The eyebrows have it: ICAC witness stretches credulity and patience

A feeling of despair swept over the media room after only half an hour of the much-anticipated evidence of the Everywhere Man of the current inquiry, Sharangan Maheswaran.

In the witness box, the normally garrulous 36-year-old solicitor – who is rarely off his phone, constantly texting or chatting to associates, journalists and even other witnesses – was ponderous and prone to nitpicking.

He complained that one of the commission’s solicitors was reacting to his answers with “a very strange stare, with eyebrows raised”.

After enduring his meandering answers and long, dramatic pauses, no doubt these weren’t the only eyebrows raised.

Watching his evidence, a senior Labor figure who knows the former Labor councillor said in a text: “We are all wondering when he developed some kind of British accent.”

As he was taken through his CV, Maheswaran was asked about being an associate to a Federal Court judge, a position he said he left after only a few months.

Asked which judge he’d worked for, Maheswaran turned to assistant commissioner Fabian Gleeson, a former Supreme Court judge, and asked of what particular relevance this was to the inquiry.

Dr Peggy Dwyer, SC, counsel assisting, quickly withdrew her question and the examination limped on.

There was a very long pause as Maheswaran considered this question: “When did you stop working for Jean Nassif?” As the hearing room sat in silence, Maheswaran stroked his chin, appearing to be searching the recesses of his mind for the answer to what seemed to be a simple question.

“Again, this is where the distinction between entities becomes relevant,” he eventually replied.

Maheswaran received around $1.4 million over the period between July 2020 and March 2023 while working as an executive for dodgy developer Nassif, who fled the country in December 2022.

Nassif’s company, Toplace, collapsed in July 2023 owing around $1.6 billion. There is currently a warrant out for Nassif’s arrest over serious fraud charges.

Maheswaran also provided a series of circuitous answers about whether he had declared he was an associate of a property developer when he nominated as a candidate for Strathfield council in the 2021 local government elections.

“I won’t say why,” he proffered, before suggesting “this line of inquiry” was ridiculous.