‘If you harm my project, I’ll harm you’: former NSW official tells Icac about fugitive developer’s call
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.
“He just basically said: Don’t you harm my project, and if you harm my project, I’ll harm you,” Chandler said, recalling a phone call with Nassif in 2021.
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.
“It seemed to be an intentional campaign to white ant me,” Chandler told Icac.
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.
Chandler suggested he and the Toplace executives immediately go to the police, but Maheswaran said they were not sure about its origins and were still investigating.
Chandler took contemporaneous notes and reported it to his departmental head, Emma Hogan, who ordered an internal audit.
Icac heard Toplace executives did not engage with the departmental inquiry, and Chandler was cleared.
“So they could see that this – that is the extortion attempt allegation – was going to be of no assistance in getting the occupation certificate?” the counsel assisting, Juliet Curtin, asked.
“None,” Chandler replied.
The second example of an alleged pressure campaign was a video which showed Chandler telling workers on a building site that he had an “informal list” of dodgy certifiers which he had provided to the banks. In the video Chandler says the industry needs to become more professional.
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The inquiry heard the video was reported by The Australian in June 2022, with the paper suggesting it showed Chandler had misled an earlier parliamentary committee about whether he regulated certifiers.
It led to another internal investigation by Hogan and the department. Chandler was cleared, but it was suggested he undertake internal training.
The video was also raised with the then-minister for fair trading, Eleni Petinos, who was Chandler’s boss at the time.
Petinos and her chief of staff, Cassandra Lawry, gave evidence last week about being shown the video by Chris Spence, the chief of staff to the then-planning minister, Anthony Roberts, in May 2022 and it having been raised on other occasions in June of that year.
Petinos and Lawry both told the commission they later came to believe that they were being used in a campaign to destabilise the commissioner.
Petinos, Lawry and Spence are not persons of interest in the inquiry.
Petinos had replaced the former minister, Kevin Anderson, in a reshuffle when Dominic Perrottet became premier in October 2021.
In a tape played during the opening of the inquiry, Nassif was heard to say that Perrottet had agreed to replace the fair trading minister, Kevin Anderson, with Petinos, whom he described as “my girl”.
Chandler said he had noticed at the time a couple of media stories that appeared to discredit the minister. “So there was just that atmosphere of, he’s not doing a good job or that his role is under review,” he said.
In July 2022 Chandler resigned, citing a lack of confidence in him from the minister and undue pressure from developers.
“I just didn’t want to risk being asked to leave a role with a shadow like that. So I thought, well, the best thing to do is to avoid that risk,” he said.
“So whether I was overreaching in how I felt at the time, I can’t speculate on that now, but I would have been very, very unhappy with having the final day in office being that I had lost the confidence of the minister and that the secretary was asked to make other arrangements.”
Chandler was later reinstated and served as building commissioner until 2024.
The inquiry continues.
Read the full story at The Guardian ↗
Former building commissioner David Chandler told inquiry of clashes with ‘loud and overbearing’ developer Jean Nassif. Get our breaking news email , free app or daily news…
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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.
“He just basically said: Don’t you harm my project, and if you harm my project, I’ll harm you,” Chandler said, recalling a phone call with Nassif in 2021.
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.
“It seemed to be an intentional campaign to white ant me,” Chandler told Icac.
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.
Chandler suggested he and the Toplace executives immediately go to the police, but Maheswaran said they were not sure about its origins and were still investigating.
Chandler took contemporaneous notes and reported it to his departmental head, Emma Hogan, who ordered an internal audit.
Icac heard Toplace executives did not engage with the departmental inquiry, and Chandler was cleared.
“So they could see that this – that is the extortion attempt allegation – was going to be of no assistance in getting the occupation certificate?” the counsel assisting, Juliet Curtin, asked.
“None,” Chandler replied.
The second example of an alleged pressure campaign was a video which showed Chandler telling workers on a building site that he had an “informal list” of dodgy certifiers which he had provided to the banks. In the video Chandler says the industry needs to become more professional.
after newsletter promotion
The inquiry heard the video was reported by The Australian in June 2022, with the paper suggesting it showed Chandler had misled an earlier parliamentary committee about whether he regulated certifiers.
It led to another internal investigation by Hogan and the department. Chandler was cleared, but it was suggested he undertake internal training.
The video was also raised with the then-minister for fair trading, Eleni Petinos, who was Chandler’s boss at the time.
Petinos and her chief of staff, Cassandra Lawry, gave evidence last week about being shown the video by Chris Spence, the chief of staff to the then-planning minister, Anthony Roberts, in May 2022 and it having been raised on other occasions in June of that year.
Petinos and Lawry both told the commission they later came to believe that they were being used in a campaign to destabilise the commissioner.
Petinos, Lawry and Spence are not persons of interest in the inquiry.
Petinos had replaced the former minister, Kevin Anderson, in a reshuffle when Dominic Perrottet became premier in October 2021.
In a tape played during the opening of the inquiry, Nassif was heard to say that Perrottet had agreed to replace the fair trading minister, Kevin Anderson, with Petinos, whom he described as “my girl”.
Chandler said he had noticed at the time a couple of media stories that appeared to discredit the minister. “So there was just that atmosphere of, he’s not doing a good job or that his role is under review,” he said.
In July 2022 Chandler resigned, citing a lack of confidence in him from the minister and undue pressure from developers.
“I just didn’t want to risk being asked to leave a role with a shadow like that. So I thought, well, the best thing to do is to avoid that risk,” he said.
“So whether I was overreaching in how I felt at the time, I can’t speculate on that now, but I would have been very, very unhappy with having the final day in office being that I had lost the confidence of the minister and that the secretary was asked to make other arrangements.”
Chandler was later reinstated and served as building commissioner until 2024.
The inquiry continues.
Read the full story at The Guardian ↗
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.
“He just basically said: Don’t you harm my project, and if you harm my project, I’ll harm you,” Chandler said, recalling a phone call with Nassif in 2021.
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.
“It seemed to be an intentional campaign to white ant me,” Chandler told Icac.
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.
Chandler suggested he and the Toplace executives immediately go to the police, but Maheswaran said they were not sure about its origins and were still investigating.
Chandler took contemporaneous notes and reported it to his departmental head, Emma Hogan, who ordered an internal audit.
Icac heard Toplace executives did not engage with the departmental inquiry, and Chandler was cleared.
“So they could see that this – that is the extortion attempt allegation – was going to be of no assistance in getting the occupation certificate?” the counsel assisting, Juliet Curtin, asked.
“None,” Chandler replied.
The second example of an alleged pressure campaign was a video which showed Chandler telling workers on a building site that he had an “informal list” of dodgy certifiers which he had provided to the banks. In the video Chandler says the industry needs to become more professional.
after newsletter promotion
The inquiry heard the video was reported by The Australian in June 2022, with the paper suggesting it showed Chandler had misled an earlier parliamentary committee about whether he regulated certifiers.
It led to another internal investigation by Hogan and the department. Chandler was cleared, but it was suggested he undertake internal training.
The video was also raised with the then-minister for fair trading, Eleni Petinos, who was Chandler’s boss at the time.
Petinos and her chief of staff, Cassandra Lawry, gave evidence last week about being shown the video by Chris Spence, the chief of staff to the then-planning minister, Anthony Roberts, in May 2022 and it having been raised on other occasions in June of that year.
Petinos and Lawry both told the commission they later came to believe that they were being used in a campaign to destabilise the commissioner.
Petinos, Lawry and Spence are not persons of interest in the inquiry.
Petinos had replaced the former minister, Kevin Anderson, in a reshuffle when Dominic Perrottet became premier in October 2021.
In a tape played during the opening of the inquiry, Nassif was heard to say that Perrottet had agreed to replace the fair trading minister, Kevin Anderson, with Petinos, whom he described as “my girl”.
Chandler said he had noticed at the time a couple of media stories that appeared to discredit the minister. “So there was just that atmosphere of, he’s not doing a good job or that his role is under review,” he said.
In July 2022 Chandler resigned, citing a lack of confidence in him from the minister and undue pressure from developers.
“I just didn’t want to risk being asked to leave a role with a shadow like that. So I thought, well, the best thing to do is to avoid that risk,” he said.
“So whether I was overreaching in how I felt at the time, I can’t speculate on that now, but I would have been very, very unhappy with having the final day in office being that I had lost the confidence of the minister and that the secretary was asked to make other arrangements.”
Chandler was later reinstated and served as building commissioner until 2024.
The inquiry continues.
Read the full story at The Guardian ↗
This lens runs the verified story through Cinnamon's AI — wired in the next step.
- Former building commissioner David Chandler told inquiry of clashes with ‘loud and overbearing’ developer Jean Nassif.
- Get our breaking news email , free app or daily news…