Moses Obeid to be released to home detention before end of sentence for lying to ICAC

The son of a disgraced former politician will be released on home detention after serving just six months behind bars for lying to the state’s corruption watchdog.

The son of a corrupt former politician will be released on home detention just six months into his sentence for lying to the state’s anti-corruption watchdog.

The Daily Telegraph can reveal Moses Obeid, the son of disgraced former Labor minister Eddie Obeid, will be freed from prison next Monday to spend the remainder of his non-parole period on electronically monitored home detention.

Earlier this year, the NSW District Court sentenced the 55-year-old to two years in jail after he pleaded guilty to two counts of giving false or misleading evidence to a public inquiry back in 2012.

The court imposed a 12-month non-parole period, which is set to expire in April 2025.

The younger Obeid admitted to lying to the Independent Commission Against Corruption about the circumstances in which he provided a Honda CR-V to the then-NSW roads minister, Eric Roozendaal, in 2007. Roozendaal was cleared of any wrongdoing.

Moses Obeid arrives at the NSW Supreme Court in 2021.

On Tuesday, a State Parole Authority spokeswoman confirmed it had accepted a community corrections pre-release report recommendation, and Obeid jnr would be released into “reintegrated home detention’ on October 21.

“While on home detention he will be electronically monitored around the clock and must remain at his home address except when undertaking activities approved in advance by his community corrections officer,” the spokeswoman said.

Former MP Eddie Obeid, his son Moses Obeid, and former resources minister Ian Macdonald.

The 55-year-old Obeid is also completing a separate, five-year jail sentence imposed over a corrupt scheme he orchestrated alongside his father and former NSW resources minister Ian Macdonald.

The three-year non-parole period attached to that sentence expires this Sunday.

In 2021, following a complex and lengthy judge-alone trial, the Obeids and Macdonald were found guilty of conspiring to wilfully commit misconduct in public office.

Justice Elizabeth Fullerton found the Obeids had conspired with Macdonald in 2008 over the grant of a multimillion-dollar mining exploration licence, resulting in a $30m windfall.

Eddie Obeid was sentenced to seven years in jail, and it is understood there has been no application for him to be released to home detention.

Macdonald was, meanwhile, jailed for nine years and six months.

Corrective Services NSW has been contacted for comment about Moses Obeid’s impending release.