Lawyer X: Tony Mokbel, Robbie Karam make freedom bid after Nicola Gobbo scandal

More than 20 crooks, including Tony Mokbel and his henchmen, have launched appeals related to Australia’s greatest legal scandal.

OME two dozen men and a woman have launched appeals against their convictions citing the barrister who ­betrayed them.

This year two of the headline-­making jailbirds duped by Nicola Gobbo hope to walk free – “Fat” Tony Mokbel and Robbie “Rock Star” Karam.

The scandal that has left Victoria’s justice system to deal with an avalanche of appeals revolves around Victoria Police’s recruitment of Ms Gobbo as a registered informer who snitched on her clients.

In 2014, the Herald Sun broke the story about the gangland barrister, but did not name Ms Gobbo at the time, dubbing her Lawyer X.

Tony Mokbel is hoping to get out of jail this year. Picture: Julian Smith

It is arguably Australia’s greatest legal scandal and will clog Victoria’s Court of Appeal, at an untold cost, throughout 2023 and beyond.

To date, three men have been ­released on the Lawyer X principle – gangland player Faruk Orman, one of Mokbel’s acolytes, Zlate Cvetanovski, and mafia connected drug trafficker Salvatore Agresta.

At least 20 appeals remain before the courts.

Most of those wanting another day in court can be put into one of two camps.

First, there is Mokbel and his ­henchmen. The Mokbel drug cartel had a heavy involvement with Ms Gobbo, socially and professionally.

Apart from Mokbel, there are six underworld figures who say they were stung by the lawyer and want their convictions overturned.

Faruk Orman. Picture: David Crosling

This clan includes Cvetanovski, whose drug trafficking conviction has already been quashed.

Mokbel’s sister-in-law, Zaha­roula Mokbel, a client of Ms Gobbo’s despite the lawyer helping police secure fraud charges against her, is still before the court.

Shane Bugeja and Stephen Gavanas are also former Mokbel associates who have lodged appeals and are still waiting for their day in court.

Then there is the “Tomato Tins” gang, made up of mafia dons and underworld players who were behind the ­importation of $440m of ecstasy into Melbourne’s docks in 2007.

This group includes Karam, a “docks expert” and mate of Mokbel who was the first to ­appeal on the Lawyer X principle in 2016.

The success or failure of his case is likely to impact on other Tomato Tins syndicate members.

So far Griffith-based ringleader Pasquale Barbaro, Karam and eight others have launched appeals.

They include Melbourne fruiterer Francesco Madafferi and fellow suspected mafia men Saverio Zirilli, Carmelo Falanga and drug trafficker John Higgs.

Agresta, a Melbourne deli shop owner, is the only member of the syndicate to be freed on bail.

Gang member Jan Visser upset other key members when he ran a Lawyer X appeal that was quickly dismissed.

Frank Madafferi.

Then there are a series of Lawyer X appeals unrelated to the Mokbel empire or the Tomato Tins syndicate.

They include underworld figures such as Rocco Arico and Evangelos Goussis, who are serving long jail stints.

Prison enforcer Matthew Johnson, who bashed gangland kingpin Carl Williams to death, has withdrawn his appeal.

Karam and Mokbel were the first to appeal their cases.But they are waiting for their appeals to be heard more than six years later.

One battleground has been documents that Victoria Police say they will not hand over without a court fight.

And it is the same when it comes to “Lawyer A” – mafia solicitor Joseph ­Acquaro – who was shot dead outside his Gelobar restaurant in 2016.

Victoria Police twice assessed ­Acquaro as a possibility to become a “human source”, in 2008 and 2014, and rejected him on both occasions.

But regardless of this, the Court of Appeal has ruled he was an informer.

Trickier still, Ms Gobbo and Acquaro were involved in the legal defence of the Tomato Tins syndicate.

A man charged with Acquaro’s murder will face trial this year.

Ms Gobbo is suing the state.

Originally published as Lawyer X: Tony Mokbel, Robbie Karam make freedom bid after Nicola Gobbo scandal