Jozef Imrich, name worthy of Kafka, has his finger on the pulse of any irony of interest and shares his findings to keep you in-the-know with the savviest trend setters and infomaniacs.
''I want to stay as close to the edge as I can without going over. Out on the edge you see all kinds of things you can't see from the center.''
-Kurt Vonnegut
After over 2 decades operating our restaurant Wet Paint in Bronte closing its doors in 2024, we’ve decided to take our hospitality journey in a new direction. We have always loved the vibrant community spirit of Newtown and thought to ourselves “what a great place for an authentic Sandwich Deli.”
We hope to share some the flavour combinations we fell in love with over our twenty four years in the restaurant.
After dark, Lu’s will transform into a dimly lit small plates wine bar headed up by Jack. Our wine direction will focus solely on Australian wines by region. We endeavor to pay homage to both Auutralia's most well known and loved wine regions, as well as the lesser known regions - there are some brilliant wines out there that people do not always get to discover and enjoy.
To compliment - a small plates dinner menu designed to share - featuring some of Wet Paint’s most loved dishes(yes the Louisiana is coming back with a twist).
Our goal is to create a space that is inclusive, full of character and one Newtown is proud of. We care deeply from where we source our wine and produce; local suppliers, organic flour for our house foccacia, and seasonal ingredients.
We look forward to playing our part in this much-loved coommunity and be a place for simply good food, good company and zero bullshit!
Nobody trusts anyone in authority today. It is one of the main features of our age. Wherever you look, there are lying politicians, crooked bankers, corrupt police officers, cheating journalists and double-dealing media barons, sinister children's entertainers, rotten and greedy energy companies, and out-of-control security services.
A trust fund for disgraced former politician Eddie Obeid’s family has concealed a secret share worth up to $30 million in land the government earmarked for high-rise development next to a new Sydney metro station.
Email chains and confidential documents obtained by the Herald show how the Obeid trust deliberately hid its interest in the development goldmine, which is directly across the road from the new Bankstown metro station, which is due to open this year.
Disgraced MP Eddie Obeid’s family trust is set to make $30 million from the Bankstown land site.STEPHEN KIPRILLIS
The land, currently 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 colourful businessman Walhan “Wally” Wehbe, an Obeid associate who owns numerous other properties around Bankstown.
It meant that, as far as publicly available records held by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission show, the Obeids are no longer connected to the company that owns the land.
A 20-storey tower is slated for the site directly across the road from the new Bankstown metro station
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 the complex but lawful accounting strategy deployed by Obeid family accountant Sid Sassine and tax lawyer Rolf Koops.
FROM OUR PARTNERS
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.
Wally Wehbe outside his home in southern Sydney in 2022.SAM MOOY
“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.
In an email sent at 8.50am on May 31, 2018 with the subject line “URGENT: Redpoc Unit Trust – Changes”, Sassine sought advice from Koops, then a tax partner at law firm Madison Marcus, about transferring the Obeid family’s 50 per cent share in the trust that owned the Bankstown site to Wehbe.
In the event of a transfer “a Deed of Trust will be required, to be held off record, stating that this 50% will always be held for the benefit of Obeid Corp Pty Ltd ATF [as trustee for] Obeid Family Trust No. 1”, Sassine wrote.
“The clients are pushing to have this finalised by this Friday [the following day] please, as matters are now moving very quickly.”
Koops replied at 10.13am: “I have been thinking about this – and I am confident there is an alternative way – which will not trigger any stamp duty consequences – a significant saving and achieve the commercial objectives.
“Essentially the asset ie the units can be split away and held by another trustee eg Wally’s entity – there is no change in ownership – just a change in trustee. For tax and accounting, ownership is the same.”
At 2.16pm, Sassine reiterated to Koops that he should provide a “Deed of Nominee stating that Wally’s entity will be holding the units in Trust for Obeid Family Trust No.1”.
Amendments to the Obeid Family Trust No.1 were recorded as being made on the same day to include Wehbe Investments Pty Ltd as an additional trustee, and the register of the Redpoc Unit Trust was updated to reflect the transfer of the Obeid’s half to Wehbe, according to documents obtained by the Herald.
The Bellevue function centre has seen better days but it stands to net its owner a lucrative payday.WOLTER PETERS
Obeid Family Trust No.1 was described during an ICAC hearing in 2012 as a “pond of money” where many sources of income from family business interests were pooled and then loaned back to family members.
In a separate email on June 8, Koops wrote to the directors of Obeid Corporation Pty Ltd and Wehbe Investments Pty Ltd confirming that there was no beneficial change in the ownership of the 50 per cent of Redpoc shares transferred from Obeid to Wehbe.
“Any future income or gain accruing to the 50 units is for the account of OFT1 [Obeid Family Trust No.1] and must be dealt with accordingly,” he wrote.
“Wehbe Investments becomes the registered legal holder of the units as a trustee of the OFT1. Unless specifically requested to do so, it is not legally obliged to disclose the existence of the manner in which it holds the units.”
Bellevue site, on the corner of Restwell Street and South Terrace, Bankstown
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When asked about his work for the Obeids and Wehbe, Koops said: “No comment.“
Members of the Obeid family, Wehbe and Sassine did not respond to questions.
The accounting strategy appears to have successfully obscured the Obeid trust’s interest in the development site until now.
In 2022, when consultants appointed by Canterbury-Bankstown Council investigated allegations that then-mayor Khal Asfour was linked to Eddie Obeid and that Obeid stood to benefit from a rezoning of the Bellevue site, the Obeid family trust’s continuing interest in the site was hidden.
The consultant’s report, reviewed and endorsed at the council’s request by barrister Arthur Moses, SC, found “there is no evidence that Mr Eddie Obeid has any ownership associated or interest with the Bellevue venue site”.
The site was selected for high-rise development of up to 65 metres, or about 20 storeys, as part of a rezoning proposal released by the Department of Planning in 2024.
The project has not been subject to a recent formal valuation, but a source with knowledge of the plans said $60 million was a conservative valuation that was in line with other similar developments around Sydney. The Obeids would be lawfully entitled to half of the profits.
The land was designated a “key site” by the NSW Planning Department, along with some neighbouring buildings, “due to its proximity to the train and metro stations and its central location”.
The site has had a chequered history since Eddie Obeid and Wehbe, who already owned the Golden Nights nightclub on Restwell Street next to the Bellevue, bought it for $5.2 million in 1989.
Corrupt former Labor MP Eddie Obeid pictured as he left Long Bay jail in August 2025.SAM MOOY
The pair had trouble raising funds to complete the sale, and by 1991, Bankstown Council had commenced legal action to wind up their company over unpaid rates.
A loan of $4.9 million from NAB was secured in 1992 but by 1994, the debt had climbed, and the bank threatened foreclosure.
In September that year, a company called Dakmint approached NAB offering to buy out the function centre’s debt for just over $2.1 million – an offer the bank accepted, writing off $2.5 million.
One of Dakmint’s directors was the editor of the Obeid-owned newspaper El Telegraph, and the company’s phone number was Eddie Obeid’s direct line at Parliament House, the Heraldhas previously reported.
In 1998, Wehbe and Paul Obeid took over the reins at Dakmint, regaining control of the site for Wehbe and the Obeid family.
Wehbe and Eddie Obeid have pursued several other joint ventures, including an attempt to get into the lucrative live sheep trade to Syria, and various property plays around NSW.
In 2004, the pair took a stake in Equitexx, a trust company set up by Sassine, that bought industrial land in Abbotsford for $10.5 million and sold it two years later for $17 million after it had been rezoned residential.
Eddie Obeid, 81, was released from Long Bay prison on parole in August 2025 after serving three years and 10 months behind bars for conspiracy to commit misconduct in public office.
As a condition of his release on parole, Obeid is barred from engaging in any activity involving the control of money or assets of other people or organisations.
There is no suggestion that Obeid has engaged in any such activity since those parole conditions were recently imposed.
Authorities have repeatedly tried and failed to reclaim the $30 million that Eddie Obeid gained via the corrupt deal, which involved a coal exploration licence at Bylong, north-west of Sydney, for which he was convicted.
The NSW Crime Commission in April said the money had been filtered through a series of discretionary family trusts and mingled with lawfully obtained money, making recovery of the corruptly obtained cash impossible.
Outgoing NSW Crime Commission chief Michael Barnes said at the time: “There is not $30 million sitting in a pot somewhere that we can just go and snaffle.“
A year into Donald Trump’s second term, friends who live outside the United States continue to express shock at the news that comes from this country, often mixed with concern for my safety.
One of the alleged masterminds of a $120 million GST scam has been slapped with orders preventing him from leaving Australia.
Mark Toma, former director of collapsed hospitality group Virtical, applied to the Federal Court to appeal a Departure Prevention Order issued by the Tax Office, and in the process revealed the restrictions on his travel.
Former Virtical director Mark Toma (right) walking out of the Federal Court after his examination last March. Michael Quelch
The ATO has been investigating $120 million in claimed GST refunds for construction work that is alleged to have never happened.
It is alleged Virtical owes the tax office $245 million, including $80 million of penalties, other debts and interest. If proven, it would count as the biggest GST fraud in Australia’s history.
Companies claim refunds for GST paid on business expenses if the expenses surpass their income for that period, although the receipts have to be provided only in the case of an audit.
The refunds were claimed using invoices from Top Class Constructions, of which Toma was director from 2017 to 2023.
BRI Ferrier liquidators filed a Federal Court action against Toma and another former Virtical director John Palasty last June. They allege the pair ripped off taxpayers through a “dishonest and fraudulent” operation.
It is unclear whether Palasty has the same travel restrictions. If so, he has not filed to appeal them.
Toma’s lawyer declined to comment.
‘I don’t remember’
Virtical burst onto the scene in 2023 as it scooped up famous pubs and hotels such as Sydney’s Republic and Melbourne’s Adelphi in a $125 million spending blitz over four months.
The Australian Financial Reviewrevealed in 2024 that Virtical, Toma and Palasty were under ATO investigation. Weeks later, Virtical collapsed as a lender owed $90 million forced its companies into liquidation.
When Toma and Palasty were grilled by liquidators in court over the collapse, each pointed the finger at each other over the tens of millions of dollars of GST claims based on $1.2 billion in construction work that the ATO claimed did not happen.
Toma responded “I don’t remember” to many questions from the liquidator’s lawyers, ranging from what his role was at Top Class Constructions to whether he finished kindergarten or primary school. Although, he alleged Palasty had prepared all of Top Class Constructions invoices and instructed a tax agent to lodge them for GST refunds.
Palasty, a twice bankrupt developer, took over as Virtical director from Toma, an ex-building materials salesman, in November 2023 after acting as the group’s development manager and senior adviser.
After leaving Virtical, Toma dedicated himself to short-term money lending firm Bond Global Capital, which boasted on its website at the time that Toma had netted $45 million from the sale of his Virtical shares “further solidifying his reputation as a financial luminary”.
“Mark’s astute investments have left an indelible mark on the real estate landscape,” his website said, noting his “remarkable achievements continue to inspire and set a standard of excellence for the industry”.
Toma admitted under oath last year that the sale price for his Virtical shares had been negotiated down from $45 million to $25 million, and he ended up receiving between $9 million and $10 million.
Palasty was discharged from his second bankruptcy in early 2023. Amid the collapse of the company in September 2024, Palasty stepped down and sold his shares in many of the group’s failed companies to 27-year-old man from Mount Hunter, a rural town 70 kilometres south-west of Sydney.
Liquidators allege Toma and Palasty were the directors of Virtical and that even after Toma’s resignation in late 2023, he acted as “true controller” of the company.
Max Mason covers financial crime, courts and corporate wrongdoing. Message Max on Signal https://tinyurl.com/MaxMason Connect with Max on Twitter. Email Max at max.mason@afr.com
