Fadi Ibrahim’s wife claims his shooters wanted revenge on brothers John and Sam

The 2009 shooting of Fadi Ibrahim is one of Sydney’s great unsolved mysteries. But his wife’s affidavit has shed light on what may have been prompted the attack.

Fadi Ibrahim suspects underworld figures out for revenge on his brothers were responsible for his assassination attempt where a gunman shot him six times.

No one has ever been charged over the June 2009 shooting where a masked man crept up to the now-50-year-old’s Lamborghini outside his Castle Cove mansion and fired six shots through the window, making it one of Sydney’s most enduring mysteries.

Four shots hit Fadi in the stomach while two others hit his arm and shoulder, according to court documents.

He barely survived — dying twice on the operating table at Royal North Shore Hospital — and has been left with lifelong medical issues.

His then girlfriend, and now wife, Shayda Ibrahim was in the passenger seat and was shot in the leg. 

The Ibrahim boys (l to r): Fadi, Michael, Sam and John.

This week, court documents revealed for the first time that Fadi believed he was collateral damage for people seeking revenge on his older brothers, Kings Cross identity John Ibrahim and ex-bikie leader Sam.

The revelation came after Fadi was sentenced in the Sydney District Court to serve no jail time after receiving a $600,000 payment from his other brother, Michael, that he didn’t know was derived from an illegal tobacco smuggling operation.

Fadi with his wife Shayda, who was also shot in the 2009 attack

He pleaded guilty to dealing with money reasonably suspected of being the proceeds of crime, and received a 14-month suspended sentence and was ordered to be of good behaviour for three years.

For Fadi’s sentencing, Shayda provided an affidavit to the court that revealed Fadi believed he was shot by underworld figures looking to get revenge on John and Sam.  

“There was a lot of confusion on Fadi’s part as to who had wanted to shoot him,” Shayda wrote.

“To his knowledge he had not offended anyone, although he was aware that around that time there had been a lot of talk about people threatening to kill John and Sam.

“Fadi suspected (his) shooting was a reprisal on (John and Sam’s) close family members.”

It is understood members of the Ibrahim family were made aware of the threats by the police investigating Fadi’s shooting.   

Fadi declined to comment.

A source said: “(He) was collateral damage for what was going on at the time.”

Police inspect Fadi’s car after the shooting outside his home.

At the time, Sam was a senior member of the Nomads bikie gang.

When contacted this week about the shooting theory, Sam said: “It’s all bullshit. I never heard any of that.

“I was in Goulburn Supermax when he got shot. All the boys yelled out to me to turn on the news.”

John, at the peak of his powers as a Kings Cross nightclub operator when Fadi was shot, has since gone on to reinvent himself as an author and TV producer with his The Last King of the Cross autobiography and TV series.

The TV series, which has been fictionalised, has caused significant friction in the Ibrahim family, with Sam threatening to sue after he claims he was falsely portrayed as a killer, while Fadi and others remain concerned about what will feature in any future seasons.

Fadi Ibrahim was rushed to hospital, where he died twice on the operating table. Picture: 7News

In his book, John wrote that Fadi’s shooting came “right out of the blue, and was the last thing I was expecting”.

“Fadi is a builder by trade, the non-violent one in the family, the sweet one, as far from being a gangster or biker as an Ibrahim can be,” John wrote.

“He is known for loving his life.”

He also wrote that he had not “spoken to Fadi for months before the shooting”.

“One of our last conversations is a fight over things brothers fight about, including his “f..ken look at me” lifestyle,” John wrote.

“Fadi’s flamboyant car has the licence plate ‘034’, his age. Or, as I would’ve translated it, ‘WANKER’ — he was never on the path the rest of us brothers seemed to be on.”

Fadi arriving at Downing Centre Courts in Sydney last month. Picture: John Appleyard

Months after the shooting, Fadi, Michael, and others were charged with plotting to murder family rival John Macris in revenge for the assassination attempt.

Both men were found not guilty and neither is accused of any wrongdoing.

John Ibrahim was not charged, and there’s no suggestion of criminal behaviour or wrongdoing by him.

The 2012 trial was told there were significant disputes between Macris and the Ibrahim family after the two Johns went into business in the Oxford St nightspot Mr Goodbar.

Macris’ girlfriend at the time gave evidence that Macris had been sitting in traffic when Fadi ran up to the car and punched him in the face. Fadi did not give evidence in the case.

A witness, whose evidence was later discredited, told the court there was a dispute between the two Johns over $400,000 involved with Mr Goodbar.

John Macris and his wife Viktoria Karida. Picture: Supplied

Two brothers were found guilty of Macris murder. Picture: Kathimerini

The same witness also claimed from the witness box that an associate of Macris had stolen $1.4 million worth of pseudoephedrine from Michael Ibrahim.

Michael is currently serving a 25-year sentence for an unrelated attempt to smuggle almost two tonnes of drugs and tobacco into Australia.

Macris was shot dead outside his Greece home in 2018 in an unrelated underworld assassination.

In 2020, a Greek court sentenced Bulgarian brothers Yuliyanov J Raychev Serafim and Milen Raychev to 18 and 10 years in jail for their respective roles in Macris’s murder.

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