The bikie boss, the $800,000 Ferrari and an $18 million Brighton mansion

Police have raided an $18 million Brighton mansion occupied by a bikie boss following a campaign of violence against embattled property developer Simon Pitard and his family’s aged care empire.

Detectives from Taskforce Echo searched the luxury residence of Finks national president Mark Balsillie on November 6, just hours after two masked men fired 10 shots at an Arcare aged care facility in Maidstone. Later that day, police publicly identified the gang as an “organised crime priority”.

The police raid also followed the firebombing of Pitard’s Brighton property on October 27 when two luxury cars were destroyed. On October 28, an innocent 52-year-old woman sustained serious burns when her Cheltenham townhouse was firebombed in a case of mistaken identity, which is also under investigation.

Detectives carried out firearm prohibition order compliance searches at another five properties in Narre Warren North, Safety Beach, Mount Eliza and Dallas as part of their November 6 blitz on the Finks, but no arrests were made.

This masthead does not suggest Balsillie is involved in the campaign of violence against Pitard. He did not respond to requests for comment.

An investigation by this masthead can also reveal that federal law enforcement agencies have been investigating the ownership of Balsillie’s opulent home and a recent application for an $11 million loan in the name of a 23-year-old associate of the bikie enforcer.

According to land title records, the registered owner of the mansion is self-described taxi driver-turned-billionaire property developer Pankaj “Harry” Goyal, whose construction company Harcon Projects built the four-level home, replete with rooftop garden, indoor pool, sauna and climate-controlled cellar.

Balsillie has lived in the mansion for the past six months and has told associates he was in the process of buying it from Goyal, according to five underworld and property industry sources who asked not to be identified because of safety concerns.

The sources said the potential transfer of the mansion came to the attention of law enforcement agencies, when a 23-year-old associate of Balsillie was named as the applicant for an $11 million loan.

The man, who The Age has decided not to name for safety reasons, lives with his parents in Bentleigh East and would have been required to make monthly repayments of almost $70,000 if the loan proceeded.

On September 9, the 23-year-old replaced Balsillie as the sole director and shareholder of a company called AP Global Aust Pty Ltd, which was first registered by the Finks boss in January.

The 23-year-old is expected to be interviewed next month by the Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission over his alleged involvement in the sale. The commission declined to comment when contacted by this masthead.

Goyal’s close connection with Balsillie has seen him allow the Finks president access to an $800,000 blue Ferrari Purosangue. The 46-year-old businessman, who has a penchant for expensive cars, drives a black version of the luxury car himself.

Goyal confirmed he owned the Brighton property when contacted by this masthead, but did not respond to repeated questions about his arrangement with Balsillie and denied the bikie had ever driven his car.

He said Balsillie “might be living” in the mansion, but “is definitely not on the lease”.

“I’ve got another 100 [properties]. So what has that got to do with me?” Goyal said.

The construction boss has previously claimed he went from having 60 cents in his pocket, after gambling away money his father had given him to settle in Australia, to making a billion dollars and rubbing shoulder with Australia’s wealthiest through financing and land banking.

He told a podcast in 2023 he worked as a dishwasher and waiter at Crown Casino, while also working 16-hour shifts as a taxi driver to raise the funds to start his finance company, Loans Direct.

“I used to eat the soft serves or the biscuits for 10 cents back then to fill my tummy up,” he said.

Land title records show the 46-year-old has amassed expansive property interests that include shares in dozens of units in Brighton, Shepparton, Rockbank, Craigieburn, Thornhill Park, Moorabool, Truganina, Little River, and Charlemont worth more than $400 million.

This masthead does not suggest any wrongdoing by Goyal or any involvement with the Finks OMCG.

Three underworld and property industry sources told this masthead that Goyal had also been involved in a botched $95 million deal with Balsillie to redevelop a former cattle farm in Sydney’s west into a cemetery.

However, the deal fell over earlier this year after they failed to settle on the property, forfeiting a $9.5 million deposit.

The 73-hectare site, in the semi-rural suburb of Wallacia, 70 kilometres west of Sydney, had been earmarked for a cemetery development since 2020.

Earlier plans for the land, which is on a flood plain that backs onto the Nepean River, included 775,000 burial plots, a chapel, a crematorium and several mausoleums.

Goyal confirmed his involvement in the cemetery proposal, but denied Balsillie had a role in the deal.

Balsillie has held various leadership roles with several outlaw bikie gangs for more than a decade, despite coming from an unconventional background.

The 42-year-old is the son of retired police officer Andrew Balsillie, who served more than 40 years with Victoria Police and helped uncover a drug lab run by slain gangland figure Carl Williams out of a Broadmeadows commission building in 1999.

Balsillie originally joined the Comancheros, and rapidly ascended to senior ranks within the gang.

When Balsillie pleaded guilty to extortion and possessing counterfeit money in 2016, a County Court judge described his involvement with the Comancheros as the beginning of his “fall from grace”, having grown up in a “caring and loving family”.

Balsillie later defected to the Mongols, who sent him to Russia to patch over Comanchero members.

In 2017, the 39-year-old survived a murder attempt when he was shot seven times in the arms, leg and stomach by a former Comanchero associate who fled to Turkey after the attack.

Balsillie pleaded guilty to possessing and trafficking cocaine in the County Court in 2022, after claiming he had used two grams of cocaine a day to manage chronic pain caused by the shooting.

Judge David Brookes accepted he had undergone “genuine reformation” since his arrest in 2020, when detectives from the Echo and Trident taskforces found 127 grams of cocaine concealed inside a cereal box, encrypted mobile phones and syringes filled with growth hormone and testosterone at Balsillie’s property.

Since taking over the leadership of the Finks in 2024, Balsillie has helmed a rapid expansion of the once fringe club recruiting several former associates from the Comancheros, including Ahmad “Rocky” Niazi and Thomas Laslo.

Last Friday, Victoria Police said it had created a specialist taskforce made up of officers from Taskforce Echo, Operation Phoenix and the Viper Taskforce to target the gang.

“My message to the Finks … is very clear: if you choose to continue your involvement in serious and organised crime, Victoria Police is coming after you,” Detective Superintendent Wayne Cheesman said.

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