‘Ridiculous way to run a business’: Liberal operative says no documents kept for $5m deal
A Liberal lobbyist who allegedly received a share in a $2 million bribe from developer Jean Nassif says he and his business partner often talked about fancy cars, and their discussions about buying a Porsche or Ferrari had nothing to do with large payments they expected to receive.
Jeremy Greenwood, a conservative Liberal, returned on Monday to give further evidence to the Independent Commission Against Corruption, where he has been pressed on his business dealings with Nassif.
The commission has previously heard from Greenwood when Operation Rosny, as the corruption inquiry is codenamed, was probing whether illegal donations from Catholic Schools NSW were washed through his lobby firm Beckington.
On Monday, the commission heard that Greenwood and his business partner Christian Ellis shared pictures of Ferraris and Porsches they would like to buy before an offer from Nassif for large sums of cash.
“That Ferrari is very nice, very, very nice,” Ellis texted.
The commission was told of text messages, by counsel assisting Dr Peggy Dwyer, SC, between the two men in which they shared the merits of different luxury cars, which cost about $280,000 each.
Dwyer suggested to Greenwood that the chat about cars was “because you anticipated a big chunk of money coming from Mr Nassif, correct?”
Greenwood said the discussion about cars had been ongoing for 12 months and had nothing to do with any money coming from Nassif.
Nassif became a client of Beckington’s in mid-2019 when his company Toplace was gaining negative media attention, the commission heard.
The commission also heard that Greenwood texted Ellis about an “incredible opportunity” while setting up a meeting with Toplace general manager Larissa Mouawad.
“It’s actually an incredible opportunity. It would be great if your mum could be like deputy mayor or something,” Greenwood texted Ellis.
Ellis’ mother, Virginia Ellis, would later be elected as a councillor on the Hills Shire Council.
“I know, it’s not outside the realm of possibility ha ha,” Ellis said.
A couple of days before these messages, Greenwood had texted Ellis, “call me to discuss $1 million”, which he told the corruption inquiry was just a way to wind up his friend and get him to call him back.
“Well, can I suggest [to] you what it’s about, as a matter of common sense, is that you’ve been offered by Jean Nassif a million dollars for the work that you were prepared to do, and that included stacking the council to help get through his developments,” Dwyer asked.
“No, it’s not my understanding,” Greenwood said.
The commission was also told of a text message that Greenwood sent to Ellis before a meeting with JP Abood, a former Parramatta City councillor, and Nassif.
Abood introduced Ellis and Greenwood to Nassif.
Greenwood texted: “We arrive at the restaurant: ‘table with Abood’. Waiter: ‘Ah, yes, of course, you must be the one stacking Mitchell. Right this way, Mr Abood arrived several hours ago’.”
That got a laugh from Ellis, Dwyer told the ICAC.
Greenwood said he and Ellis often joked about the call he had with Abood, where Greenwood says the former councillor said he had relayed to Nassif the best way to get rid of Alex Hawke from the Mitchell branch was to give money to “these guys” – Ellis and Greenwood.
KioskNews shows a cleaned-up reading view extracted from the publisher’s page — the original always lives on their site, not ours.