Undercover cop exposes plot to throw Medich murder trial
HIS name was George and he told his coffee date he was a Melbourne accountant who millionaire murderer Ron Medich had flown to Sydney to deal with a $10 million extortion attempt. But he also had a secret.
His name was George and he told his coffee date he was a Melbourne accountant who millionaire murderer Ron Medich had flown to Sydney to deal with a $10 million extortion attempt. But he also had a secret.
In reality, George was an undercover police officer, and the man he was meeting was Robert McCarthy, an armed robber allegedly brokering a $10 million deal on behalf of the star witness in Medich’s murder trial, Fortunato “Lucky” Gattellari, to “mess up” his evidence.
Property developer Medich was due to stand trial for ordering Gattellari to orchestrate the murder of his former friend and business associate Michael McGurk, who was shot in the back of his head outside his home in 2009.
McCarthy was Gattellari’s former cellmate and, according to documents tendered at a 2016 pre-trial hearing for Medich and released to The Sunday Telegraph this week, Gattellari promised him a $200,000 cut if he passed a note to Medich detailing his offer to perjure himself.
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By earning McCarthy’s trust, George — identified only by his police code name UCO329 — had lured him into a trap set by a top secret investigation known as Strike Force Smedley.
Much of the detail about Gattellari’s involvement in the alleged conspiracy was aired during
Medich’s trial for the murder of McGurk, which ended in his conviction this week. Now the undercover police sting that targeted McCarthy, who was sentenced in January, can also be revealed for the first time.
The fast-talking, 46-year-old undercover cop, who posed as a high-flying white collar worker and the small-time, small-stature criminal he referred to behind his back as “the smurf” due to his height, was a mismatch that paid rich dividends for police, court documents show.
McCarthy told his new business associate: “I am not university educated but I manage with the tools I’ve got.”
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After cultivating his trust over six months, the court documents claim George wore a hidden microphone and recorded McCarthy revealing the details of the plot during four meetings. Police also listened in on phone calls between them.
According to the documents, the alleged conspiracy began with an approach to Medich’s son Peter on July 13, 2013, after a note was left in his uncle Roy’s letterbox.
Peter told police he answered a phone call in which McCarthy said: “Hi, My name is Rob. I have a message for your father and I need to organise a meeting with him as soon as possible. No police and no lawyers can be involved in this.”
Peter told him a meeting with his father would not be possible but eventually agreed to meet McCarthy at the Il Vizzio cafe inside Norton Plaza Shopping Centre at Leichhardt.
His first impression of McCarthy was that he was“short” with “feral-looking teeth, which were stained and discoloured”, the documents said.
Before passing two A4 pages to Peter, McCarthy said: “Ron is in a lot of trouble and he will go to jail unless you move forward with what is in the note.
“If Ron doesn’t want to move forward, don’t contact me again. If you try to get me into trouble it might be a problem for you.”
The note wasn’t signed, but Peter told police it “went into points” that allegedly suggest the author was Lucky Gattellari and asked “Ron to pay $10 million for the author to do what the author is preparing to do”.
Peter said: “That portion of the note had the tone of a threat towards my father in a way that suggested that my father would not survive in jail and the only way to stay out was to pay this money.”
McCarthy reinforced the message by telling Peter: “I am from jail and I can tell you are not from my world. I understand that you have been approached by other people trying to blackmail you and I assure you this is real.”
Ignoring the warning, Peter took the note to the Crime Commission on July 18, 2013, and police began investigating.
Meanwhile, McCarthy waited by the phone. It rang about two weeks later.
“Can we meet?” George asked.
McCarthy told police after his arrest “it took a while for (George) to convince me to meet him,” explaining he had “a gut feeling”.
“He was quite convincing in talking, he was pretty good,” McCarthy told police.
Their first meeting was at Leichhardt Market Place on August 13, 2013. The undercover strategy was to put McCarthy on the edge so he would continue to talk.
“He asked me ‘How do I know you’re the real deal?’,” McCarthy told police. “(George said) ‘How do I know you’re not just someone who followed the media and you’ve come here to rort money off us?”
McCarthy took the bait and told George he shared a cell with Lucky, who he claimed had asked him to pass the notes to Medich.
“Lucky offered to leave Ron out of it if Ron would help him with his legal fees to fight the matter and get bail and Ron left him with it,” McCarthy told George.
“Lucky told me he was the one who had the man killed and that he was left holding the bag after they were friends for 20 years and he was not happy about it and felt he should be compensated for it.”
From there, it was a case of George pressing McCarthy to reveal more information.
In a phone call, McCarthy told George he had spoken to his “coach”, which police documents allege was a reference to Lucky.
George pressed McCarthy to set up a meeting with the “assistant coach”, which police allege was a reference to Frank, who police have accused of directing the plot while Lucky was in jail.
The undercover cop asked McCarthy to take a photo of himself and Frank to prove he was working for the Gattellaris.
“What if you were to get some more coaching off the assistance coach and get a photograph to get the occasion captured and I see that, then we destroy that,” George said in an intercepted call. “That just might be enough for me.”
The next day, McCarthy allegedly told George he “got the click clicks” but was too paranoid to send them.
At a meeting on August 23 at Lady Macquarie’s Chair George told McCarthy: “Ron said to me ‘What guarantee do I have? If I pay this money what will happen?’.”
McCarthy replied: “He goes home.”
Later, George asked: “Is your bloke (Lucky) going to suffer amnesia?” McCarthy replied: “He’s got to lie. He’s going to lie and he’s going to make mistakes. It’ll just unravel. Simple as that.
“The man’s worth so much money. This is his freedom,” McCarthy allegedly said later in the meeting. “F…ing not one cent is going to be any good to you in f…ing jail. Hand the f…ing lot over if it means you’re f…ing going to stay free. It buys your freedom. Simple.”
McCarthy said Lucky allegedly wanted to set up a nest egg for when he was released.
“You’re going to come home to nothing except the house you f…ing live in,” McCarthy said.
On December 17, 2013, George finally convinced McCarthy to bring Lucky’s brother Frank Gattellari to a meeting at Pioneer Park in Leichhardt.
But he almost went too far.
A request to speak to Lucky over the phone spooked Frank and McCarthy, the documents show.
“I’ve got the money ready to rock and roll,” George told Frank. “Then everybody’s happy and we get on with our lives. Speak to your brother, you tell him to ring you.”
Frank smelled a rat and said “forget about it” before walking off, sparking an argument between McCarthy and George.
“I’ve just shot myself,” George said. “All my man wanted was a simple phone call and then I’m 100 per cent convinced.”
McCarthy responded: “You’re crazy what you’re asking for. Even I think you’re out of your depth. Their phone calls where they are (in jail) are all monitored.”
McCarthy also spotted a flaw in the way George was proposing to transfer the money, which could be easily tracked. “If you’re an accountant or whatever the f… you are, you know we won’t be able to touch the money, you know that,” McCarthy said.
That day McCarthy sent George a text: “You lieing (sic) piece of shit. I knew I was right about you and who you really are. Its (sic) good to be paranoid. goodbye and don’t ever contact me again.”
It didn’t matter. Police had what they needed and were now focused on Cooma Jail, where Lucky Gattellari was serving his sentence for McGurk’s murder.
McCarthy pleaded guilty to one charge of conspiracy to commit an offence to help Gattellari and was sentenced to an 18 months suspended sentence.
On August 23, 2013, Under Cover Officer George meets with Lucky Gattellari’s former cell mate Robert McCarthy in the Sydney CBD. They talk about why Gattellari is allegedly taking part in a $10m extortion of Medich for Gattellari to “mess up” his eveidence in Medich’s trial.
P1 Uco George
V1 Robert McCarthy
V1: Yep. Look I told you before, and I don’t know what you’ve coveyed to Ron, but at the end of the day he got, look at me, he got f**kin’ 7 and a half years.
P1: Yeah
V1: That’s a long f**king time….
P1: Of course it is.
V1: …..when you’re 60 years old or 61 years old.
P1: Of course it is.
V1: You’re gonna come home to nothing except the house you f**king live in.
P1: Of course.
V1: He was living on easy street, and all of a sudden it’s all been taken away- (SOUND OF MOVEMENT) – and he done what another man f**kin’ wanted. OK. I told you, and you said, Yeah, OK, Bob, I need to put my f**kin’ shoes, my feet in his shoes. He was f**kin’ left with it, George. It doesn’t matter what he’s done, he’s talkin’, he was left with it when, if the deal had’ve been done at the start, they wouldn’t be in this situation now. He would’ve fought it on his own, you know. They’ve been together for, what, 20, 30 years….
P1: It’s a long time.
V1: ….and, and, that’s right, and all of a sudden he f**kin’ just says, Nah.
P1:……
V1: And it doesn’t matter what people believe. You and I know what went down, you and I know that that man who is in court now, fighting this motherf**king’s sh*t, he done it on behalf of him. That was his f**king friend. OK, money, whatever, but it’s still his f**king friend. He ordered, he f**king got it done, and now look at, the shit hit the fan. Mate, he, he will talk from trial.
P1: They’re as thick as thieves.
V1: Yep.
P1: And you know what worries me a little bit, Bob?
V1: Yep.
P1: Our situations, ‘cause we’ve known each other for, what, how long now? A little bit? 30 seconds?
V1: (LAUGHS) – that’s right. May as be, may, may as well be.
P1: OK. And I was thinkin’ about this long and hard the other night.
V1: Yeah.
P1: Why are we being used? ‘Cause obviously you’re trusted from your people.
V1: Yep
P1: I’m trusted from my people – (SOUND OF SCRATCHING) – yes?
V1: Yep.
P1: But what worries me- (SOUND OF MOVEMENT) – in future…
V1: Yeah
P1:….is we know people turn like that – (SOUND OF FINGER CLICK) – true?
V1: But what’s there to turn on?
P1: My bloke said, What guarantee do I have? I said, Well you know what? You’re not gunna get a written agreement.
V1: You can’t.
P1: I’m being…
V1: If, if….
P1: I was being a funny…
V1: Yeah, of course, obviously.
P1: I was being…
V1: If…
P1: I was being a funny….
V1: You know what? I would love, like I said, I’m a pawn. OK, I might…
P1: We are pawns.
V1: Yeah. I might be getting something out of it, at the end of the day.
P1: Good luck with that.
V1: Yeah, yea, well, you know, at the end of the day, but at the end of the day it’s still, I’m still a f**king pawn, and I would love to be able to go, you know, Here it is, f**kin’ wrapped, sealed. I can’t. What the f**k can I do?
P1. What, is your bloke gonna suffer amnesia? Is that what we’re saying?
V1: He’s got to lie. He’s gunna lie and he’s gunna make mistakes, and then he’ll, it’ll just unravel. Simple as that. He’s already been up there in the committal and….
P1: Correct.
V1:… to lay the platform
P1: Correct.
V1: And he actually turned around and he said, all right, I, I didn’t pass this on because we haven’t. and I didn’t want to say it over the phone.
P1: Yep.
V1: He turned around and said, if he needs, when he told me not to hand over what I was going to show you, he said, If he needs anything else, you tell him I can send him signals at committal, but I will not lay the f**kin’ whole thing out at committal, and I’ve been there, and I, that’s why, like, you said, What are you going there for, blah, blah, they’re getting’ nervous. I’ve been there for my own reasons. I haven’t explained everything to you because I haven’t….
P1: You know what, you know I said to Ron?
V1: Yep?
P1: I tell you what I said to Ron. I said, My bloke is going in there to show that he’s fair dinkum. And he sort of had this look on his face. He goes, that makes sense.
V1: Of course it does.
P1: He, because he said to me, How do we know, he goes, That he’s just playing one brother off the other?
V1: No. No, no. No. I can’t go to gaol. And if you, let me tell you something else. I didn’t do it for that reason, but I thought about it, only because the next day, when I got the paper….
P1: Yeah.
V1: You know what I done in court?
P1: Yeah, yeah.
V1: You could almost write a whole article on it.
P1: That’s right.
V1: Man from public gallery, f**kin’ blah, blah, blah, makes accusations, blah, blah, blah. So it shows to you…
P1: Yeah
V1: …that I hadn’t f**king lied….
P1: Well, that’s right.
V1:…. Because I told you I’ve recently been released from prison.
P1: That’s right.
V1: I’ve told you a f**kin’ had contact with such-and-such. I’ve told you, and it was all there, apart from my name, was in the article.
P1: That’s right, 100 per cent. I don’t, I don’t have a, a…
V1: And he should not have any doubts who I am now, none what f**king so ever. He needs to make a decision. It’s simple as that.
P1: OK.
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