Inside the world of Ron Medich
TYCOON - and accused murderer - Ron Medich is facing a committal hearing in Sydney, but it is his accusers who find themselves under the gun.
NSW
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A SENSATIONAL committal hearing into the execution of conman Michael McGurk has lifted the lid on the extraordinary world of Ron Medich and his alleged criminal sidekicks.
Court Two at Central Local Court has heard claims of kneecappings, firebombings, hush money, corrupt cops, hired assassins, loan sharking, enforcers and mystery bags of cash.
The players in this drama mostly speak in code, allegedly for fear of phone-taps, they cruise around in luxury sports cars and hold covert meetings in public parks and cafes.
At the end of a long day, they blow off steam at massage parlours, at trendy city nightclubs including Justin Hemmes' Ivy or at private gentlemen's "cigar and cognac" nights.
While it sounds like the makings of a TV drama, these events were just part and parcel of daily life for Lucky Gattellari, Senad Kaminic and hit-man Haissam Safetli.
The claims that Gattellari ran a prostitution ring, dealt drugs and arranged for beatings and intimidation of debtors and that Medich paid bribes to a corrupt NSW Police officer who helped with lucrative property deals have emerged in court.
The charges over the death of McGurk has shattered the relationship between two men who were once childhood friends and business partners. Now they are mortal enemies, the court has heard.
Former boxer Gattellari is now the star witness against Medich having "rolled" to authorities investigating the 2009 murder of the Mosman father of four, agreeing to give evidence against Medich.
The stakes are high. If convicted of murder 65-year-old Ron faces life in prison. He has a lot to lose.
Medich is a rich, self-made man with six children and a harbourfront house. The son of Croatian immigrants, he grew up in Cabramatta. His father owned a movie cinema. He was a boarder at the prestigious St Joseph's College at Hunters Hill.
He trained as an accountant and then made his fortune trading in property in Sydney's outskirts with his brother Roy.
Ron really hit the jackpot when he and his brother Roy sold their Leichhardt shopping centre for $112 million in October 2007. When they split the profits, each brother had plenty of cash to invest elsewhere.
Ron has mostly invested in share trading and property development, while Roy has invested in hotels. Ron's fortune meant that he could travel the world, he could buy racehorses and his second wife, the glamorous Lithuanian-born Odetta - from whom he is now divorced - could indulge in her love for contemporary art and fill her wardrobe with designer clothes and shoes. Gattellari also grew up in the Cabramatta and Liverpool areas, and the pair met when Gattellari leased the Macquarie Function Centre in Liverpool from Medich in the 1990s.
Medich then helped Gattellari with cash to set up the Eling Forest Winery in the Southern Highlands in the 2000s. In about 2005, Medich agreed to fund Gattellari's plan to develop Aboriginal land and to set up an Aboriginal funeral fund.
While Ron faces life if convicted, the man who allegedly helped him organise the killing, Gattellari, has been given a reduced sentence of seven-and-a-half years in jail on the condition that he help authorities, the court has heard. The crown case has been made stronger by the fact that all but one of the others involved in the alleged plot have pleaded guilty to the conspiracy. Aside from Medich, only the alleged gunman who fired the fatal shot, who was 19-years-old at the time of the killing, is facing a committal hearing.
Gattellari accused Medich of giving him the order to organise the killing of McGurk and claimed Medich gave him $250,000 in vacuum packed bundles for the hit.
He gave evidence that Medich took the money from a safe in his waterfront Point Piper home, saying: "Here's 250 to take care of McGurk".
He said Medich believed McGurk was to blame for making Medich the "laughing stock of the eastern suburbs" and that he had been "humiliated" in the eyes of his glamorous socialite wife Odetta.
McGurk and Medich had once been business partners, with Medich lending McGurk money to invest in property developments but their relationship soured when McGurk, a fast-talking conman who had form for rip-offs, started ripping Medich off on deals and trying to hoodwink him.
McGurk's battles with Medich in the courts rattled Medich, Gattellari says. And Ron was getting grief from Odetta about his finances and she didn't approve of his social circle either. He told the court Medich was constantly complaining how McGurk was "ruining his life".
And it is not just Gattellari who makes allegations of Medich's hatred for McGurk. Former confidante Paul Mathieson has given a statement saying Medich told him: "I'm going to fix him'' and "Don't worry, he won't be a problem for much longer'' referring to McGurk.
In his defence against such serious accusations Medich has gone on the attack. In court last week he claimed it was Gattellari who had the motive to kill McGurk because he was furious at McGurk's attempts to muscle him out from his cushy job as Medich's boozy lunch partner.
Gattellari was certainly on a good wicket, with millionaire Medich investing in the region of $15 million into Gattellari's various businesses over the years allowing Gattellari to splash Medich's cash around like confetti. At his appearance before the parliamentary inquiry into Badgerys Creek in September 2009, Medich's link with Gattellari was raised.
"The only relationship I have with Lucky Gattellari is that he came to me looking for funds for these companies, for friends of his that got into trouble," said Medich.
"The company is a major electrical contracting company called Rivercorp." But Gattellari says their business relationship went much deeper, and told the court he and former Bosnian soldier Senad Kaminic referred to Medich as the "big boss".
Gattellari says Medich lends money on a short term high-interest basis and it is Gattellari's job to ensure the borrowers repay - even if it means threatening them with violence.
Gattellari's little book of debts, containing hand written entries, was presented to the court last week by Medich's lawyers. It mentions that Gattellari was lending to Elite Cranes, a company linked to Melbourne underworld figure Mick Gatto. Last week Medich's defence team continued their attacks, cross examining Gattellari and his "enforcer" Matthew Crockett as they gave evidence at Medich's committal hearing.
They have tried to show that Gattellari is not the "person of good character" that Justice Megan Latham described when sentencing him and that behind the facade Gattellari is a crook.
In cross examination, Medich's defence barrister Winston Terracini suggested Gattellari was a violent criminal and a liar who has criminal mates and he was "milking Ron Medich blind" by failing to repay Medich's loans.
Terracini also suggested Gattellari was not the family man he appeared to be. "Do you want to listen to tapes where you're on lovey-dovey terms with your wife … the very next call is to a whore,'' Mr Terracini asked.
''I think you should take dramatic [sic] lessons,'' Gattellari replied.
Medich's lawyers claimed Gattellari tried to extort $1 million from Medich following his arrest in October 2010. They told the court Gattellari demanded from prison that Medich put the money into his lawyer's trust account or he would implicate Medich in the murder.
Gattellari strongly denied he ever tried to extort Medich.
They also argued Gattellari hated McGurk and had threatened him in 2008 and early 2009, just months before McGurk's September 2009 death outside his Cremorne home.
Gattellari has admitted to criminal conduct including insurance fraud, supplying marijuana to his friends, and running a loansharking business.
He has also admitted hiring young Asian girls for the Angel Chinese Massage Parlour in Toongabbie.
The claims that Gattellari had as many as eight young women working at the massage parlour echoed the evidence from a separate Independent Commission Against Corruption inquiry in 2011. At that hearing, ICAC heard "Tiffanie," an Asian prostitute, was offered to then NSW Minister Ian Macdonald.
Gattellari also admitted having criminal associates such as Louie Gibson, who is serving 11 years in jail for drug supply.
Gattellari owned property in Queensland with Gibson, and also loaned him $91,000.
He told the court he didn't know that Gibson was a drug dealer despite knowing him for a decade.
"He was involved in the entertainment industry and I met him around a few clubs in Sydney," Gattellari told the court.
Among the pieces of evidence against Medich is this allegation: the hitman who has already admitted his role in the killing of McGurk, Haissam Safetli, claims that in August 2009 he met Medich face-to-face at Tuscany Restaurant in Leichhardt.
Safetli claims Medich told him: "Are you sure you can get this job done in four weeks?"
Safetli says he replied: "Yes a hundred per cent".
The committal hearing is set to run for another fortnight.
Gattellari is back in the witness box on Monday - no doubt with more sensational claims - followed by Safetli on Tuesday.
More mud is set to be flung around in the battle between Medich and his former lieutenant.
And Medich's trial - where the real fireworks will fly if he is committed to face a jury - is still at least a year away.
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