Lebanese loans, Nigerian warehouses revealed in bombshell Nassif report
By Kate McClymont and Max Maddison
Fugitive developer Jean Nassif may face further criminal action over “potential fraud and violation of directors’ duties”, according to an explosive report into his failed property empire by administrators of his development company Toplace.
In a report to creditors, dated February 1, the same day Nassif celebrated his 56th birthday, the administrators also identified millions of dollars of company money which Nassif used to buy land in Lebanon, loan money to his brother and invest in Nigerian warehouses.
The administrators Suelen McCallum and Antony Resnick from the dVT Group said they had received formal demands to produce documents from various authorities including the Independent Commission Against Corruption, NSW Fair Trading, NSW Police and the Australian Taxation Office.
Nassif is believed to be at the centre of an ICAC inquiry over allegations made in NSW parliament by Liberal MP Ray Williams that senior party officials had taken bribes to install pro-Nassif councillors on Hills Shire Council.
Creditors were also told that a meeting was held with the NSW Crime Commission, which has extraordinary powers to investigate serious and organised crime, as well as handling the criminal confiscation of assets program.
June 2023 Nassif, who is believed to be in Lebanon, had a warrant issued for his arrest over an alleged fraud relating to sales contracts used to secure a $150 million Westpac loan on Toplace’s Skyview development in Castle Hill.
Toplace was placed into administration in July. The current administrators were appointed to 57 related entities within the Toplace group. Other insolvency firms are handling other entities within Nassif’s construction group.
The Toplace administrators told creditors that contributing to the collapse of the group was the loss of the company’s building licence in March 2023 primarily due to its failure to make good on serious defects across a number of apartment buildings.
“Toplace has received formal claims from 22 strata bodies to the amount of $123,359,806 to rectify defaults in the various apartment building which they constructed,” the report to creditors said. The Toplace group’s debt is estimated at more than $600 million.
After an audit by the Australian Taxation Office in 2021, Toplace had to pay just under $30 million in income tax, penalties, and interest.
Administrators said that Nassif had failed to keep proper records with often no documentation to substantiate a raft of intercompany loans and cash transfers.
So bad were Toplace’s records that the group’s external accountants from PwC resigned prior to the dVT Group’s appointment due to “critical reservations” about Nassif failing to provide an independent valuation for his property assets, his failure to include all construction costs and his understatement of expenses.
Investigations by the administrators have uncovered a series of questionable loans. For instance, in January 2019, one of Nassif’s companies took $10 million from the Westpac loan facility which was transferred to a Bank of Beirut account belonging to Nassif’s brother Bakhos Nassif. This transaction was recorded as a “Loan – to third party Beirut” and no repayments have been made on the loan.
In 2018, a Nassif company borrowed $7 million from the Bank of Sydney to purchase land in Lebanon. While Nassif’s company repaid the loan, the administrators are now pursuing him personally for repayment of the money, with the $7 million amount attracting interest of $1826 per day.
Another brother, Sarkis Nassif, is a current shareholder of the Bank of Beirut and an independent director of the Bank of Sydney, which is its Australian offshoot.
The administrators also reported Nassif used company money of almost $1.3 million for a “warehouse project” in Nigeria.
Nassif shot to fame on Valentine’s Day 2019 when he posted on social media his gift to his now estranged wife Nissy of a canary-yellow Lamborghini accompanied by Nassif famously saying, “Congratulations, Mrs Nassif. You like?”
In September that year, Jean Nassif was arrested with a bag of cocaine at his wife’s 32nd birthday party at the Star Casino.
RELATED ARTICLE
The yellow Lamborghini appears to have been sold for an undisclosed price to a mysterious buyer.
A luxury Mercedes Benz, worth more than $100,000, currently being driven by Nassif’s daughter Ashlyn has also been identified as an asset by the administrators.
Ashlyn Nassif is due back in court next Wednesday relating to fraud charges over the Toplace loans.
Searches have revealed that the only property in Jean Nassif’s name is his Chiswick waterside mansion. However, the property was unlikely to bring any returns as Nassif used it to secure a number of loans and the house is also subject to current legal proceedings.
There will be a second creditors meeting on February 9.
Start the day with a summary of the day’s most important and interesting stories, analysis and insights. Sign up for our Morning Edition newsletter.
