A fugitive Sydney developer allegedly warned the then-New South Wales building commissioner that he would “harm” him if he got in the way of his projects which were being inspected for defects, the corruption watchdog has heard. Giving evidence to the Independent Commission against Corruption on Thursday, David Chandler described an interaction he had with Toplace developments’ Jean Nassif. The pair had already clashed in person in 2020 at a meeting where Chandler said Nassif had become “loud and overbearing”.
Chandler had ordered a “destructive inspection” of a Toplace building in Botany, meaning bathrooms would need to be ripped up to check the waterproofing. Chandler said on Thursday that after the 2021 phone call, he banned Nassif from being present on sites when he was conducting inspections, and resolved not to deal with him directly. A few days before the phone call in April 2021, Chandler put a prohibition order on Skyview, a Toplace apartment complex in Castle Hill, preventing it from being occupied.
Icac is investigating whether payments to a group of young conservatives known as the Reformers amounted to illegal political donations to the NSW Liberal party. It is investigating whether $2m allegedly paid by Nassif to Jeremy Greenwood, Christian Ellis and Charles Perrottet, the brother of the former premier Dominic Perrottet, were made to achieve certain outcomes, including the removal of the building commissioner. Chandler is not under investigation by Icac.
Nassif, who fled Australia for rural Lebanon in 2022, is expected to appear before the commission by video link from Lebanon next week. He has previously denied any wrongdoing. In April 2021, the Greens senator David Shoebridge and others sent Chandler photos of substantial cracking in the Skyview building’s basement prompting urgent action, Chandler said.
Chandler said over the five years he was commissioner he undertook hundreds of inspections, but he was aware Nassif believed he was being singled out. Soon after the phone call, Chandler became aware of “an accumulation of pressure”, the former commissioner told Icac. He became aware politicians had been told by figures in the industry he was “on the take” and journalists were being offered material that sought to undermine his integrity.
The first example of the alleged pressure campaign was an anonymous email to Toplace suggesting that if $5m was paid to a lawyer, William Roberts, the building commissioner would lift orders that were holding up occupancy certificates for Toplace’s developments. The email was raised with Chandler by executives at Toplace, including Sharangan Maheswaran, who is a person of interest at the Icac inquiry. The Toplace executives described it as an “attempt at a shakedown”, Chandler said.
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