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.

He eventually admitted that he had not ticked the relevant box.

The inquiry has heard that Maheswaran helped deliver payments from Nassif to hard-right Liberal Party operatives who were doing Nassif’s political dirty work.

Rather than undertaking the ordered remedial work on his company Toplace’s substandard apartment blocks, which were riddled with defects, the evidence suggests Nassif chose a different, more unpleasant route.

Maheswaran oversaw the hiring of a private detective who was trying to dig up dirt on two of Nassif’s nemeses: local Liberal MP David Elliott and building commissioner David Chandler, the inquiry has heard.

Last month, Chandler gave evidence of a “shakedown meeting” on April 29, 2021, during which Maheswaran claimed to have an email purportedly asking for $5 million to be paid into a lawyer’s trust account; in return, Chandler would lift the orders affecting Nassif’s development.

But when Chandler suggested they go straight to the police, Maheswaran demurred.

In October 2021, in response to a public statement from the building commissioner about cracking down on non-complying developments, Nassif sent a text message to Maheswaran’s friend, Liberal-party operative Jeremy Greenwood, in which Nassif said: “This guy has no respect to any religious (sic) and is very rassist (sic). He needs to go.”

The inquiry heard that before Maheswaran became Nassif’s right-hand man, he did some work for Nassif’s two daughters, Evelyn and Ashlyn, who ran a firm EA Legal. Their father was their main client.

But even this topic became bogged down as Maheswaran said he sometimes subcontracted through his firm Anwalt Pty Ltd.

Every time he mentioned his company, which was frequently, he would give the full title, including spelling out “P.T.Y.” and “L.T.D.”

“When you say Anwalt would do work for EA Legal, you’re really meaning you would do work for EA Legal because you were Anwalt, correct?” Dwyer asked Maheswaran, who was the sole director and shareholder of Anwalt.

“That’s nonsensical from a corporation’s perspective, from a commercial perspective, from any sort of understanding of contractual law, I’m sorry, Dr Dwyer, I’m speaking in terms of as I understand the world,” offered Maheswaran.

Whatever his understanding of the world was, it wasn’t helpful.

At one point, Gleeson ordered Maheswaran to just answer the question. “We have a lot to get through,” said Gleeson. Maheswaran is listed for another four days of evidence.

Start the day with a summary of the day’s most important and interesting stories, analysis and insights. Sign up for our Morning Edition newsletter.