Bankrupt former Brisbane barrister not guilty of corruption

A bankrupt former Queensland barrister has been cleared of corruption related to former Ipswich mayor Paul Pisasale by a jury.

Sam Di Carlo.

A bankrupt former Queensland barrister has been cleared of corruption related to former Ipswich mayor Paul Pisasale by a jury.

In the District Court in Brisbane on Monday, a jury returned after deliberating for two days and found Salvatore “Sam” Di Carlo not guilty of one count of official corruption between October 10, 2016 and June 17, 2017.

The 68-year-old pleaded not guilty on the first day of his trial on February 21.

The prosecution alleged that Di Carlo offered a partial share of a development project to his “friend” Paul Pisasale, who was mayor of Ipswich at the time.

The jury were told Di Carlo had planned an arrangement with Melbourne-based developer Chris Pinzone to receive a 10 per cent share of a commercial development, which was proposed at an 18 hectare block of land in Yamanto.

The prosecution alleged Di Carlo had acted corruptly by offering to give Pisasale an unquantified share of what he was to receive from Mr Pinzone in return for Pisasale promoting the development.

In closing submissions on Wednesday, defence barrister Saul Holt said “every single one” of the witnesses who gave evidence about Pisasale’s involvement “ended up either saying themselves or agreeing ultimately in cross examination that (this action taken by Pisasale) wasn’t unusual at all.”

“If there’s nothing unusual about what he was doing either before or after the alleged offer was made, isn’t that a pretty powerful indication that the alleged offer was not made - that there was no special interest being shown by him,” Mr Holt said.

He emphasised that the mayor did not on his own have decision-making power in relation to development applications, commenting that “if you were going to bribe someone, surely you’d bribe (the city planner) John Adams”.

Di Carlo’s practising certificate was suspended by the Queensland Bar Association on August 28 after it deemed him “not a fit and proper person”.

He appealed to the Queensland Civil and Administrative Tribunal in a bid to overturn the suspension, but lost that fight with a ruling criticising him for not paying tax on more than $1m of earnings from the past three years, and going to China when he was supposed to be in the District Court defending a lawsuit against him personally.

Di Carlo, who has been a barrister for 33 years, filed the appeal on January 7 and no date has been set for hearing.

He filed for bankruptcy in August last year.