By Megan Gorrey
Chinese developers pushing to build a high-rise apartment block in Sydney’s inner west allegedly paid a consultant to help the company gain access to Canada Bay mayor Angelo Tsirekas, a corruption inquiry heard.
The Independent Commission Against Corruption is investigating claims Tsirekas accepted rewards, including overseas flights and accommodation, from developers in return for favourable planning decisions since 2012.
Canada Bay mayor Angelo Tsirekas went on trips to China with representatives of collapsed property group iProsperity, including Belinda Li. Credit: ICAC
The inquiry has heard Tsirekas, a former state and federal Labor candidate, took trips to Shanghai with his long-time friend, Joseph Chidiac, and representatives of collapsed property group iProsperity, who funded some of his expenses.
Those trips coincided with iProsperity’s attempts to gain planning permission to build a residential tower, initially of 46 storeys, comprising hundreds of apartments at Rhodes, which Tsirekas supported at council.
Counsel assisting the commission, Jamie Darams, on Thursday continued questioning iProsperity Waterside Rhodes’ former director Belinda Li about the company’s dealings with Tsirekas and Chidiac.
The corruption watchdog has heard iProsperity hired Chidiac, who is alleged to have provided advice to companies that had planning applications in front of the council, including the Rhodes project.
IProsperity paid Chidiac more than $1.4 million between 2015 and 2018, the inquiry has been told.
Li agreed with Darams’ suggestion that records of her correspondence with Chidiac showed a “large number of interactions with Mr Chidiac where you seek to use Mr Chidiac to arrange meetings with Mr Tsirekas”.
Darams: “This is because you understood that one of the things Mr Chidiac could do or provide to iProsperity through his services, which iProsperity was paying him a lot of money [for], was to get access to Mr Tsirekas?”
Li replied: “Key persons, yes.”
Former iProsperity Waterside Rhodes director Belinda Li, pictured outside the ICAC on Wednesday, invested $3 million in a proposed apartment tower development at Rhodes.Credit: Nick Moir
The inquiry also heard Li had a breakfast meeting with Tsirekas where they discussed iProsperity’s initial proposal for a 46-storey tower at Rhodes.
In an email to associates after the meeting, Li wrote they needed to be “fully prepared to run fast” to get the project approved before the slated merger of Canada Bay with Burwood and Strathfield councils in 2016.
She agreed in her evidence this was because council staff might be busy or change roles if there was an amalgamation, and the chances of getting the Rhodes project approved would be better before it happened.
“For me, normally, time is money. From my experience when councils are having amalgamation or election or any sort of political things, it just damages all the developers waiting. Quicker will always be better,” Li said.
Consultant Joseph Chidiac and Canada Bay mayor Angelo Tsirekas in China.Credit: ICAC
The merger did not eventuate.
Town planner David Furlong told the inquiry on Thursday he got a call from an architect involved with iProsperity’s Rhodes proposal about working on the project in early 2016.
Furlong said he’d been friends with Tsirekas since 1997, and he met Chidiac through work also in the 1990s.
Furlong said he had “no idea” Chidiac had been engaged by iProsperity regarding the Rhodes development until recently.
He thought Chidiac had shown “more of a general interest” in the project during their discussions at the time.
His evidence continues in front of chief commissioner Peter Hall on Friday.
The ICAC is investigating whether Tsirekas deliberately failed to declare or properly manage any conflict of interest arising from his relationships with Chidiac and iProsperity representatives.
The commission will probe claims Tsirekas “partially exercised his official functions” to favour the interests of development giant Billbergia, construction company Prolet and Chidiac in planning matters since 2012 and had “deliberately failed to declare or properly manage any conflict of interest” in those cases.
Operation Tolosa will also examine allegations Tsirekas and Canada Bay council’s former general manager Gary Sawyer failed to disclose a conflict of interest related to the sale of a council-owned property in Drummoyne.
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