By Cam Lucadou-Wells
Casey ex-mayor Sam Aziz has denied being paid by a Narre Warren North developer under the guise of wedding presents, a wedding cake, bunches of flowers and coffees, an IBAC inquiry has alleged.
In tapped calls played at the Operation Sandon hearing on 1 December, Mr Aziz and his friend and Jim’s Group ex-CEO ‘Tino’ Grossi spoke what IBAC alleges was “code” for payments of up to $45,000 from developer Zlatimir Kostic.
Mr Aziz denied at the hearing that he “extorted” Mr Kostic who sought to halve lot sizes in the Kostic Boulevard estate about the same time in 2018.
The amendment led to an estimated $14 million windfall for the developer, according to Casey planners, IBAC heard.
Mr Aziz said he raised the issue with council officers and then had “no more involvement”.
“I don’t extort money from anyone and, no, in this instance absolutely not.
“I had no financial arrangement on any level with Mr Kostic.
“I don’t believe that Mr Grossi had anything to do with any of Mr Kostic’s affairs with the City of Casey.”
At IBAC, Mr Aziz said Mr Grossi “always spoke in code no matter what conversation we were having”.
“Sometimes we would just have banter and it would go nowhere.”
On 7 October 2018, Mr Aziz tells Mr Grossi that he asked someone for their “postal address for the invitation to the wedding” but the person seemed “pissed off at taking my call”.
“I don’t want any surprises come February, that’s all,” Mr Aziz says.
“We’re doing everything we can from our end. In fact, more than what we can.”
Mr Aziz says it’s unfair for the person to accuse us of “delaying the production of the cake”.
“I gave him, they gave him a full list of ingredients for this to come through.”
Mr Grossi says: “At the end of the day, so long as he gives us a present for the wedding and everything.
“In a couple of weeks he’s said he gonna give you the first present anyway cause he’s pretty excited about you getting married.
“He’s committed to coming to the wedding or it’ll be worse for him.”
At the hearing, Mr Aziz said he received a cash loan of about $25,000 from Mr Grossi to help finalise payment for his wedding reception.
The loan was given at Mr Grossi’s house, not recorded, and had not yet been paid back, Mr Aziz said.
It was offered “as a friend because he knew my financial circumstances were a bit tight”.
“But I had no discussions whatsoever at any level with Mr Kostic about any kind of payment.”
Mr Kostic attended Mr Aziz’s wedding with a gift of between $300 and $400, Mr Aziz told the hearing.
In a series of calls with Mr Grossi, Mr Aziz discuss when he’ll receive his “wedding present”.
On 19 October 2018, Mr Grossi asks if Mr Aziz wanted to come over that night to “choose your partner’s present” or at least to “have a look at half the present anyway”.
At the hearing, Mr Aziz said he may have been referring to the $25,000 loan for wedding preparations.
Mr Grossi may have been trying to conceal the payment from Mr Grossi’s spouse, who may not have been aware of the loan, Mr Aziz said.
Three days later, Mr Aziz deposited $17,000 cash at a bank in Broadmeadows – which Mr Aziz told IBAC could have come from “other sources”.
“There was cash going everywhere at the time because … (of the) wedding.”
IBAC alleged Mr Aziz deposited $20,000 at a Roxburgh Park ATM on 22 February 2019 – three days after Casey councillors approved Mr Kostic’s proposal.
The $20,000 had nothing to do with Mr Kostic or Mr Grossi, Mr Aziz said.
“They could have been business income. They could have been Keno winnings again.”
Mr Aziz also denied supplying Mr Kostic inside information from a meeting with Casey planning staff five days earlier.
On the night of the council resolution, Mr Aziz texted “congratulations” to Mr Kostic’s hired planner Tom Radisich.
Meanwhile, in a tapped phone call, Mr Aziz tells Mr Grossi he’s concerned that “our friend” may “renege”.
He asks if the friend will “deliver the mail that we wanted him to deliver”.
Later that evening, Mr Grossi tells Mr Aziz that ‘Zlat’ came over and “couldn’t stop thanking you for everything you’ve done for him. To help him get it through.”
Next Friday, ‘Zlat’ was to come and bring Mr Grossi’s wife a “bunch of flowers just to say thank you” for “all the coffee she’s made for him”.
“I guess I have to do the same because (she’s) probably made more coffees for me,” Mr Aziz replies.
“Might bring you a little cake to celebrate.”
In denying he received “bribe money”, Mr Aziz told IBAC that his wife joined him at the Grossi home that night and would have known about the transaction if it happened.
They brought a bunch of flowers and a cake for an “occasion” that night.
IBAC tabled surveillance photos of Mr Aziz arriving without his wife at the Grossi home after he received a text to “come over for a coffee at about 7.30”.
“I said she may have been with me,” Mr Aziz told the inquiry.
“She may not have been on that occasion, yes.”
