Sweat, swears and smears: Deconstructing Jean Nassif’s explosive ICAC appearance

A fugitive hiding out in Lebanon. Reduced to giving evidence from his Beirut bedroom. Spraying his enemies like a malfunctioning machine gun one minute, being calm and co-operative the next.

Even for the high theatrical standards of the NSW Independent Commission Against Corruption, the long-awaited appearance of Jean Nassif on Monday afternoon was next-level stuff.

The former Toplace owner and alleged fraudster dialled in to his appointment with the blockbuster Operation Rosny inquiry shortly before 7am local time. He was meant to give evidence last week, but cancelled at the last minute citing health problems. Thankfully, on Monday he seemed fighting fit. “I’m going to speak my heart,” he promised.

Nassif explained there was absolutely nothing wrong with offering millions of dollars to a group of Liberal Party operatives – or in his words, “the boys” – in exchange for them using their contacts to get stalled apartment projects approved.

“Of course, when you tell him there is $1 million to approve a project, they will move mountains,” Nassif said. But he insisted he had never sought to stack the Hills Shire Council, or Liberal Party branches, to make it happen. “I did not pay for political outcomes,” he insisted. “I paid to defend my business and my dignity and my honour.”

There was nothing wrong, either, with seeking to get his primary opponents, former police minister David Elliott and building commissioner David Chandler, to “back off”. Both stood in the way of Nassif’s substandard Toplace projects, and became serious irritants to a man used to getting his own way.

He is clearly still obsessed with Elliott, Chandler and former 2GB radio host Ray Hadley, describing the trio of Toplace critics as “the one person”. The Liberal Party’s centre-Right faction, to which Elliott belonged, was full of racists and bullies, he alleged without offering any evidence to support the smear. In one intercepted phone call played at the commission on Monday, Nassif described former premier Gladys Berejiklian in vulgar terms.

As his evidence on Monday wore on, Nassif became more animated and belligerent, waving his arms around and rocking back and forth in his chair. When trying to remember certain events, he would squeeze his eyes closed and tilt his head up towards the ceiling. At one point he stood up to turn on the air-conditioning. “It’s summer and it’s very hot,” he explained.

Nassif fled Australia for Lebanon in December 2022 as his Toplace empire crumbled. He has at times been living in the village of Haref Ardeh, about 90 kilometres north-east of Beirut, for much of the time since. He has been spotted at nightclubs and casinos. But his existence today is a far cry from his former waterfront home in the Sydney suburb of Chiswick, which sold for $12.5 million after Toplace imploded and administrators took over.

The ICAC could not compel Nassif to give evidence because he is outside its jurisdictional power. He volunteered to appear on Monday, which raised eyebrows as to his motivations. Counsel assisting the commission, Dr Peggy Dwyer, SC, could not force him to answer her questions, yet she did her best despite the various legal, technical and language barriers.

Her approach was a fine line to walk; Nassif was free to hang up any time he liked. Instead, he has offered to come back for more on Tuesday morning. He is always welcome to come home to Australia and face his perceived enemies in person but an Australian Federal Police warrant out for his arrest makes that unlikely.

Making the most of their time with Nassif, the ICAC played an intercepted phone call in which he boasts to an unnamed associate of holding serious sway over the former Coalition government through his links to the Liberal Party’s Right faction. “I hold 50 per cent of the power of this government now,” he said in the audio. “More: 51, 52 per cent.”

In another call, he claimed he had “f---ed Elliott sideways” and “the boys” had gotten rid of a key branch in the then cabinet minister’s seat. He also claimed to have “stacked” the Castle Hill branch with new members.

Asked to explain those messages, Nassif suggested he was just talking a big game. “I was saying nonsense to everyone, saying I’m not dead yet,” he said. “None of it is true.”

Nassif’s performance on Monday must have been infuriating for the thousands of home owners and small business operators left out of pocket by Toplace’s collapse. Administrators say the company and its various offshoots have about $2 billion in debts. Most won’t get their cash back. They are the real victims of Nassif’s schemes and antics.

While his buildings crumbled and apartment owners begged for help, Nassif was busy pushing money towards three Liberal Party operatives – Charles Perrottet, Jeremy Greenwood and Christian Ellis – who had promised to help his business.

But one of the more remarkable strands to emerge from the Operation Rosny inquiry is how little Nassif appears to have got in return for his outlay. Outcomes were seemingly promised and sought, but very few delivered.

Yes, at least two Toplace projects found their way onto the state government’s fast-track approval process, but many in the state did if they met certain criteria and the ICAC has not suggested there is anything suss about how the buildings ended up on the list.

Yes, cabinet minister David Elliott was followed by a private investigator in an attempt to dig up dirt on him, which is inexcusable. Yes, the growing dominance in the Right faction likely made it harder for Elliott to find a new seat after his existing one was abolished in a redistribution. However, attempts to muzzle Elliott failed – his criticism of Toplace has never wavered, and he is as vocal as ever.

Yes, David Chandler did resign as building commissioner following a terrible smear campaign against him. This was surely Nassif’s dream outcome given the scrutiny Chandler was applying to defective Toplace apartment towers. But he was swiftly talked back into returning to the job within weeks.

And nothing stopped Ray Hadley’s campaign against Nassif and Toplace, which looks more and more principled and prescient by the day.

Nassif claims he wanted to get rid of his Liberal Party helpers at one point. “They told me lots of bullshit,” he said. “They created more damage than help.” The mere existence of Operation Rosny proves that of the many wild theories aired by Nassif, at least that one is correct.

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