Lawyer X not alone: ‘snitch’ revealed

Joseph Acquaro told Victoria Police detectives how to pressure an ex-client who faced trial over the record tomato tin ecstasy bust.

Joseph “Joe” Acquaro told Victoria Police detectives how to pressure a former client who faced trial over the record tomato tin ecstasy bust.

A second Melbourne gangland lawyer has been unmasked as a police informer after it emerged that Joseph “Joe” Acquaro told Victoria Police detectives how to pressure a former client who faced trial over the record tomato tin ecstasy bust.

Victoria’s Court of Appeal has rejected a Victoria Police bid to suppress the informant status of slain mafia lawyer Acquaro, revealing he had provided information to detectives in 2008 and again in 2014.

The information has come to light as part of a bid by Calabrian mafia figure Frank Madafferi, who was represented by supergrass Nicola Gobbo leading up to his 2014 drug trafficking conviction, to have the finding overturned in the wake of the Lawyer X scandal.

In their judgment on Tuesday, justices Karin Emerton, Mark Weinberg and Robert Osborn said transcripts of three conversations between ­Acquaro and police detectives in 2014 could be of “substantial assistance” to the notorious drug trafficker.

Frank Madafferi is taken from a prison van into the Supreme Court. Picture: David Crosling

“It seems to us to be reasonable to think that Madafferi may make use of the disclosures, in the sense that they may be of substantial assistance to him in his ­appeal,” they found.

Acquaro acted as Madafferi’s solicitor from 2000 until the end of 2013, when they had a falling out because of the mobster’s bad influence on the lawyer’s sons.

Following the split and a brawl between the pair at Acquaro’s restaurant Gelobar in Brunswick East, Acquaro approached police with information on his former client, saying he felt he had “created a monster”.

At the time, Madafferi was facing charges relating to the 2007 importation of ecstasy pills. Acquaro had represented him since he was charged in Aug­ust 2008.

“[The transcripts] reveal that Acquaro disclosed to the police not only purported problems that he knew of in the prosecution case against Madafferi, but other matters that could be used to put pressure on Madafferi … such as his involvement in a ‘sham’ charitable foundation and potential problems with his immigration status,” the judgement said.

Nicola Gobbo. Screen grabs from ABC 7:30 Report.

Acquaro further pointed out flaws in the prosecution case to detectives, saying there were problems with interpretation in the case and the prosecution had copied and pasted the same conversation for one accused as for another.

“Acquaro boasts of knowing precisely how to defeat the charges, that is, he knows how to ‘destroy’ them,” the judgement said.

He told detectives one conversation prosecutors believed was about drugs was about pumpkins.

Victoria Police did not formally register Acquaro as an informant because he was unreliable and prone to leaking to the press.

The transcripts were also released to lawyers for Saverio Zir­illi in a separate decision on Tuesday, with the underworld figure in 2012 sentenced to 26 years for his role in the same ­ecstasy bust.

The Court of Appeal granted access to the transcripts but noted “Mr Zirilli will not find this information to be of any great use in challenging his conviction” in their judgments.

Then the world’s largest ecstasy haul, Victoria Police in conjunction with the Australian Federal Police uncovered 15 million pills inside tomato paste tins shipped from Italy in 2007.

Acquaro was shot dead outside Gelobar in March 2016. Vincent Crupi will stand trial for the slain gangland lawyer’s murder and has entered a not guilty plea.