David Tricario settles $2 million case with car giant Nissan

A Xavier College alumni jailed for selling chemicals to Tony Mokbel has settled with Nissan after being accused of ripping off the car giant.

Former Tony Mokbel associate property developer David Tricario.

A former chemical supplier to Tony Mokbel and his business partner have agreed to pay more than $2 million to settle a court case in which they were accused of ripping off car giant Nissan.

The settlement, struck in the Federal Court earlier this month, follows Melbourne businessman David Tricario being accused of being involved in a fraudulent car hire scheme which resulted in Nissan being left out of pocket for dozens of vehicles.

Mr Tricario was jailed in 2011 for selling precursor chemicals to Mokbel’s sprawling drug empire.

Since his release from prison in 2013, the Xavier College graduate has reinvented himself as a property developer involved in multimillion-dollar luxury house and unit projects across Melbourne.

Mr Tricario and Mr Orlando will pay $2.06m to Nissan and the case will be dropped: Supplied

Mr Tricario and business partner Vincent Orlando set up car rental and ride share business HiRide in late February 2020, court documents show.

They then took possession of at least $1.6m worth of Nissan vehicles.

Nissan had a liquidator appointed to HiRide in May 2021 after not being paid for the vehicles.

A subsequent investigation by Hall Chadwick liquidator Sule Arnautovic stated Mr Tricario and Mr Orlando appeared to have “improperly sold” the Nissan vehicles “under the guise of operating a ride share business”.

They then channelled around $1.6m in sale proceeds out of HiRide via a loan to related party companies, a liquidator’s report says.

Mr Tricario was jailed for selling precursor chemicals to Tony Mokbel. Picture: Julian Smith

Mr Arnautovic launched legal action against Mr Tricario and Mr Orlando, alleging the pair broke corporate law by overseeing unfair preference payments and unreasonable director-related transactions.

Documents lodged with the Federal Court this week show Mr Arnautovic has struck a settlement in which Mr Tricario and Mr Orlando will pay $2.06m and the case will be dropped.

The settlement sum covers interest and legal costs.

“Judgment be entered for the plaintiffs against the third and fourth defendants in the sum of $2,068,338.85 inclusive of interest and costs,” court documents say.

Mr Tricario is the third defendant and Mr Orlando the fourth.

Mr Arnautovic declined to comment on the settlement, telling the Herald Sun he was bound by a confidentially agreement.

Nissan also declined to comment.

An early defence lodged by Mr Tricario and Mr Orlando denied any wrongdoing and called the allegations “ambiguous, embarrassing, frivolous, vexatious ... and ought to be struck out”.