Surgeon’s defamation case told of ‘extortion’ bid; Tehans calling it a day

Dr Munjed Al Muderis was the NSW Australian of the Year in 2020.

Hooboy, it’s been a rogues gallery of witnesses called up by Nine Newspapers in the Federal Court. They’re leaning on some serious oddballs to defend themselves in the ongoing defamation action brought by Munjed Al Muderis, he of spurned reputation and character. Hearings started last year and still have a way to run.

For anyone just tuning into this, Al Muderis is an osseointegration specialist who’s suing The Age, The Sydney Morning Herald and 60 Minutes over a series of articles alleging he was negligent in his surgery and used sales-pressure tactics on his amputee clients.

Tuesday’s witness was Chris Bruha, a fella from Montana who sat in the witness box drawling about how Al Muderis hadn’t treated him right post-surgery and generally went AWOL on the after-care. None of it sounded real swell for Al Muderis, but the wind shifted about an hour into the hearing.

That’s when the barrister Sue Chrysanthou SC, acting for Al Muderis, flashed up a text sent from Bruha to her client in February 2023 offering, for a price of $223,000, to turn down Nine’s attempts to engage him as a witness. Some people might even call that kind of offer “extortion”.

Barrister Sue Chrysanthou, SC. Picture: Gaye Gerard

“I have a loan amount of Around (sic) 223k to have you do my surgery. I am asking that you pay me back so I will not be 60 minutes main wittiness’s (sic),” Bruha wrote.

“Please give this ­serious thought before you respond Munjed. I will need a response within 24 hours as I am getting pressured to sign the paperwork with 60 minutes.”

Sadder still that it was ever put in writing and made so easily discoverable is that Bruha himself admitted to Chrysanthou, from the witness box, that $223,000 was way more than the cost of the surgery. And he claimed it wasn’t blackmail.

“The amount of $223,000 was extortion,” Chrysanthou said.

“OK, you put it the way you want, and I’ll put it the way I want, and let’s move on,” he said.

Oh, but there’s more. Former paratrooper and witness Mark Urquhart shocked the court last week when asked if he’d ever been acquainted with one Brennan Smith, another Al Muderis patient being called by Nine.

“Yes,” Urquhart replied. “He assaulted me.”

Whaaat? Urquhart’s tale is that he didn’t really know Smith but met him through an army buddy and allowed him to stay at his home in Tasmania for a week. Urquhart called it a terrifying experience in which he was allegedly king hit, beaten “black and blue” and had two fingers cut off.

“I just remember waking up to him standing over the top of me, telling me he’s effing going to kill me and chop my fingers off, and he chopped two fingers off – literally, straight through the bones, straight through the skin, through the muscles, the tendons. So, yes, I know Brennan Smith.”

Damn right. This same Smith, in the witness box after Bruha on Tuesday, told an entirely different version of events, one in which he didn’t so much as lay a finger on Urquhart’s head (even though Urquhart claims to have photographic proof of his injuries).

Instead, Smith said, they “had an incident”, yes, and Urquhart suffered from a psychotic episode and smashed his own house up. “I rung triple-0 four times. The police came. They took Mark away and Mark was charged.” And the injuries sustained? “I don’t know. The police took him away.” Yep, someone’s lying here.

Sadly, another pivotal witness for Nine is Fred Hernandez, described as a “primary source” for several articles written about Al Muderis. This guy’s a card. He’s currently banged up in a Nevada prison until March 19 on a contempt charge, the hope being that he’ll eventually give evidence via video-link, or even come to Australia to appear in court.

Out of love

Federal parliament has seen romance blossom for some during this 47th term, namely Anthony Albanese and fiancee Jodie Haydon, who are off planning a wedding. But we all know that love is like a flower – sometimes you come back from vacation and find it’s dead.

On the other side of the aisle, shadow minister for immigration and citizenship Dan Tehan has begun mapping out his separation from wife Sarah, with whom he shares five adult children.

Al is not well in Dan Tehan’s house. Picture: Martin Ollman

Margin Call spotted some discrepancies with Tehan’s disclosures, noting that he’d removed all mentions of Sarah from the register last week. A spokesman later confirmed the pair were splitting up.

“Sarah and I have mutually agreed to end our relationship, while remaining focused on the upbringing of our young adult children. We ask that you respect the privacy of our family at this time,” the official said.

No update, for now, on Tehan’s plans for his political future, or whether he intends to try to hold onto his Victorian seat of Wannon next year. For the time being, the 56-year-old maintains a home in Hamilton, listed in his name, and which is close to his electoral office.

Game on for merger

Don’t say we didn’t warn you. Last month we reported on Australian Wealth Advisors Group, the freshly listed funds management outfit led by Lee IaFrate and a band of brokers and fast-laners who’ve come back like an ’80s supergroup. Accompanying IaFrate on this journey is Baron Partners founder Paul Young and former Lonsdale Financial Group chief Mark Stephen, among a slew of others on the share register, including Tom “The Black Cat” Klinger and broker Peter “The Red Bullet” Hollick.

We were wondering why such deep pockets were so eager to jump into this micro-cap, and our suspicion was that AWAG would end up prowling the market looking for lazy boards and takeover targets to gobble up.

Looks like it’s game on, then, with the firm fast-roping up the share register of E&P Financial Group already. It owns 8.37 per cent, according to a notice filed with the market on Tuesday, making it the second largest shareholder behind Clark Perkins’ Mercury Capital. Perkins bought the stake off Tony Pitt of 360 Capital, paying way too much for them – 65c – at the time.

News of the AWAG purchase saw the EP1 share price jack up to 54c, so at the moment it’s looking like a steal and is probably being weighed down by some residual overhang from the nasty marital break-up with Dixon Advisory.

Something tells us there’s more buying to come. At 10 per cent the AWAGs will be able to block a takeover themselves.

Margin Call put it to them but received no comment.