By Cam Lucadou-Wells
A property investor offered Casey ex-mayor Sam Aziz a “bit of a kick” during discussions over a land sale in Narre Warren, an IBAC inquiry has heard.
In a secret phone tap on 21 December 2018, Mr Aziz asks his “friend” and Action Group Australia director Andrew Nehme for a personal loan of about $500,000.
Mr Nehme offers to contact a potential private lender ‘Kevin’.
He then requests Mr Aziz to “have a look” at the council providing “comfort” to Action Group’s hopes to sell Casey Lifestyle Centre and nearby offices in Regency Drive.
“Nothing’s going to happen between now and the obvious time but you know where I’m coming from where I’m thinking you could get a bit of a kick out of (the) deposit on the house,” Mr Nehme says.
The purchaser was a “very wealthy mob” Newmark who wanted to relocate Bunnings “out the back”, he says.
There were also plans to open a Kaufland supermarket on the Regency Drive office site.
Three weeks later on a covertly-recorded phone call, Mr Aziz arranges for Casey planning director Peter Fitchett to meet with Newmark.
“I’ve been approached by Andrew (Nehme) because the entire sale is contingent on what might happen in the future in terms of what Council’s contemplation might be.”
Mr Aziz says he wants to “stay at complete arm’s length” but offered to support the proposal with a notice of motion on what’s the best future use of the site.
On the same day, Mr Aziz tells Mr Nehme on a surveilled phone call that Mr Fitchett appeared a “lot more receptive” to the idea of “giving some sort of comfort”.
“It’s probably because of the fact that we’ve currently got a planning review … (we are) putting on hold the renewal of employment contracts for many of our senior planning officers.
“So we’re using this opportunity basically to get the right outcome.”
Mr Aziz says he’s keeping at “arms length” but would be “in the background fighting for the right outcome all the way through”.
“I just want everything to happen in a very clinical fashion as everything that’s happened before.”
At the IBAC Operation Sandon hearing on 18 November, Mr Aziz said he wasn’t sure what the “kick” was.
“I think he was referring to the deposit that he wanted to arrange to help my private refinance go through a lot quicker.
“It was something that was never pursued … I wasn’t comfortable with the whole process of how it’s going.”
Mr Aziz said he instead secured finance from a public lender.
IBAC heard that finance was secured on 11 January 2019 – two days after the tapped calls with Mr Fitchett and Mr Nehme.
IBAC Commissioner Robert Redlich asked if Mr Aziz regarded Mr Nehme’s approach as an “improper inducement”.
“The answer is no,” Mr Aziz replied.
“And the reason it’s no is because there was no decision making in my hands. Why would someone offer someone a bribe…”
There was no conflict of interest representing Mr Nehme’s request because he was conducting “advocacy” to council officers who make the decision, Mr Aziz said.
He said that he was highlighting “job creation” as an objective to Mr Fitchett.
“Nobody was going to lose their job” in the planning review – “and that’s not a decision for a councillor to make”.
He knew Mr Fitchett was months from retiring at the time, he told the inquiry.
Mr Aziz was not ‘fighting in the background’ for comfort given to the purchaser, but for “global issues to do with the future of planning and strategic planning in the City of Casey”, he said.
Action Group bought the lifestyle centre and nearby offices in Regency Drive from Casey Council for $28 million in 2016.
The sell-off was supported by Mr Aziz through council motions over several years.
He denies that he assisted Mr Nehme because councillors were kept away from the sale tender process.
Mr Aziz told the IBAC inquiry he became friends with Mr Neime after the sale in July 2016.
In September that year, Mr Nehme transferred $21,000 into Mr Aziz’s then-wife’s account.
Mr Nehme allegedly lent a further $230,000 to Mr Aziz via his wife’s account in October and November – what IBAC’s counsel-assisting claimed was a “fabrication” to defraud his ex-wife in divorce proceedings.
In 2013, Mr Nehme wrote to Action Group’s Kuwait parent company’s Sheik Mubarak Al-Sabah that Mr Aziz “feels compelled to respond with a favour to me”.
Mr Aziz told the inquiry the “favour” was “definitely an overstatement”. He said he had no relationship with Mr Nehme at the time.
“There was no expectation that there will be a return favour.
“The process was going to be a long and highly regulated exercise on the part of the City of Casey and I have no power to compel or force the sale of the property.”
