A disused Aldi supermarket site in Sydney’s west is an unlikely place for a technology billionaire to put his money. But the two-acre plot of land in Fairfield is where WiseTech Global founder Richard White has made one of his biggest personal investments, bankrolling a multimillion-dollar apartment development with a controversial history.

At the heart of the deal is Mark Merhi, a 50-year-old failed property developer who fled to Dubai with corporate debts of $80 million and was a suspect in a firebombing investigation in the mid-2000s. Merhi also happens to be the ex-husband of Zena Nasser, who married White in July.