Fugitive property developer Jean Nassif: ‘I’m trying to come back but the police aren’t cooperating’

Speaking from his Lebanon hideaway, bankrupt Toplace Group developer Jean Nassif says he misses his kids and has instructed lawyers to strike a deal to open the way for his comeback.

Exclusive: Accused fraudster and fugitive property developer Jean Nassif claims he has been secretly attempting to negotiate a deal with police to grant him bail if he returns to Sydney.

The bankrupt Toplace Group developer who is living in a hideaway in the mountains of north Lebanon is desperately missing his children and has instructed lawyers to strike a deal to open the way for his comeback.

“I’m trying to come back but the police aren’t cooperating,” Nassif said.

“I love my children and miss them so much, I can’t sleep because I think of how I can get to see them, it’s making me ill, I’m desperate for them (sic).”

Accused fraudster and fugitive property developer Jean Nassif in Lebanon. Picture: Supplied

Jean Nassif with his model/actor wife Nissy Nassif.

It is understood the Sydney businessman whose property empire collapsed owing more than $1 billion, and who is the object of a police warrant for his arrest, has offered to come back and face courts and fix his beleaguered housing developments – if police grant him bail so he can visit his three young children at the family home in Chiswick.

NSW Police said on Wednesday claims of negotiating his return was news to them revealing it is not in any negotiation with Nassif or his lawyer about returning to Australia.

“There is a warrant for his arrest ... we’d like him to come back so we can speak to him, but there’s been no discussion or negotiations of this nature to date,” a spokesperson said.

Lebanese born Nassif, 55, left Sydney for Dubai in December last year before his company collapsed owing more than $1 billion.

He and his daughter from a previous relationship lawyer Ashlyn, 29, are alleged to have falsified sales contracts to secure a $150 million Westpac loan relating to Toplace’s Skyview development in Castle Hill, claims Nassif denies. Ms Nassif is yet to enter please.

The firm, one of Australia’s largest privately owned construction and property development companies, with numerous high-rise apartment projects under construction in Sydney, went into administration in July.

Jean Nassif in hospital in Lebanon.

Jean Nassif with three of his children in Lebanon in April 2023. Picture: Facebook

Records filed with the Australian Securities and Investment Commission show an administrator was appointed to his company, Toplace Pty Ltd, and the business collapsed owing $1.24 billion, including $88.5 million to suppliers and tradespeople.

The scale of the collapse of Nassif’s Toplace group has been outlined in documents tendered in the Federal Court earlier this month by administrators dVT Group and shows how secured creditors – banks with mortgages over Toplace properties, and foreign lenders in the British Virgin Islands – are owed $1 billion.

Since his departure from Australia Nassif has been lying low in his family village in Haref Ardeh, 94 kilometres north east of Beirut and spending time in Singapore.

NSW detectives are pressing to arrest him on a warrant for financial crimes dating back to 2021.

St Charbel Church in Haref Ardeh, North Lebanon. Picture: Supplied

He has been careful not to upload pictures of himself on social media, even though there is no extradition treaty in Lebanon with Australia, but has been seen partying at the Dea Del Mare beach bar resort in the ancient coastal city of Byblos where cashed up locals and foreigners, many of them Lebanese-Australians, blow off steam.

The waiters in Haref Ardeh at the Rachiine River Restaurant know Nassif is back.

He is often seen in the company of younger friends.

“For years he has come here with different women, aged between 25 and 40, they’re beautiful, some are Lebanese, others speak with foreign accents, and he comes in a different car each time,” said one local worker who asked not to be named.

The family home of accused fraudster and fugitive property developer Jean Nassif in Haref Ardeh, Northern Lebanon. Picture: Supplied

“Once I took a picture of him on my phone, he’s a hero here, he carries a lot of cash in his pockets, but he got angry and screamed.

Nassif maintains he has been “admitted somewhere” for depression two hours outside Beirut in the mountains.

In a telephone interview, he said: “I am bedridden, I am so tired, you will not find me, I cannot leave this place.

“… Im not allowed out, I’m not in a fit state to meet anyone, I’m waiting to be discharged, people are coming for me,” he said.

“I don’t go to church anymore, my faith is big, I salute God every morning three times from my house.

“I am the son of God, I’m close to Jesus and God more than (to) the church. I have wisdom like no other,” he said.

Originally published as Fugitive property developer Jean Nassif: ‘I’m trying to come back but the police aren’t cooperating’