Australian businessman’s Fiji bribery bid revealed as Nikolic cops 23 years in jail
An Australian businessman with strong underworld links has tried to bribe a Fijian official in the $30 million John Nikolic cocaine catamaran case. The sabotage attempt emerges as Nikolic was sentenced to a maximum of more than two decades in jail.
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An Australian businessman has tried to bribe a Fijian official in the $30 million John Nikolic cocaine catamaran case.
The attempt to sabotage the case in Fiji was made in recent months by an entrepreneur with underworld links.
Nikolic was on Friday sentenced to a maximum of 23 years in jail, a term made more daunting by the possibility he could become physically and mentally disabled by a family disease.
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Nikolic did not flinch as he was sentenced by Suva High Court judge Daniel Goundar over the drugs and weapons found on Shenanigans.
He and wife Yvette had sailed the vessel from Florida to Colombia and Panama then crossed the Pacific, heading to Brisbane. They were arrested in Fiji last June.
The entrepreneur, who is also suspected of being involved in match-fixing, reportedly has big debts and has been feeling pressure from some quarters.
It has never been made clear who was to be the ultimate recipient of the cocaine and methamphetamine found aboard Shenanigans.
But there are strong suspicions John Nikolic had been commissioned to carry out the run for high-level criminals.
During the raid on his yacht, a customs officer overheard Nikolic say he owed money to dangerous people, while there are doubts he would have been able to offload the cocaine himself.
But sources have told the Herald Sun he definitely knew people who could get it done.
Nikolic showed no sign of emotion after being sentenced on Friday.
He had been on remand in Lautoka and Suva prisons since Shenanigans was boarded by Fiji Customs at Denarau Marina on June 22.
In handing down his sentence, Justice Goundar said Nikolic was “in the business” of illicit drug dealing and had made no attempt to explain his conduct or show remorse.
It is understood Nikolic is 46 or 47 years old and has two teenage children.
Yvette Nikolic was found not guilty of all charges and walked free from court on February 19.
The court on Friday heard Nikolic had tested positive for the gene which leads to Huntington’s disease, and two of his uncles had committed suicide after developing symptoms.
His mother, Karen — who attended court for the first time on Friday with Nikolic’s father, John Sr — had also recently developed the disease, it was told.
Nikolic’s lawyer, Wasu Pillay, said his client had been tested for the Huntington’s gene several years ago and was found to have it.
But lead prosecutor Lee Burney said during Nikolic’s sentencing hearing that his risk of developing a terrible disease was not relevant to sentencing.
Mr Burney said Nikolic had shown “not an ounce” of remorse throughout the trial for his crimes.
While the defence had argued Nikolic was a devoted Christian and “an honest man”, his criminal actions and complete lack of remorse indicated otherwise, Mr Burney said.
Nikolic’s parents left through a side door after Friday morning’s hearing and did not return to court in the afternoon to hear Justice Goundar deliver his sentence.
However, earlier in the day John sat with, and embraced, his mother in the courtroom, rubbing her back and comforting her.
Cocaine bars worth up to $30 million, methamphetamine and cocaine tablets, two guns and 112 rounds of ammunition — wrapped in towels, duct-taped and hidden inside a wall in the yacht’s saloon area — were found on Shenanigans when it was raided.
Fiji’s Director of Public Prosecutions has flagged it was considering appealing Yvette Nikolic’s acquittal.
Huntington’s disease is a fatal genetic disorder causing the progressive breakdown of nerve cells in the brain. It leads to the loss of body and brain function and is incurable.
JAIL NEW CHAPTER IN NIKOLIC STRIFE STORY
He has been a murder suspect, felt the heat of racing authorities and narrowly escaped death at his own hand.
It’s fair to say this has been an exceptionally turbulent and messy decade for John Nikolic.
The brother of champion jockey Danny on Friday began a new chapter, as a prisoner beginning a minimum 18-year sentence as a drug trafficker.
It’s a real stayer’s event for a smooth-talking horseman who has never taken a spell from drama.
NIKOLIC’S NEW LIFE IN FIJI JAIL REVEALED
ANALYSIS: JOHN NIKOLIC SAFER IN PRISON THAN OUTSIDE
In 2010, the Nikolic-trained horse Baby Boom — a hot favourite — lost a Sunshine Coast race in which there were suspiciously high levels of betting that it would fail.
Nikolic abruptly handed in his training licence after being embroiled in a major stewards inquiry into the matter.
But the scrutiny of racing authorities was nothing compared with the spotlight to come.
In March 2011, horse trainer Les Samba — the father-in-law of Danny Nikolic — was executed at Middle Park while on a visit to Melbourne to buy yearlings.
A month later, homicide detectives travelled to Queensland to question John Nikolic and his wife, Yvette.
They also raided the family home at Robina on the Gold Coast.
John Nikolic would later deny any involvement in the Samba killing and no one has been charged.
Just as things were settling down on the Samba front, John was back in the headlines for the wrong reasons.
He was warned off race tracks for nine months after admitting to treating the horse Wonderful Jester with a banned substance just before it won at Murwillumbah in northern New South Wales.
Again there was suspicious betting activity, with Wonderful Jester backed in from $8 to $3.
Then, in June last year, came yet another sensational development in the Nikolic saga.
John and Yvette were busted in Fiji with cocaine worth $30 million found hidden on board their catamaran, the aptly named Shenanigans.
As police made their move, John swallowed a concoction of drugs that went close to ending his life.
It was clear he had planned for such a possibility.
Those close to the couple say Yvette’s interests were always uppermost in John’s mind.
Some have pondered whether the doomed drug run was his way of providing some superannuation for Yvette and their children.
Because, as emerged in court on Friday, he has tested positive for a gene that leads to Huntington’s disease, a condition that has bedevilled other members of his family.
“Maybe he thought there was nothing to lose,” one source said.
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