$110,000 payment for union peace: Developer’s deal in spotlight amid fresh calls to clean up industry

A gangland associate was paid $110,000 by a Gold Coast developer to strike a deal with the CFMEU’s Queensland branch four months after the Albanese government forced the union into administration.

The revelation of the Sunshine State deal, along with several other alarming new case studies, has prompted a major public intervention by the federal Labor-appointed CFMEU administrator, who is now urging conservative Queensland premier David Crisafulli to use his planned commission of inquiry into the union to attack the underworld.

(From left) John Khoury, Nick Maric and Mick Gatto. Maric has for years had Khoury and his business partner Gatto on a retainer to deal with the CFMEU. Credit:

Administrator Mark Irving, SC, has also demanded that the Albanese, Allan and Minns governments shift their “focus on crime and corruption across the industry”.

The Sunshine State deal involved an attempt by Queensland-Melbourne joint venture Glen Q to secure industrial peace on the Gold Coast and culminated in a meeting between the CFMEU’s Queensland co-ordinator Matt Vonhoff and Melbourne gangland associate John Khoury.

Construction union sources who have spoken to authorities have confirmed the dealings were uncovered during recent federal police raids. The raids unearthed a money trail linking a front company in the name of Khoury’s accountant to Glen Q’s 16-level project a short drive from Crisafulli’s Gold Coast seat.

The sources said that acting as a fixer in the Gold Coast affair was Melbourne construction boss turned Queensland government contractor Nick Maric. Maric has for years had Khoury and his business partner Mick Gatto on a retainer to deal with the CFMEU.

Revelations about the case have emerged amid separate details of persistent gangland activity in Queensland and down the eastern seaboard.

They include a surge of industry involvement by the feared Comanchero bikie gang, including cases in Sydney and Brisbane, the latter in which a Melbourne Comanchero flying squad flew north and allegedly threatened a CFMEU representative.

The bikies were ostensibly working with a security and labour hire contractor subcontracted to national construction giant BMD.

The CFMEU rival Australian Workers’ Union has also been drawn into the scandal, with a small number of AWU representatives supporting two firms led by figures with criminal links as a means of countering CFMEU aggression.

One of the firms, 24-7 Labour, has been seeking access to major Queensland government jobs, obtaining its enterprise bargaining agreement with the AWU’s Queensland branch.

24-7 Labour is owned by two men previously convicted of running a drug-trafficking operation between Queensland and Victoria, including the firm’s manager – who sought to conceal his serious criminal past during EBA negotiations.

An investigation by this masthead has also confirmed that 24-7 briefly retained the services of former Victorian Labor government minister Cesar Melhem to help it enter the Queensland industry.

After Irving’s appointment at the CFMEU following this masthead’s Building Bad investigation, federal and state Labor governments have spent the past 12 months responding to growing allegations of underworld activity in the construction sector by calling in police and regulators – who have traditionally been slow or unable to act.

A year since the scandal broke, authorities have launched multiple investigations but have not laid a single substantive charge.

The revelations of cross-border underworld activity could be swept up by the Queensland government’s proposed commission if Crisafulli directs it to go after Australia’s underworld.

Queensland Attorney-General Deb Frecklington, Premier David Crisafulli and Deputy Premier Jarrod Bleijie announce a commission of inquiry into the CFMEU on Sunday.Credit: Courtney Kruk

Late on Wednesday, in response to questions sent by this masthead, Irving emerged as a supporter of such a move.

His administration released a statement saying while it was engaged in the “task of removing criminal elements” and bikies “from within the CFMEU … on a daily basis … there is much, much more to be done”.

“There is clear evidence of corruption and criminal activity in Queensland, NSW and Victoria,” a spokesman for Irving said in a statement.

“The Queensland inquiry and the ongoing work of the federal government provide a unique opportunity to continue this work.”

If Crisafulli responds to Irving’s call, his commission would see gangland figures and company directors answering questions, as well as union officials.

The Gold Coast meeting

When federal police agents raided the Melbourne offices of a gangland accountant in March, they stumbled on the money trail linking Victoria’s gangland to a property development on the Gold Coast.

It is being built in a joint venture between Melbourne firm Glenvill Developments and Queensland developer QNY Group.

The joint venture, known as Glen Q, announced in March 2023 its funding of the $70 million boutique 16-level Sunset Residences at Broadbeach on the Gold Coast’s famous surf strip.

21 Broadbeach development on the Gold Coast.Credit:

Behind the scenes, trouble was brewing. Union sources have said the building project was deemed unsafe for workers, leading to industrial action and site visits by the CFMEU’s Queensland branch.

Various union sources, including those who have dealt with police, have confirmed to this masthead that this industrial pressure appears to have prompted a $110,000 payment from Glen Q to gangland identity John Khoury in about November 2024.

Khoury is a veteran member of the Mick Gatto-led Carlton Crew and has previously been described in commissions of inquiry (unrelated to the building industry) as an associate of “numerous Melbourne-based organised crime figures”.

This masthead is not suggesting Khoury is a criminal, only that he has been the subject of repeated attention by authorities. He has declined to comment and denies all allegations of wrongdoing.

For two decades in Victoria, Gatto and Khoury have been fixers of choice for builders wanting to get the CFMEU’s Melbourne bosses onside.

Charles Pellegrino during a police raid in March.Credit: Jason South

But until the police raid in March, it was not known that the pair’s business model had crept up north, or that it had kept operating after the CFMEU was placed in administration.

The union sources aware of the Gold Coast deal said they also involved Nick Maric, another building company owner who has expanded from Victoria into Queensland and who spends time on the Gold Coast.

Records sighted by this masthead show that, separate to the Gold Coast deal, Maric has paid Khoury and Gatto to run his industrial relations strategy and used the same payment method to pay the pair as Glen Q – via front companies owned by Pellegrino.

Maric in particular has used Khoury to promote and protect his business, LTE, which over the past two years has won substantial work across Victoria and on several major Queensland-funded government sites including the Logan Hospital expansion, the Gold Coast University Hospital sub-acute expansion, and the federally funded Centre for National Resilience quarantine facility in Brisbane.

Maric has previously denied any wrongdoing in his construction dealings.

In November 2024, Khoury met at a Gold Coast cafe with three CFMEU officials: a local delegate, senior organiser Dylan Howard, and high-ranking CFMEU organiser Matt Vonhoff. A Glen Q representative refused to answer questions about the meeting and payment.

The CFMEU also declined to answer questions, but multiple CFMEU sources told this masthead, anonymously because they are not authorised to speak publicly, that the administration had conducted an internal investigation and grilled Vonhoff and the other officials about their interaction with Khoury.

The sources said the union administration believed the trio’s account that the CFMEU Queensland branch had acted with propriety, done no favours for Khoury, and ended industrial activity on the Glen Q site for reasons unconnected to the Khoury meeting.

Police have not laid any charges in relation to the incident, which is part of a broader investigation into underworld interactions with the union.

The use by Glen Q of Khoury as a fixer may be legal, although it is unlawful to make a dishonest payment to a third party to influence a union.

The federal police raids have triggered an ongoing inquiry into several Melbourne identities. That probe is yet to lead to any charges.

Similarly, Victoria Police have made no arrests over unrelated gangland activity in Melbourne, including a spate of fire-bombings targeting construction firms.

In NSW, police are investigating allegations of bikie-linked standover involving construction industry and union figures in Sydney as recently as the past month, but have also laid no charges.

A separate Queensland case, involving the Comancheros and major building firm BMD, has also led to no outcome from authorities.

That case involves two men: Comanchero associate and building company owner Krstomir Bjelogrlic and Comanchero national boss Bemir Saracevic.

Bemir Saracevic was featured in a news article tabled in the federal parliament.Credit:

The two are suspected to have travelled from Melbourne to Brisbane mid-last year to engage in standover activity involving the $300 million Centenary Bridge upgrade and an industrial dispute between the CFMEU, national building firm BMD and, on the periphery, the Australian Workers’ Union.

In June 2024, Bjelogrlic and Saracevic arrived in Brisbane ostensibly to conduct security work for a BMD subcontractor called Host.

BMD declined to answer questions, but three sources who worked for the company said its subcontractor Host had used “muscle from Melbourne” to counter the CFMEU’s campaign against it in Queensland.

The sources also said that after Bjelogrlic and Saracevic arrived in Brisbane, they were allegedly involved in a standover incident targeting a CFMEU representative. The two were named in an ABC article tabled in federal parliament last year detailing allegations they had heavied CFMEU officials in Queensland.

Host is a firm that has historically operated closely with the AWU, leading to accusations from inside the CFMEU that its union rival has turned a blind eye to the use of bikies in Brisbane – a claim hotly disputed by the AWU, whose members and officials have previously accused the CFMEU of blatant violence and intimidation.

A Host spokesman, who previously declined to answer specific questions about the suspected bikie activity, said in a statement that it was “important to acknowledge the ongoing rivalry between the CFMEU and the AWU” and that “certain factions of the CFMEU have been linked to organised crime”.

“Our company is law-abiding and has no link to organised crime,” he said.

In its statement, the Irving-led administration did not respond to specific questions but said: “The administration believes it is time for employers and state and federal governments to focus on crime and corruption across the industry, rather than a narrow focus on the CFMEU.

“The administrator has written to Premier Crisafulli to discuss the best way to address [these] matters,” including via his proposed commission of inquiry.

In a statement, AWU Queensland secretary Stacey Schinnerl said her union “never has and never will be a supporter of bikies or any organised crime” and was “proud to have always fought against that corrupted version of unionism”.

But the AWU also faces questions about its decision to sign off on an enterprise bargaining agreement in Queensland with Melbourne labour hire 24-7.

The firm is led by convicted drug trafficker Jarrod Hennig and a second Middle Eastern crime figure, both of whom appear to have made a concerted effort to conceal their involvement in the firm.

Jarrod Hennig at the time of his arrest.Credit:

This masthead can reveal that in 2024, 24-7 secured an enterprise bargaining agreement with the AWU’s Queensland branch to expand into civil and transport projects in Queensland.

There is no evidence that any Queensland union official knew of the firm’s links to convicts, as uncovered in a recent investigation by this masthead detailing 24-7’s work on Australia’s biggest wind farm project.

But multiple AWU and industry sources have confirmed that at least two AWU delegates in Victoria knew of the company’s criminal links.

One of those delegates, Johnny Keys, introduced the firm to former AWU boss and ex-Victorian minister Cesar Melhem, and he was subsequently hired to help 24-7 draft its Queensland union agreement.

This masthead does not suggest that Melhem was aware of 24-7’s links to organised criminals when he accepted the job.

Cesar Melhem in the Victorian parliament.Credit: Jason South

In a statement Melhem said he “acted for the company some time last year for the approval of an enterprise agreement”.

“We’re not currently acting for 24-7 and won’t be in the future,” he said.

State secretary Schinnerl said it was not “the union’s job to play investigator on the backgrounds of individuals involved in companies with whom we negotiate agreements”.

“Like everyone else, we have to rely on the authorities and the regulator.”

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