A factional figure has denied he requested to be fitted with a wire before a meeting with fellow Liberals and said he can’t recall a plan to have YouTuber FriendlyJordies run a negative documentary on a New South Wales minister, an inquiry has heard.
Jeremy Greenwood told the Independent Commission Against Corruption on Wednesday that a request to be “wire[d] … for sound” before a meeting with fellow Liberals was a “just a silly comment”.
Icac is investigating the allegation Greenwood, Charles Perrottet and Christian Ellis, shared in $2m in payments between 2020 and 2023 from fugitive developer Jean Nassif or his company Toplace in exchange for political outcomes.
They allegedly included the removal of the building commissioner, David Chandler, and damage to the to the career of former NSW Liberal minister, David Elliott.
Greenwood and Charles Perrottet, who is a brother of the former premier Dominic Perrottet, have denied taking illegal political donations. Ellis is overseas and is not expected to give evidence during the hearings. Dominic Perrottet is not a person of interest in Icac’s inquiry and is not accused of any wrongdoing.
Greenwood was asked on Wednesday about a message he wrote to Toplace executive, Sharangan Maheswaran, ahead of a meeting with Liberal figures, in which he wrote: “Can I get Shane to wire me for sound tomorrow, and you guys pick up the bill?”
Maheswaran replied: “I can give you the equipment, or Shane can”.
Accepting the message referred to a private investigator employed by Toplace, Greenwood said it was a “silly” or “stupid comment”, and he did not believe the meeting took place.
Counsel assisting, Peggy Dwyer SC, suggested the message did not appear to be a joke and put to Greenwood that “it looks like you had previously discussed with Mr Maheswaran recording a conversation that you could use at a different time”.
Greenwood said: “No, no, because again, the meeting never happened. There was no intention for anything like that.”
He was asked about a message Maheswaran sent to him in which Maheswaran wrote: “Let’s get that material to FriendlyJordies, a one-hour documentary on [Elliott], and then follow it up by releasing the mistress photo”.
Greenwood accepted the message likely referred to Elliott but said he could not recall what material Maheswaran was referring to. The inquiry was previously told that Greenwood and members of conservative factional group the Reformers created a “shit sheet” to discredit Elliott, including an allegation of an extramarital affair which Elliott has strenuously denied and witnesses including Greenwood have accepted is untrue.
Maheswaran, who is named as a person of interest in a separate Icac allegation, and has previously denied any wrongdoing, is expected to appear before the commission later this week.
Greenwood was asked about efforts to discredit Chandler, including a message he wrote in June 2021 to Maheswaran about a plan to “kill off” stories critical of defects in Toplace appartments, and to “get a story up about how the commissioner is a loose cannon fucking up”.
He admitted to passing on a video of Chandler claiming he had an “informal list” of dodgy certifiers he had provided to the banks to a journalist and Charles Perrottet, but denied he, Ellis and Perrottet had a joint strategy to discredit the buildling commissioner.
Asked why he continued to brief a journalist about Chandler after his July 2022 resignation, he said he was “just helping a friend” rather than being paid to discredit Chandler.
After Greenwood said he became “sick of hearing about” the building commissioner from Nassif, Dwyer asked if he had ever told him or Maheswaran that “one way to get the building commissioner off your back is just actually make sure that your buildings are up to scratch”. Greenwood said he may have told Maheswaran this.
‘The Porsche comes in January’
On Monday, Greenwood told the commission about an agreement made in April 2020 with Nassif under which lobbying company Beckington, controlled by him and Ellis, would be awarded $1m for each of up to five Toplace projects, if they were able to have them fast-tracked.
Following the agreement, the men allegedly discussed whether to buy a Porsche or Ferrari. The inquiry heard on Wednesday that after Greenwood complained about a lack of payment from Toplace, Ellis messaged him in December 2020 that an invoice of $400,000 had been paid.
“Good because the Porsche comes in January and I’m getting worried, but it’s also just really disrespectful from him [Nassif],” responded Greenwood.
In subsequent messages, he described Nassif as a “fuckwit” and said he had told Maheswaran that Nassif was “fucking the relationship”.
Greenwood has said the only written record of the agreement was a note once stored in the back of the Toplace general manager’s phone case. He claimed it contained the names of two of the projects, was folded in half, and was “fuchsia” or “purple-pink” in colour.
Dwyer suggested he had made up the piece of paper, which he accepted he had not mentioned in a preliminary interview with Icac.
Dwyer said: “That’s because it was a recent invention that you came up with on Monday or prior to Monday to explain that arrangement, isn’t it?”
“No, that’s absolutely incorrect,” Greenwood said.
On Wednesday, Greenwood told the inquiry that Toplace executive, Sharangan Maheswaran – who he said was a “very close friend” – acted personally for him as a solicitor, accepting he once paid Maheswaran $30,000.
He said Maheswaran had not advised him “specifically” about a potential conflict of interest. Dwyer put it to him “that the threads of your story pull apart very quickly”.
“Really?” responded Greenwood.
After Greenwood said he was “not across legal conflicts”, Dwyer said it was “an obvious one for a lawyer or a non-lawyer you can’t have the same solicitor appearing for two clients when one’s trying to stop the other one getting an amount of money”.
“It’s not rocket science, it it?” she said.
Nassif is scheduled to appear via video link from Lebanon. He withdrew from an appearance last week after providing a medical certificate.
The inquiry continues.
