Ex-NSW Liberal councillor is CEO of property developer raided in fraud investigation

A former member of the state executive of the NSW Liberal Party is CEO of a property development company that is the subject of a major fraud investigation and an inquiry in the state’s Parliament.  

Jeff Egan is the CEO of Toplace, owned by colourful property developer Jean Nassif who is currently residing in rural Lebanon.

On Tuesday, the NSW Organised Crime Squad raided the company’s offices and three other venues as part of the fraud investigation. The Sydney Morning Herald reported that police claim Nassif and his daughter Ashlyn secured approval for a $150 million credit application from Westpac by allegedly deceiving the bank with fraudulent pre-sales contracts.

Ashlyn, 27, is a lawyer and an alternative director of Toplace. NSW Police confirmed to Crikey she was arrested and charged with dishonestly obtaining a financial advantage by deception and publishing false or misleading material to obtain an advantage. Her father has not been charged. Police confirmed it is an ongoing investigation.

Egan is a former member of the state executive of the NSW Liberal Party, a former councillor on the Blue Mountains City Council, and a former member of the executive of the NSW Local Government Association. He is aligned with the right-wing faction of the party. There is no evidence or suggestion that he received any money from Toplace before his employment with them. 

On Wednesday he declined to discuss the raid, saying it was a police matter. He denied that his new position raised questions about a conflict of interest, saying that it was “common practice for former politicians on both sides of Parliament to obtain jobs in the corporate sector after leaving office”.

“For now it is up to each individual to manage potential conflicts of interest by complying with the current government procedures and policies,” he said.

“However, there is also room for individuals to go beyond these requirements. In my case I made a decision not to contact Liberal Party councillors about council matters once I commenced my current employment with Toplace.”

Integrity campaigner Geoff Watson SC said there were no rules preventing a former or current office-holder of a local government position from having a position in a private enterprise that interacts with government.

“Bizarrely, you can have a property developer who operates within an LGA actually elected to council,” Watson said.

When asked why Egan had been appointed to the job as CEO when he had no qualifications or experience in property development, Egan replied that he had a background in management, corporate governance and cultural change.

“I was employed by Toplace to change the culture of the company and improve its corporate governance,” he said.

“Since starting with Toplace a short time ago, we have successfully introduced a wide range of reforms which have improved the quality of our product, corporate governance and the way staff interact with our customers. In addition, we have introduced a staff code of conduct to manage potential conflicts of interest.”

Toplace and the Hills Shire Council have been in the spotlight due to statements by NSW Liberal MP Ray Williams. He told Parliament last June that senior members of his party had been “paid significant funds in order to arrange to put new councillors on the Hills Shire Council”, councillors who would allegedly support future development applications for Nassif’s company.

Williams’ statements, made under parliamentary privilege, triggered an upper house inquiry, which has so far unsuccessfully sought to obtain evidence from six witnesses, including two brothers of NSW Premier Dominic Perottet, Charles and Jean-Claude. Officials have made valiant but ultimately fruitless attempts to serve them with summons to appear.

The committee has also tried to serve Egan with a summons to appear, but he said Wednesday that he was unable to be reached as he is currently on leave. He has given the committee a statement but declined to provide Crikey with a copy.

In his speech to NSW Parliament, Williams’ allegations went to the heart of debates around control of the Liberal Party and influence of the state’s most controversial business sector: property development.

Williams, the state member for Castle Hill, said that at council elections in December 2021 the former popularly elected mayor Michelle Byrne and six sitting Liberal councillors were replaced by the Liberal Party state executive without the normal preselection process. 

The party’s state executive subsequently endorsed new Liberal councillors to run in the election without explanation, Williams said. 

Byrne, who served on the council for 12 years, including three stints as mayor, told the inquiry two weeks ago that her removal may have been linked to her anti-development philosophy.

“Get the pain-in-the-butt mayor out of the way [who] is perceived as anti-development and have a better chance of getting things through without me in the way, jacking up, and fighting against it,” she said.

“I started to feel pressure that if I didn’t change my stance on development … it was going to cost me.”

At the upper house inquiry, businessman Frits Mare gave evidence that 26-year-old Jean-Claude Perrottet, together with former Liberal state executive member Christian Ellis, had asked Mare for $50,000 in 2019 to fund a branch-stacking operation against a factional enemy, federal MP Alex Hawke.  

Mare, who is not accused of wrongdoing, said he declined to give any money and had not seen either man since. 

The Hills District in Sydney’s north west has been ground zero of a bitter factional war for years, with the conservative hard-right and centre-right factions both resorting to industrial-level branch-stacking in an attempt to gain power.

Dominic Perrottet has denounced the inquiry as a “political hit job” only weeks out from the NSW election on March 25. 

It will sit again on Thursday morning to hear from one witness. The committee has to report by midnight on Thursday before the preelection caretaker period begins on March 3.

Williams told Parliament last June that if “senior members of the Liberal Party … received financial benefit from Jean Nassif of Toplace in order to put new councillors on the Hills Shire Council, who would subsequently be supportive of development applications on behalf of Toplace, then my community has good reason to be concerned.

“This issue must be investigated.”