‘Repeated acts of deceit’: Bankrupt businessman behind bars

A twice-bankrupted, twice-jailed pretend property developer is back behind bars, this time for contempt of court.

Nahi Gazal, 61, was taken into custody earlier this month after Supreme Court Justice Ashley Black agreed with the submissions made by the Australia Taxation Office that Gazal’s “repeated acts of deceit” caused more than $6 million to be drained from his bank accounts in breach of the freezing orders the tax office had obtained in 2020.

In 2023, Gazal signed a settlement deed with the ATO acknowledging that he and three of his development companies had tax liabilities of more than $44 million.

The ATO later agreed to accept the lesser sum of $18 million, with the $6 million in Gazal’s companies’ bank accounts to be paid to the ATO. But it was later discovered that the bank accounts had been emptied.

In 2024, Gazal was found to have breached the court’s orders. The background to the freezing orders, the court heard, was that Gazal had claimed more than $23 million in GST input tax credits in the period January 2017 to May 2020, in relation to construction projects in NSW.

The ATO alleged the developments had been completed by other developers and that the Gazal entities “had fabricated invoices to claim the GST input tax credits, resulting in more than $21 million of GST refunds”.

Liquidator Stephen Hathway, who has been appointed to wind up a number of Gazal’s insolvent companies, told the Herald that Gazal had allegedly pretended to be running building companies, which submitted fraudulent invoices and claimed tax credits. “They never turned a sod, they never obtained a [development application] to develop anything,” Hathway said.

Gazal was found to have breached the freezing orders two years ago but the hearing as to the penalty has been delayed due to Gazal claiming physical and mental incapacity.

On March 31 this year, the penalty hearing regarding Gazal’s actions finally took place. On the morning of the hearing, Gazal’s fashion designer wife Rabiaa (Ruby) Samadi emailed the court to say her husband was in the emergency department at St Vincent’s Hospital.

“I have been trying to get him discharged to come to Court but the doctors are refusing as he was not waking up and is hooked up to machines,” she wrote.

Samadi was informed that any application for an adjournment would have to be dealt with in court. But no application was made.

The barristers for the ATO went on to submit that Gazal’s “repeated and dishonest breaches of freezing orders” were done “through the creation of false invoices and … much of the money was used by Mr Gazal for his own purposes”.

Black said: “I have found the large majority of the invoices supporting withdrawals from the accounts that were the subject of freezing orders to be false and I have found the other elements of contempt on the part of Mr Gazal are established to the requisite standard.”

The judge also said Gazal had offered no explanation for his actions and had made no attempt to repay the funds.

Gazal declared bankruptcy after the money had been drained from the accounts but Black held that there was no reason to infer that Gazal did not have access to the funds.

In his April judgment, Black granted Gazal 21 days to repay the money. If it wasn’t done, “Mr Gazal should be committed to a correctional centre for an indefinite term until he purges the contempts.”

Gazal did not repay the money. Earlier this month, he was arrested at the couple’s luxury apartment at The Rocks, which is rented for more than $1800 per week.

Gazal is the uncle of Real Housewives of Sydney star Nicole Gazal O’Neil, along with her brothers, property developers Nicholas and Nabil Gazal Jnr. In 2016, the brothers were found by ICAC to have acted with the intention of evading electoral funding laws by funnelling donations through a sham business associated with the NSW Liberal Party. No charges were laid.

Once known as the “Caravan Conman”, Nahi Gazal first hit the headlines 20 years ago when a posse of disgruntled Viscount caravan owners surrounded his Rose Bay house with their faulty caravans. Accused of repeatedly ripping off his caravan customers, he was bankrupted and banned from being a director for five years by the corporate regulator.

In early 2024, claiming he needed urgent medical treatment in Slovenia, Gazal took court action to lift the order obtained by the ATO preventing him from leaving the country.

Successfully opposing his application, the ATO told the court that Gazal “has previously been imprisoned for financial crimes for 10 months in 2017 and 10 months in 2013 and has been fined $1100 for failing to furnish an approved form and has previously been declared a bankrupt.”

The court also heard that Gazal “has openly and deceitfully claimed various illnesses” while concocting other schemes.

Gazal, whose wife has been appointed his tutor, is appealing against the contempt charges. The matter will return to court on May 25.

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