company Beckington under the guise of “government relations” work.

“By early 2020, the Right faction’s ‘money train’ had already left the station and was on track to be an extremely lucrative journey because Mr Nassif, owner of Toplace, was on board,” counsel assisting the commission, Dr Peggy Dwyer, SC, said in her opening address.

But the question currently consuming ardent ICAC watchers is whether the notorious Nassif will appear before the inquiry.

Nassif’s non-appearance seemed to be a given back in late July when Operation Rosny began its public hearings.

Dwyer said in her opening address that Nassif had fled to Lebanon in December 2022. “We note that a warrant for his arrest has been issued by police in relation to allegations of criminal fraud. He has spoken to various media outlets since he left to vigorously defend himself, but he has declined an invitation to assist the commission.”

However, there was a flurry of excitement when Nassif’s name suddenly appeared on the witness list to provide evidence from Lebanon by an audio-visual link on Friday, September 4. Hopes were then dashed after Nassif provided a medical certificate excusing himself from appearing.

The Banquo’s ghost haunting this inquiry is now listed to make his ICAC debut on Monday.

Since his previously cancelled appearance, excoriating details about his general character and his parenting skills were laid bare at his daughter’s sentencing for fraud-related offences last Monday .