Source : the age
Jeremy Greenwood has finished his questioning today but the corruption inquiry has heard that Greenwood will likely be needed back to finish his evidence.
There was some discussion about availability, so Greenwood will be back either on Friday or some time next week – we’re waiting to hear from ICAC staff on that.
There’s been a late change to the witness list and Sharangan Maheswaran will now likely appear next week, rather than tomorrow as scheduled. He was Jean Nassif’s right-hand man at Toplace, and was once a Labor councillor on Strathfield Council.
For now, let’s take a look at what we covered today:
- Jeremy Greenwood texted Sharangan Maheswaran asking if a private investigator could “wire me for sound” ahead of a meeting he was set to attend with Liberal Party figures. Greenwood denied he ever secretly recorded anyone, and said it was just a stupid comment.
- Anita Perrottet was paid significant sums of money for genuine work including providing a “mum’s perspective” on a vaping campaign, Greenwood said. She was paid over $660,000 by Greenwood’s company for oral advice with no written evidence of work done, the ICAC has previously heard.
- Greenwood was accused of making up evidence he gave earlier this week about a pink piece of paper tucked inside a Toplace staffer’s phone case being the only record of an offer Nassif made to pay Beckington $1 million per project they secured on the state government’s fast-track program. He denied fabricating evidence.
- Greenwood continued to contact journalists with tips for negative stories about the then building commissioner David Chandler even after he resigned, the ICAC heard. Greenwood denied that he was being paid to damage Chandler’s career.
The corruption inquiry is hearing details about work Jeremy Greenwood says Anita Perrottet did to justify significant payments which did not have any written evidence.
Some of that work included advice for a vaping campaign, Greenwood said. The pair discussed a strategy to promote legal vaping as a way to combat the black market, and reducing flavours likely to appeal to children.
“She was very effective with that one, she also gave sort of a mum’s perspective,” Greenwood said.
“That’s what you were paying her for. Is that correct?” Peggy Dwyer, SC, asked.
“No, I was paying for all that amazing advice she just gave,” Greenwood said.
Greenwood told the commission he had no idea why an invoice sent from Anita Perrottet’s company Macquarie Consulting was actually signed off by her husband Charles. He also did not know why instead of invoicing monthly, the first invoice from Macquarie Consulting was for a lump sum of $220,000.
Jeremy Greenwood is being asked to explain inconsistencies between evidence he previously gave, and what Anita Perrottet told the ICAC.
Greenwood gave evidence during a private hearing that he had weekly zoom meetings with Perrottet that would sometimes be an hour long.
Anita Perrottet gave evidence that their meetings were ad hoc and flexible, and contact was either using her husband Charles’s phone or in person.
The ICAC heard there are no emails reflecting any work being done by Anita Perrottet that have been found by the commission, and no phone records showing direct calls between her and Greenwood.
Greenwood told the commission today that he lived nearby the Perrottets when they lived in Sydney and he remembered meeting her at her home, but he previously said he may have gone to Anita Perrottet’s home at some point, but the majority of work was done over the computer.
“I suggest to you that the reason that you and Anita haven’t got your stories straight is because Anita was not working for Beckington genuinely at that time,” Peggy Dwyer, SC, asked.
“No, she definitely was,” Greenwood said.
Peggy Dwyer, SC, has pressed Jeremy Greenwood about why he never mentioned during previous hearings that payments to Macquarie Consulting were partly to reflect advice given by Charles Perrottet.
Dwyer took Greenwood to evidence he gave during closed doors hearings in 2023, 2024, 2025, and 2026 when he was repeatedly asked if Beckington had any financial arrangements with Perrottet.
Greenwood said on multiple occasions that Perrottet wasn’t remunerated for his advice.
He also said it would have been his idea to engage Perrottet’s wife Anita as a contractor. Earlier today Greenwood said it was actually Charles Perrottet’s idea for Beckington to engage his wife in lieu of paying him for advice he gave to benefit Toplace.
“There’s an effort from both myself and the commissioner to ask you a question that would elicit an answer about any money shared through Macquarie Consulting with Charles Perrottet, but you decline to tell the commission about this arrangement, do you agree?” Dwyer asked.
Greenwood said his evidence was truthful, he didn’t believe Anita Perrottet’s company Macquarie Consulting receiving money for Charles’s advice amounted to compensation for Charles Perrottet.
Assistant commissioner Fabian Gleeson, SC, has intervened to urge Jeremy Greenwood not to deflect when answering questions.
Peggy Dwyer, SC, asked Greenwood to explain how his company Beckington decided to give a portion of a $1 million payment they anticipated receiving from Jean Nassif to Anita Perrottet’s company Macquarie Consulting.
“I can’t recall exactly, sorry, I don’t mean to be annoying with this answer, but it’s very much a Christian question because he handled that,” Greenwood said.
“Please, Mr Greenwood, do not deflect,” Gleeson interjected.
“I’m trying, that’s why I made the disclaimer,” Greenwood retorted.
“We don’t need your disclaimer,” Gleeson said. “We don’t need deflection. We want the evidence that you can give, not making suggestions that other people, who are not going to attend this inquiry, so far as we are aware, might be able to assist.”
Christian Ellis is in the UK and has been offered the option of giving evidence over video-link, but has so far failed to appear as a witness.
Payments made from Beckington to Anita Perrottet’s company Macquarie Consulting was in part for genuine work did providing marketing advice, and partly for advice Charles Perrottet provided to benefit their work for Jean Nassif’s projects, the ICAC has heard.
Charles Perrottet earlier gave evidence that money paid to his wife’s company was partly for advice he fave Greenwood and Christian Ellis, including that Toplace should join the Property Council and informing them about a fast track process for developments.
Greenwood said he had heard that evidence from Perrottet, and believed there was actually more to his advice than that.
“Your evidence is completely different, isn’t it?” Peggy Dwyer, SC, asked.
The public hearing has returned from the lunch break, and Peggy Dwyer, SC, has asked Jeremy Greenwood if he was a creditor of Toplace, which collapsed in 2023 after Jean Nassif fled to Lebanon.
“I don’t know the full details, but I’ve been receiving emails from the administrator,” Greenwood said.
“How much do you claim that you are owed?” Dwyer asked.
“I haven’t pursued it because my view is I’ll probably receive 10 cents,” Greenwood said.
Assistant commissioner Fabian Gleeson, SC, ordered Greenwood to produce any documents relating to his companies Beckington or JPG Advisory being a creditor of Toplace by tomorrow morning.
Jeremy Greenwood is now being asked why he continued to discuss negative rumours about David Chandler, even after he had resigned from his position as building commissioner.
The ICAC heard evidence that Greenwood shared texts with a journalist with allegations about Chandler after he tendered his resignation.
“My understanding is there’s a lot more to it, there were several allegations of corruption by him coming into government – Eleni extended him an offer to resign rather than being sacked and save face. He took resign and then ran her down,” Greenwood texted a journalist.
Eleni Petinos was the minister for fair trading, who was sacked by then premier Dominic Perrottet after allegations of bullying. Chandler then agreed to stay on as building commissioner, and rescinded his letter of resignation.
Jeremy Greenwood is being taken to different times he worked to spread negative stories about then building commissioner David Chandler.
Texts shown to the ICAC showed Greenwood and Sharangan Maheswaran discussing an SO52 about Chandler, a parliamentary process used to produce documents held by government departments and ministers.
Maheswaran sent Greenwood a video of Chandler and a transcript of his appearance at a budget estimates hearing, and asked if he could pass it on to a journalist.
“Bombs away,” Maheswaran texted.
Jeremy Greenwood is now being asked about what role he played in efforts to damage the building commissioner, David Chandler.
Peggy Dwyer, SC, showed Greenwood a document found on the computer of a Toplace staffer listing allegations against Chandler, which Greenwood said he hadn’t seen before, but he told the ICAC that Jean Nassif would discuss similar allegations with him in more colourful language.
Those unfounded allegations included things like “acting in bad faith” and “advising staff that Ray Hadley keeps asking him to look into certain buildings”.
Dwyer then took Greenwood to texts he shared with Sharangan Maheswaran, discussing engaging a media professional to get negative stories about Chandler into the media.
Greenwood texted that he wanted “media to kill off these stories and get a story up about how the commissioner is a loose cannon, f—ing up”.
