Michael Ibrahim and sister-in-law Shayda’s bitter all-night text brawl

There are a number of rules for the women that marry into the Ibrahim family. The big one: If you don’t earn the money, you keep your mouth shut. Fadi Ibrahim’s wife Shayda does not adhere to these rules. LISTEN TO HER CLASH WITH MICHAEL IBRAHIM

• What John Ibrahim’s family really think of him
• Fadi’s prescription pill struggles
• ‘If you’ve been in jail, can you get a loan?’

For three decades, Sydney has regarded the House of Ibrahim with fear and fascination.

Now, for the first time, we take you inside the private world of this complicated family thanks to an enormous cache of surveillance material tendered to a NSW court.

There are more than 880 phone calls and texts that were covertly recorded by police over more than a year, revealing the truth about feuds, grudges and family lore, including the secret tunnel under patriarch John Ibrahim’s Eastern Suburbs mansion.

There are hundreds of police photos taken inside Ibrahim homes during police raids, and an even larger collection of surveillance photos taken by police tailing family members and associates through the city’s streets.

The material sheds new light on the family’s networks, reaching beyond brothers John, Fadi, Michael and Sam to the far reaches of entertainment, night-life, property and crime.

On their private calls, the brothers and their associates detail their rivalries and power struggles, as well as moments of “us against the world” camaraderie and black humour.

Why is Fadi’s “f**king” phone off?

This was the first shot fired by Shayda Ibrahim to her brother-in-law Michael Ibrahim in an abusive late night WhatsaApp exchange that didn’t end until 5am on August 7, 2017, shortly before she blocked him.

Michael and Shayda’s husband, Fadi, were in Dubai on a business holiday — the alleged nature of which would see them arrested the next day in one of the most successful undercover stings.

Fadi has pleaded not guilty and will be defending all the charges.

In the lead up, the brothers had been enjoying the finest delights Dubai had to offer: first class booze, five star restaurants and the dance floors of the most opulent nightspots in the Middle East.

MICHAEL TELLS FADI ABOUT THE FIGHT

READ THE TRANSCRIPT: WARNING GRAPHIC LANGUAGE

Meanwhile, Shayda was at home in Sydney. Fuming. She was now threatening to divorce Fadi, and was letting Michael know why via WhatsApp, given neither Ibrahim sibling was taking her calls.

Shayda had a hunch Fadi’s phone was off because the brother’s tour of Dubai had gone beyond culinary delights and into the country’s version of the red light district.

Shayda Ibrahim got into a heated text exchange with brother-in-law Michael after she was unable to contact husband Fadi.

She blamed Michael.

After two of her calls to Michael went unanswered, Shayda hit him with a barrage of texts.

“Don’t think for a second that I don’t know what youse two desperate married men are up to tonight,” Shayda wrote. “You f**king make me sick. Go to your sleazy hooker joints you dirty c**ts. Where the f**k is Fadi?”

While WhatsApp messages are encrypted and usually beyond the reach of law enforcement, police captured the full details because of a call between Michael and Fadi on a tapped phone that morning and tendered the results in court.

During the call, Michael gave Fadi a blow-by-blow account of his flame war with Shayda. And the police listened in.

At certain points, Fadi said Michael was a “drama queen” and had made things worse with Shayda, exclaiming: “You gee her up”.

Fadi and Michael agreed that Shayda was paranoid and making false allegations that were offensive and hurtful.

“We didn’t do anything. We’re just dancing. We’re not doing anything,” Fadi told Michael. “We didn’t take anyone home. We didn’t f**k anyone. Mate, the only conversation I had with a girl I just said ‘hello’ … That’s it. Cause they said hello to you. That’s it.”

Michael Ibrahim got into an all-night texting fight with sister-in-law Shayda while he and Fadi were in Dubai.

As Michael recounted the details of the text fight, it became apparent to Fadi that while he was sleeping, his younger brother had spent hours causing major problems for him.

“I go, ‘Do him a favour and leave’,” Michael told Fadi. “She goes, ‘Why don’t you do everyone a favour and put a gun in your mouth’.”

Fadi asked: “How long were you texting her for?”

Michael replied: “She was texting me all night …”

“She goes, ‘Lose my number you f**king gronk. Don’t you understand. F**king stop messaging me’,” Michael said through laughter. “I go, ‘Make me b**ch. It’s over for you. Go back to the west gronk. Where you belong. And change your last name. You’re an embarrassment’.”

Michael then said he told Shayda: “ … We have given you the world and you don’t appreciate it.”

Part of Michael’s agenda appeared to be a continuing feeling that Shayda dominated Fadi in their relationship.

“You’re not going to bully me like you do him. I’m not scared of you …,” Michael told Fadi he wrote in one text. “ … I go … you must have been a big bully at school. Snap out of it. And then she sends me photos of the divorce papers.”

Fadi said: “(Photos) of what?”

Michael responded “She sent me photos of all the divorce papers all right” and that Shayda said she had “an appointment at 1.30” to see a lawyer.

Michael and Fadi Ibrahim were arrested in Dubai a day after the texting row in one of the biggest undercover stings undertaken.

“I go, ‘You’re simple in the head’,” Michael said. “Grow up and stop acting like a little kid. You start making the money for your family and then you can call the shots. So shut up and be the wife. And stop trying to wear the pants. It’s not happening anymore.”

Later, Michael told Fadi he texted Shayda: “Grow up. He’s not scared of you anymore. I go ‘He’s not scared of you anymore, all right’. She goes ‘Tell your brother to find a lawyer, I’m on my way’.”

This didn’t sit well with Fadi.

“I was never scared of her,” Fadi said. “Look how you talk.”

Michael joked that Fadi was suffering from “battered wife syndrome”.

“Mate you’re chicken shit. Please …. she’s the boss. Please,” Michael said.

Michael suggested violent measures.

“I’ll be honest with you … She’s an evil b**ch. I’ll be straight up. She’s just a f**king hater. She’s an unappreciative f**king hater.”

Later, Michael said Shayda was too paranoid to let Fadi have fun while overseas and expected him to “twiddle your thumbs (and wait) till your plane comes.”

“This b**ch is destroying relationships because we went out for dinner and had a couple of f**king drinks,” Michael said. “She’s trying to cause dramas …. We’re overseas, we’re on holidays. What does she expect us to do?…?

Fadi laughed: “No, she expects me to go shopping for her.”

Fadi Ibrahim and then fiancee Shayda Bastani pictured leaving doctors clutching ultrasound pictures.

Michael later said Fadi deserved better.

“You know what I feel like saying to her?” Michael said.

“When my brother Fadi walks into a room he … he’s the best fun to hang around with. Every girl at the club wants him. Who the f**k are you? You should be worshipping the f**king ground he walks on …”

Michael added: “ (Fadi) could have any f**king girl anywhere.”

Fadi was flattered and said “Thanks Mick.”

But this only came after Michael accused Fadi of letting Shayda walk all over him.

When Fadi said he would come to his apartment, Michael replied: “Do you really want to come here and see the way I’m looking at you? Do you want to look in my eyes and see the disgust in my eyes?”

Michael pounced on Fadi’s denials to his suggestion that he would stay in his apartment while the others partied on a yacht that night.

“I know deep down it’s killing you because you know it’s true man … I can tell the difference in your laugh,” Michael said.

According to Michael, if Shayda acted on threats to break up his marriage to Caitlyn Hall, he would reply in kind.

“Because if my house is broken, your house is broken mother f**ker. I’ll tell you straight out,” Michael said.

Fadi broke the news to Michael it might be too late for that.

“I think you already broke my house, brother,” Fadi said.