The NSW Crime Commission has placed a caveat over key Sydney development sites secretly owned by disgraced politician Eddie Obeid’s family trust, and frozen all property interests of Obeid Corporation Pty Ltd.
A decade-long forensic investigation into hidden Obeid assets worth tens of millions of dollars culminated in a closed hearing at the NSW Supreme Court on Friday, at which the commission secured an order to prevent the sale of the sites in Bankstown unless the order is lifted.
A Herald investigation in January revealed that an Obeid family trust fund had concealed a secret share, worth around $30 million, in land earmarked by the government for high-rise development next to a new Sydney metro station.
Email chains and confidential documents obtained by the Herald showed the Obeid family trust’s status as ultimate beneficiaries of the site had been deliberately hidden behind the ownership of Obeid associate and business partner Walhan Wehbe. Wehbe is not accused of being involved in Obeid’s crimes.
“This has been a marathon exercise in the face of a deliberately complex web of trusts and companies which have allowed the Obeid family to conceal the proceeds of crime,” NSW Crime Commissioner Stephen Dametto said.
“While two previous investigations did not result in the ability to confidently launch proceedings, at no stage did the commission give up.
“Ongoing investigations using coercive powers continued, new evidence was obtained and legislative amendments removing a six-year limit on recovering proceeds of crime provided what we needed to strike in the way we have.”
Authorities have repeatedly tried and failed to reclaim the $30 million that Eddie Obeid gained via a corrupt deal involving a coal exploration licence at Bylongnorth-west of Sydney, for which he was convicted.
The Bankstown site now subject to the crime commission’s caveat is estimated to be worth up to $60 million. The Obeid family trust is potentially entitled to half that amount.
“While achieving the restraining order is an outstanding outcome, it is only the first step,” Dametto said.
“While the commission expects that numerous lengthy legal processes will follow, my message to the directors of the Obeid Corporation is to do the right thing and return the proceeds of Eddie and Moses Obeid’s crimes to the people of NSW.
“Otherwise, the commission will litigate this matter with determination to ensure the tens of millions of dollars acquired in one of the most brazen acts of corruption NSW has seen remain out of the reach of Mr Obeid and his family.”
The Bankstown land, presently home to the dilapidated Bellevue function centre and some leased shops, has been slated by the NSW Department of Planning for a 20-storey residential tower under the state’s transport-oriented development strategy.
The Obeid family trust moved to conceal its interest in the site in May 2018, when the family was facing intense scrutiny over its network of properties and business activities.
Financial documents show the trust fund transferred its 50 per cent stake in a company then named Redpoc Pty Ltd, which owned the site, to Wehbewho owns numerous other properties around Bankstown.
The catch was that Wehbe held the shares on privately agreed terms, stating that any income would flow into an Obeid family trust, according to legal advice given to representatives of the Obeids and Wehbe.
Documents obtained by the Herald outline a complex but lawful accounting strategy deployed by Obeid family accountant Sid Sassine and tax lawyer Rolf Koops.
It meant that, as far as publicly available records held by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission show, the Obeids were no longer connected to the company that owns the land.
Family accountant Sassine had “accomplished miracles with our accounts where others before him had failed”, according to a testimonial on Sassine’s website from members of the Obeid family, deleted five years before the Redpoc transfer.
The accountant gave evidence at an Independent Commission Against Corruption hearing into a corrupt coal deal in 2013denying he was the family’s “frontman” but agreeing he had worked to keep the Obeid name out of the spotlight.
“My role there is to conceal, yes, to hide the name Obeid from the general public, to avoid the hindrance that they’ve consistently had,” Sassine told the inquiry. They are not accused of wrongdoing by the commission.
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