Jean Nassif to give evidence before ICAC corruption probe

Fugitive Sydney developer Jean Nassif told the state’s building commissioner “if you harm my project, I will harm you” during a phone call revealed at a major corruption inquiry.

The Independent Commission Against Corruption also heard on Thursday the details of an extortion attempt likely designed to make former commissioner David Chandler back off from scrutinising Nassif’s troubled Toplace apartment projects.

Chandler told the corruption inquiry Toplace executive Sharangan Maheswaran claimed to have an email that asked for $5 million to be paid into a trust account and, in exchange, Chandler might lift a prohibition order on a defective Toplace project in Castle Hill.

But the alleged plot failed when Chandler called Toplace’s bluff and offered to take the claims to police. Maheswaran, a former Strathfield Labor councillor, is a key person of interest in the ICAC’s Operation Rosny inquiry.

The corruption watchdog was last week told of a broad smear campaign against Chandler, including unsubstantiated claims he would take money in brown paper bags and had shown favourable treatment to some companies.

The ICAC alleges the tactics were part of a co-ordinated effort by Nassif to undermine Chandler and prevent him from policing substandard building projects. The ICAC is investigating whether Nassif paid a $2 million bribe to conservative Christian Liberal Party operatives Jeremy Greenwood, Christian Ellis and Charles Perrottet.

Charles, a younger brother of former premier Dominic Perrottet, will give evidence on Friday.

Outside the ICAC, Chandler sought to put the spotlight on those who had been innocently caught up in the affair.

“I think everyone in NSW knows that I was there for having the back of the consumer in NSW first and foremost after I’d seen some of these most egregious projects, these horrible defects that have been left behind and people were forced to live in them,” he said.

“It was hell on Earth and I just felt it was appropriate … to remind everybody that while this is all about people who were on the ascension to heaven and political purpose, at the back end of this there was a whole bunch of their constituents that were hurting, and they were in a world of pain.”

Chandler was appointed to clean up the building industry in 2019 amid an explosion of defective apartment projects across Sydney.

The ICAC has previously heard intercepted calls in which Nassif ranted about Chandler and vowed to “f--k him sideways”.

Chandler recounted a fiery 2020 encounter with Nassif during which he raised concerns about the quality of bathrooms in the Pemberton on the Park development at Botany.

Nassif fumed and became “overbearing, loud and animated” when told testing would need to be done.