Jean Nassif’s secret Lebanon life as Sydney’s Toplace collapses

Sydney property developer Jean Nassif became one of Australia’s most wanted fugitives after fleeing the country. A special investigation exposes his secret overseas hideaway as his Sydney company collapses owing creditors millions.

Paranoid property developer Jean Nassif is living a secret existence in a mountain hamlet in north Lebanon watched by an army of bodyguards and farmworkers protecting him around the clock.

The Lebanese-born fugitive, on the run from Australian authorities seeking his arrest over an alleged financial fraud as his Toplace Group empire collapses, is hiding in rural Haref Ardeh near the city of Zgharta.

Insiders reveal he has become increasingly “neurotic” suspecting “his closest allies” of leaking information on his whereabouts and speaking with authorities.

The moment “ajanib” (foreigners) approach the whitewashed family villa where he lives, a silent panic button is activated, dispatching a small army of bodyguards in blacked out cars, lookout labourers driving pick-up trucks and motorcyclists relaying unknown car number plates into their mobile phones.

When The Daily Telegraph located the three-storey home in a narrow cul-de-sac, an armoured Mercedes-Benz pulled up.

The most recent photo of Jean Nassif since he fled Australia for Lebanon. The property developer continues to claim he is too ill to return and face fraud claims.

Two luxury vehicles with blacked out windows and an armoured vehicle cruised up and down the street, while utes carrying hay and electrical goods temporarily blocked the cul-de-sac.

“I don’t know anything about him, I swear, I don’t know anything, Jean isn’t here, I swear, call him,” said a woman who did not reveal her identity.

The dusty, sun-beaten village, a twenty minute drive east from the port city of Tripoli is home to less than 2000 inhabitants and where the Nassif family dominates the close knit community.

No one volunteers information about “the man with money from Australia” as one neighbouring villager described him. They know he lives in the house belonging to his farmer father.

“He is keen on security and drives several cars, with tinted windows,” a friend of Nassif’s nephew said.

“He’s in that big house, I saw him once looking out the window, he doesn’t go out for walks without first sending his people to check first if there is anyone suspicious in the village.

“When he first arrived he didn’t go out for three months. He thinks Australian gangs in the Mediterranean want to extort money from him after selling some properties for millions of dollars, or bribe him to disclose his whereabouts to police.”

“Don’t ask after him by name here, he is connected, don’t mention Jean Nassif, you will get in trouble.”

Fugitive Jean Nassif has been hiding out in the rural village, Haref Ardeh, near the city of Zgharta. Pictures: The Daily Telegraph

The family’s home in Haref Ardeh where Jean Nassif has been living since leaving Australia.

Recent photos show the Toplace founder Jean Nassif in a hospital bed in Lebanon. Picture: Exclusive, The Sunday Telegraph

When The Daily Telegraph contacted him by phone, Nassif insisted he was not hiding but lying low for his safety and promised he would return to Australia.

“I haven’t died yet, I will be back to defend myself and the truth will always prevail,” he said.

“A search warrant to arrest me, for what? I will go back to Sydney when police lift the order of criminal arrest then I’ll come …”

“I am a man of honour, a fighter, one of god’s warriors, I am the voice that screams very high against evil forces. I’m not afraid to die. They send people here to kill me,” he said.

Jean Nassif’s home town vilage Haref Ardeh.

The Haref Ardeh street where the Nassif’s live.

One of four sons and five daughters born to cattle farmer Khazen, Jean Nassif fled war-torn Lebanon in 1988 for Australia. Records show he was born February 1, 1968 in Haref Ardeh where the Nassifs are one of the best known families in a community and where the Maronite Christian faith reigns supreme.

“People who visit Haref are Australians who return to visit family, they become successful when they leave Lebanon,” said Mayor of Haref Ardeh Nakhoul Chadrid.

Haref Ardeh Mayor Nakhoul Chadrid said Nassif was a “nice man” who attends the local church.

His son, Elias (left) said he has seen TikTok posts from Nassif bragging that police couldn’t find him.

“We don’t have TV here but I heard Jean Nassif, one of ours, allegedly did illegal things in construction, the Australian regime is very strict, you have to do something wrong to get in trouble with the law.”

“Jean is a nice man, he goes to St Charbel church, he prays, I have not seen him for three years, but he’s always welcome in the village. He once donated $50 US to the community.”

The Mayor’s son Elias, 14, said he learned of Nassif’s troubles from a TikTok post of him bragging that police couldn’t find him.

“He said on TikTok he was walking around freely in Lebanon and police had no idea where he was. He’s funny, we like him here.”

Jean Nassif attends St Charbel church in Lebanon.

Hailed as a migrant success story, father-of-three Nassif is reportedly worth well over $100 million, controls over 50 companies, has bought and sold over 30 properties having enjoyed a meteoric rise in the building industry.

Nassif dreamt as a child of becoming a property developer. His company website states that he undertook a civil engineering degree in Beirut before the war drove him out to Sydney.

The founder of major construction company Toplace Group was the subject of an arrest warrant on June 9.

Detectives with NSW Crime Command’s organised crime squad launched an investigation into alleged financial crimes in April 2021.

Toplace has been stripped of its building licence by the Commissioner for Fair Trading who alleges Toplace was guilty of improper conduct. Toplace won a stay of the cancellation to complete the current five-tower Skyview complex and Box Hill project as well as rectification work on around 5171 units.

Nassif is also embroiled in a NSW Parliamentary inquiry into alleged links between Nassif, Toplace, Hills Shire councillors, Liberal powerbroker Christian Ellis and other senior party figures.

He declined to appear before the parliamentary inquiry’s hearings in February and wrote to the committee he was recuperating from a medical procedure in rural Lebanon where daily essentials are delivered by a mule.