Time for Teo’s media supporters to back away from their controversial mate

Blacktown City ratepayers and residents have been ill-served by a council deal that saw land earmarked for development as a research centre and five-star medical tourism hospital associated with high-profile neurosurgeon Charlie Teo sold to developers for less than half the initially estimated price.

Charlie Teo and the proposed facility in BlacktownCredit: Quentin Jones

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, the sale of council land to developer Walker Corporation at a hefty discount, and the conduct of the neurosurgeon’s business partners.

The Herald’s chief investigative reporter Kate McClymont on Tuesday revealed that at a 2021 presentation on the “Transformation of Blacktown,” the council’s chief executive officer flagged a $100 million sale to the BBSI group for its billion-dollar medical development. However, last March 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 builder Leny Manassa resigned as the sole director of the BBSI Group. Manassa, local businessman Carlo LoGiudice and Teo all quit as shareholders of BBSI, too.

Teo’s reputation was vital in gaining council support for the project. But the consortium was shaken after McClymont’s front page article on September 5, 2019, which raised serious questions about Teo’s judgment, behaviour, exorbitant fees and sexual harassment of female colleagues. The following December, she also reported 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 diaries of the now-jailed former Labor minister Eddie Obeid.

The medical profession took off after Teo. A professional standards committee last month found him guilty of unsatisfactory conduct, saying he lacked insight, empathy and judgment and that he had failed to properly explain the risks of the operations to patients and relatives. The committee also ruled he could not carry out brain surgery unless he obtained written approval from an independent neurosurgeon of 15 years’ standing who had to be approved by the Medical Council of NSW. It is now near-impossible for Teo to operate in Australia because no neurosurgeon will vouch for him.

Following the publication of the 2019 investigation, it has emerged LoGuidice boasted to a WhatsApp group that included Teo of a threat by a young Italian man and his father to “rifle” McClymont and set fire to The Sydney Morning Herald, and warned they were the “wrong wolfpack” to mess with.

He initially said the conversations may have been “doctored” but subsequently claimed it was “banter.” “Neither you nor the SMH nor any other person has anything to fear from me,” LoGiudice later told the Herald in an email. But, as we reported yesterday, NSW Police have discussed the threats with Nine’s security and management, who interpreted the comments as threats to staff. It should go without saying but is worth making clear: the Herald stands by McClymont and condemns these appalling threats of violence.

These latest revelations further damage Teo’s tarnished reputation. In response to LoGiudice’s message, Teo thanked him. Based on the contents of the Whatsapp messages seen by the Herald, he failed to rebuke his business partner for his choice of language. Teo did not respond to a request for comment about the exchange.

He has used nearly every trick in the public relations handbook to defend his reputation, including having patients speak on his behalf, sending legal threats to colleagues who publicly question his conduct and orchestrating a string of sympathetic hearings with media mates who surely must now question their ongoing association with him.

According to his charitable foundation, a host of media personalities continue to be associated with Teo as ambassadors of the organisation, including Ben Fordham, Chris Smith, Richard Wilkins, Peter Overton, Karl Stefanovic, Tim Webster and Alex Cullen. Five of those men are employed by Nine, which owns the Herald.

With Teo and friends exiting the scene and a potential $50 million-plus lost in the deal with the Walker Corporation, ratepayers and residents will pay for the gullibility of their Blacktown City councillors through rate rises or asset sell offs. They can only hope their councillors are not so star-struck next time they negotiate a sale.

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