Reputations and risk: Charlie Teo’s ‘wolf pack’ unleashes torrent of abuse

One of Charlie Teo’s business partners boasted to their WhatsApp group of a threat to “rifle” a journalist and set fire to The Sydney Morning Herald at the same time the neurosurgeon was using his celebrity status to spruik their billion-dollar plan for a major development in Sydney’s west.

Carlo LoGiudice, 59, a businessman who has fought off several attempts to bankrupt him, was Teo’s business partner in a proposal to buy land from Blacktown City Council to construct a research centre and five-star medical-tourism hospital, to which patients from around the world would flock to be treated by the centre’s figurehead Teo and other internationally renowned surgeons.

Carlo LoGiudice (left) with neurosurgeon Charlie Teo.

With Teo’s reputation in tatters following a recent finding of unsatisfactory professional conduct, a Herald investigation has raised questions about his involvement in the Blacktown Brain and Spinal Institute (BBSI), the recent sale of council land to developer Walker Corporation at a hefty discount, and the conduct of the neurosurgeon’s business partners.

On the morning of September 7, 2019, a WhatsApp group chat including the BBSI partners at the time – Teo, LoGiudice and Leny Manassa – was running hot following a series of Herald articles by this reporter which had raised serious questions about Teo’s judgment, behaviour, exorbitant fees and sexual harassment of female colleagues.

LoGiudice said that he’d just got off the phone from an Italian father and son. “They are fuming and want to come back to Australia ASAP and rifle that bitch Kate,” he told Teo and Manassa. “That bitch Kate is going down. Wrong wolfpack to f--- with!” LoGiudice added.

Teo, 65, replied: “Thanks Carlo! It’s been a rough week.”

“Dirty putana lorda [filthy whore] will get hers! She will be eating shit for the rest of her miserable life!,” LoGiudice continued in the WhatsApp thread.

LoGuidice then sent a further message saying there was a “growing movement” to have a number of Teo’s friends and supporters “get a 44 gallon drum and burn the SMH in a show of defiance. Let’s see who’s got the biggest D%£K”.

NSW Police have discussed the threats with Nine’s security and management, who interpreted the comments as threats to its staff.

“Neither you nor the SMH nor any other person has anything to fear from me,” LoGiudice told the Herald in an email.

He initially said the conversations may have been “doctored” but subsequently claimed it was “banter.”

“There was nothing that implied I will hire an Italian hitman to rifle you,” said LoGiudice, insisting that the “Italian boy” he referenced was a happy former patient of Teo’s. The family wanted to “come to speak to you personally” about the good outcome, he said.

“The Wolfpack was just a nickname based on our love of dogs,” he said.

He also offered that an “empty” 44-gallon drum could be used “to ignite physical copies of the newspaper articles” rather than burn down the Herald’s office. “I believe any reasonable person would not feel threatened.”

Teo declined to respond to questions about the contents of their group chat.

Later, at a major fundraiser for his Charlie Teo Foundation and in front of hundreds of paying guests, Teo called this reporter a “c---.” The Herald’s editorial management lodged a complaint with his charity. No reply was received.

The Herald can reveal that in a 2021 presentation about the “Transformation of Blacktown,” the council’s chief executive officer flagged a $100 million land sale to the BBSI group for its billion-dollar development.

However, in March this year, the land was sold to developer Lang Walker’s company for $42 million, without going to public tender.

The same day Walker Corporation bought the land, ASIC documents show Manassa resigned as the sole director and he, Teo and LoGiudice quit as shareholders of the BBSI Group.

The principal place of business moved from Manassa’s single-storey Auburn office for his demolition company to Walker’s premises in the Governor Macquarie Tower in Sydney’s CBD.

“Should Professor Teo not be involved in the project, a bank guarantee of $2 million would be forfeited by the BBSI developer,” the council has previously stipulated in public documents.

Teo, Walker Corporation and Blacktown Council did not answer specific questions about the status of the project and Teo’s involvement.

Carlo LoGiudice (left) with Melbourne underworld figure Mick Gatto.

Within the council, reputational risk concerns were raised as early as 2019 after the Herald revealed Teo’s and LoGiudice’s association with Melbourne underworld figure Mick Gatto. The article also raised the multiple attempts to bankrupt LoGiudice, who had featured a number of times in the diaries of the now-jailed former Labor minister Eddie Obeid.

In a confidential session, councillors raised the Herald’s investigations into Teo and his associates, which, according to one of those present, Mayor Tony Bleasdale brushed aside saying it was “only a journalist with a gripe”.

In the council’s own risk report dated March 2021, it was stated that there was a “catastrophic” risk if Teo was not involved in the BBSI as the project “relies on the professional reputation of Dr Teo AM.”

The council’s risk report also acknowledged concerns about the ability of Teo’s group to get a project of such magnitude off the ground and that it was expected that the project would be on-sold to a major developer.

Mick Gatto and Charlie Teo at a fundraiser.Credit: Tamara Dean

Former Labor councillor Kevin Gillies, formerly a senior health official at Western Sydney Area Health Service, said the people of Blacktown may have been misled from the outset about Teo’s “vanity” proposal.

“Show me the money,” Gillies demanded of council when the BBSI project was first raised. “There was no paperwork or anything. Basically, it was all rhetorical stuff from the mayor [Bleasdale] about what a marvellous surgeon Teo was.”

Concerns about the sale of council land for an unsolicited proposal and other issues led Gillies to not contest the 2021 council elections. His parting remark to council was: “This thing will never be built as you propose.”

In July, Teo was found guilty of unsatisfactory professional conduct with a professional standard committee finding he was unethical, failed to exercise appropriate skill and lacked insight and judgment.

The findings against Teo and the imposition of onerous supervision conditions have effectively ended Teo’s ability to operate in Australia. Any future role in an organisation such as the BBSI would bring the burden of possible reputational damage.

According to council minutes, on March 15 at least half of Blacktown’s councillors tried to rescind the decision to sell the council’s land to Walker Corporation.

Bleasdale used his casting vote to get the sale over the line, and the deal was inked the next day. Neither the council nor Bleasdale replied to the Herald’s specific questions about the BBSI project which is now estimated to cost $2 billion.

“Charlie Teo’s BBSI without Charlie Teo, I don’t even know how that works,” said a current councillor, who asked not to be named for fear of reprisals.

Blacktown Mayor Tony Bleasdale and Lang Walker, of Walker Corporation, at the signing of the land sale deal.

The council has previously stated that “a key advantage of the BBSI proposal is it provides the ability to fund a significant proportion of the cost of a new council administration building.”

However, it is not clear how the $150 million council building will be funded as lease documents show that it will cost the council almost $30 million over ten years to rent back their buildings from Walker Corporation.

“It’s an absolute disaster,” said the councillor, who explained that the initial $100 million valuation of the land was based on the sale having a residential component, which made it more valuable.

Having acquired the land “for less than half”, on the basis there is no residential component, and with the council paying massive amounts in rent, Walker Corporation has acquired the council’s land “for almost nothing” said the councillor.

Carlo LoGiudice and a copy of one of the messages he sent in a WhatsApp group to business partners including Charlie Teo.Credit: Sydney Morning Herald

“You’re giving away the farm,” said a second councillor. “The numbers don’t stack up.”

Ratepayers have contacted the Herald expressing concerns that the council has been “dudded” in the deal with Walker Corporation and that rate rises or further asset sales might be needed to fund the new council chambers.

In a statement, the council told the Herald: “Council, in all of its property transactions, is diligent in taking care to analyse and consider the risks and benefits to the ratepayers of the city. The process has taken a number of years.”

Walker Corporation did not answer specific questions about Teo’s role in the project or whether it had secured a private hospital or a medical research institute.

“The project will provide opportunities for thousands of jobs, quality education, medical research and health facilities for future generations of Western Sydney,” said a spokesperson for the developer.

The Morning Edition newsletter is our guide to the day’s most important and interesting stories, analysis and insights. Sign up here.