By Cam Lucadou-Wells
Former mayor Sam Aziz failed in “the most profound way” to disclose more than $1 million of alleged “private benefits” he received as a councillor, an IBAC inquiry into alleged Casey councillor corruption has heard.
IBAC’s assisting counsel Michael Tovey told the Operation Sandon hearing on 1 December that Mr Aziz gained the benefits from “taking advantage of your position as a councillor and selling your influence”.
Mr Aziz disputed “all of that”.
“It’s great to be pulling figures out of the air, but all he’s doing is trashing my reputation.
“This will be all over the media tomorrow and I’ll be accused of taking a million dollars of bribes as usual.
“You know, I’d love to know where all that money is if that’s in fact what I had done.”
According to IBAC, the $1 million of benefits included allegedly $660,000 of “benefits” from property developer John Woodman.
There was the $240,000 or “40 per cent interest” returned to Mr Aziz after he provided $600,000 in a suitcase to Mr Woodman.
Mr Woodman also allegedly paid him consultancy fees for Spicer Thoroughbreds ($22,500) and a Smart Cities project ($298,000).
Mr Aziz received about $250,000 from property firm director Andrew Nehme, and about $45,000 from developer Vlad Kostic – an associate of Jim Group’s former CEO Tino Grossi, Mr Tovey said.
Mr Aziz allegedly gained $150,000 from buying discounted shares from tech company Lodex, which pitched a digital payment platform to Casey Council.
Tech firm IPsoft allegedly paid him $30,800 soon after it signed a contract with Casey to trial an AI robot, Amelia.
Mr Tovey added there was also about $250,000 cash that Mr Aziz “can’t explain”.
“I don’t know where you got that from,” Mr Aziz said .
IBAC Commissioner Robert Redlich said there was a similar repeated “modus operandi” in which Mr Aziz entered into “sham” loans with people who had matters at Casey Council.
“What’s being put to you is that each of those commercial arrangements is a sham and that they have been used by you in order to conceal corrupt payments.”
Mr Aziz said: “I understand that’s the allegation and I totally reject that absolutely. Absolutely.”
Apart from the “very small” $25,000 loan from Mr Grossi, he had “written contracts” to cover the other arrangements, he said.
Mr Aziz said $600,000 of the Woodman money was “my own money being returned to me”.
The interest from Mr Woodman was part of a “legitimate” mezzanine financial arrangement, he said.
“I totally dispute your calculations. You have made many mistakes in your calculations.”
Mr Redlich told Mr Aziz that the Commission was still giving “due deliberation” on whether the payments were “corrupt”.
“You’ve made clear you don’t accept that they were corrupt.
“But regardless … what is clear is that you have in the most profound way failed to meet your integrity obligations as a councillor in terms of your obligations to disclose the private benefits that you were receiving.”
It was difficult to understand Mr Aziz’s “outrage and indignation” about the allegations given Mr Aziz had admitted to failing to disclose private benefits, Mr Redlich said.
Mr Aziz replied that he was “outraged” because his “achievements” at Casey Council “speak for themselves above and beyond any other municipal government not just in Victoria but in the whole of Australia”.
“Sure I failed to declare a conflict of interest on a few occasions.
“But my intention was not malicious nor was it intended to profit from my job.”
