Unemployed wife of Nomads bikie boss Sleiman Tajjour forced to hand over $300K houseboat
THE de facto wife of Nomads bikie boss Sleiman Tajjour was unemployed and on a single mother’s pension. So how did she come to own a boat worth up to $300,000?
NSW
Don't miss out on the headlines from NSW. Followed categories will be added to My News.
THE de facto wife of a bikie boss, who claims she is unemployed and struggling to raise two kids on a single mothers pension, owned a 12m houseboat worth up to $300,000.
Susan Nehme and Nomads national president Sleiman “Simon” Tajjour, who is on a disability pension, have also bought a property in Greystanes, western Sydney, a Harley-Davidson and a number of cars, including a Lexus 4WD, using a series of fraudulent loans, police claim in documents tendered to the NSW Supreme Court.
The NSW Crime Commission claims the couple’s lifestyle “well exceeds” their declared income and have hauled 34-year-old Nehme before the Supreme Court using the state’s “unexplained wealth” laws.
But there is also the question of how Nehme came to own the boat, called Dream On, which is moored among the super yachts at a marina off Breakfast Point in Sydney’s inner west.
Police have seized the vessel but Nehme has not been charged.
Authorities are convinced she obtained it through illegal means and have taken legal action to uncover the extent of her wealth.
The commission’s director of financial investigations, Jonathan Spark, has asked the court to force her to pay a chunk of any hidden wealth to the state government.
Nehme has told the court she didn’t know the boat was registered in her name and had unwittingly been used as a front.
Through her lawyer Omar Juweinat, she said she had “relinquished her interest in the boat”.
“Frankly, she is a vulnerable single mother who was simply used as a front by the true owner,” Mr Juweinat said.
A spokeswoman for houseboat merchant Kia Marina said the vessel was likely worth between $200,000 to $300,000.
According to RMS records tendered to court, it was transferred to Nehme on September 27, 2016.
The same day, a financial investigator from the Crime Commission made moves to freeze the boat, meaning it could not be transferred or sold. Under state laws, if the commission suspects that the person has engaged in “serious crime-related activity” it can freeze assets and forcibly examine a person about their affairs. It is a jailable offence to lie.
Nehme and Tajjour fell under suspicion after both pleading guilty in Burwood Local Court to providing false information to obtain loans for hundreds of thousands of dollars that were used to buy a house, a Harley-Davidson and cars, including the Lexus.
Tajjour was sentenced to six months jail on Friday after pleading guilty to falsifying two home loan applications in 2015 so he could get approval for $750,000 and $580,000 loans.
Nehme pleaded guilty to operating shell companies to fraudulently borrow more than $813,000 but is set to argue that she was used as a patsy.
The company, known as Clodz Electrical, was used to take out a $425,000 loan with ANZ to buy a home on Hibiscus St, Greystanes, in 2013, court documents stated. Despite never holding a motorbike licence, the documents said Nehme took out a loan in 2014 to buy a 2009 Harley-Davidson, listing her occupation on the finance forms as the director of Clodz Electricals, the documents said.
Police were notified in 2015 when Nehme attempted to take a loan with Macquarie Bank, which noticed “the deception in the application”, the documents said.
Nehme’s Crime Commission case is listed to return to court tomorrow.
It is understood that Tajjour and Nehme are in the process of separating.
The court was told in April that Tajjour intends to plead guilty to selling 6kg of ecstasy to an undercover officer in a deal allegedly brokered by his cousin Michael Ibrahim, the younger brother of Kings Cross identity John Ibrahim.
Michael has not entered a plea after being charged with masterminding an international drug and tobacco-smuggling syndicate. John Ibrahim is not involved in the case.