Welcome to our live coverage
Hello and welcome back to the Herald’s live coverage as the ICAC’s Operation Rosny enters the ninth week of public hearings.
I’m senior writer Alexandra Smith, and I’ll be bringing you all the updates from inside the hearing room as former Toplace lawyer and Labor Strathfield councillor Sharangan Maheswaran returns for his second day in the witness box.
First, let’s take a look at what we covered on Friday:
- Sharangan Maheswaran accused Jean Nassif of lying to the ICAC, and insisted the fugitive developer never told him before 2025 that he wanted to damage the career of former police minister David Elliott. Elliott was a known critic of Nassif’s defect-ridden developments
- Maheswaran did not declare himself to be an associate of a property developer in his nomination form to contest the Strathfield council elections, despite being paid by Toplace. The ICAC heard he was paid over $660,000 by Toplace while he was a councillor. Maheswaran estimated he was paid $1.4 million by Toplace between July 2020 and March 2023. He became a councillor in December 2021.
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Maheswaran told the corruption inquiry that Nassif retained a contract with the firm Beckington because he wanted to be closer to their “boss”. Jeremy Greenwood told him the boss likely referred to Charles Perrottet, the brother of former premier Dominic.
- Maheswaran said he had the understanding that Perrottet expected to receive payment as part of Beckington’s engagement with Toplace, but couldn’t identify how he came to that understanding.
Beckington, JPG, Reformers: the Operation Rosny glossary
Last week Sharangan Maheswaran was asked about his work for Toplace and Jean Nassif, and his connection with Jeremy Greenwood and Christian Ellis. This week we expect the corruption inquiry to continue digging into Maheswaran’s role at Toplace and his time as a Labor councillor on Strathfield council.
With the “money train” (as counsel assisting Dr Peggy Dwyer, SC, puts it) spanning different companies and political groups it can be easy to lose track of which is which. Here’s a brief reminder:
Beckington Group: The lobbying and government relations firm set up by Jeremy Greenwood and Christian Ellis. Earlier ICAC heard witness Dylan Whitelaw was an employee, and Charles Perrottet said he was helping his friends chase developer Jean Nassif for money owed to Beckington for work they did to assist with his developments. The ICAC is investigating if Beckington was actually receiving unlawful political donations from some of its clients, including Catholic Schools NSW, and hotelier Michael O’Hara, which were used to support the work of the Reformers.
The Reformers: The right-wing, religious sub-factional group working to recruit more members to the Liberal Party to boost the power of the hard-right faction, particularly in the Hills where a political civil war had erupted between the right and centre-right factions. Christian Ellis, Robert Assaf, Jean-Claude Perrottet and Dylan Whitelaw were all considered key Reformers.
Inside a grubby political blackmail plot that backfired spectacularly
On January 8, 2022, four newly elected councillors gathered at the Crossways Hotel in Strathfield to divide the spoils of political war. Little did they know the meeting would trigger one of the grubbiest feuds in NSW politics, and feature in a major corruption inquiry four years later.
Over lunch and drinks that Saturday, real estate agent Matthew Blackmore, kidney transplant recipient Karen Pensabene, migration agent Sandy Reddy and lawyer-cum-development executive Sharangan Maheswaran struck a handshake deal over who would become the mayor of Strathfield Council following elections the month prior.
The agreement was for Blackmore, an independent, to take the job for at least one year and then hand it over to Pensabene, a Labor councillor. Everyone seemed happy. The only problem was that Blackmore ended up liking the job a little too much. With a big mortgage and rising interest rates, he also liked the $46,010 allowance that topped up his meagre annual councillor fee of $21,000. When the time came to hand over the mayoral chains, Blackmore wavered, and all hell broke loose.
At the Artisaint cafe in Burwood in early 2023, Blackmore told Pensabene and Maheswaran that he wanted to stay on. Anticipating he might say that, the Labor duo helpfully produced a resignation letter written in Blackmore’s name, and told him to sign it.
Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: www.smh.com.au
