Sydney councillors filmed with escorts ‘for blackmail’, says corruption watchdog

The NSW anti-corruption watchdog has found a Sydney property developer secretly filmed two councillors with sex workers on a trip to China so he could try to blackmail them.

Vincenzo Badalati (left), Constantine Hindi (right) and Philip Sansom (middle). The NSW Independent Commission Against Corruption has found against them in conflicts of interest.

The NSW anti-corruption watchdog has found a Sydney property developer secretly filmed two councillors with sex workers on a “boys’ weekend” trip to China so he could blackmail them into voting for his projects.

The Independent Commission Against Corruption found that the two men who were filmed, Vince Bada­lati and Philip Sansom, and councillor Constantine Hindi accepted perks from developers in exchange for favourable treatment on property developments.

ICAC found Mr Badalati and Mr Hindi accepted $170,000 each from developer Ching Wah (Philip) Uy as a reward for having used their positions to help him and the proponents of two proposed developments in Hurstville.

The commission found Mr Bada­lati and Mr Hindi engaged in serious corrupt conduct by travelling to China in April 2016 when they knew their positions with the then Hurstville City Council (later Georges River Council) would be misused to endorse and promote the property developments.

The pair accepted flights, accom­modation and travel in luxury cars.

Mr Sansom engaged in serious corrupt conduct by accepting payment for his and his partner’s return flights for a trip to China in 2014 when he knew the payment was intended to influence him in carrying out his official functions.

Mr Hindi also failed to disclose his pecuniary interest in a planning proposal through his wife Mireille Hindi’s interest in a development due to an agreement under which she stood to gain $500,000.

Mr Badalati and Mr Sansom told ICAC that during trips to China they would spend their time shopping, eating and drinking, going to nightclubs and occasionally performing karaoke with Mr Uy. Mr Sansom described these as “boys’ weekends”.

ICAC found two videos on Mr Uy’s mobile phone taken in 2013 showing Mr Badalati and Mr Sansom in a hotel and at a restaurant with young women.

Mr Uy told ICAC the women “were interpreters or alternatively shopkeepers” but Mr Badalati and Mr Sansom agreed the women were escorts. It was not clear who paid for their services.

When asked by ICAC why he filmed the pair, Mr Uy suggested it was inadvertent and “part of Chinese culture” to take videos of food. He denied taking the videos so could use them against Mr Badalati or Mr Sansom in relation to planning appli­cations coming before the council, and the two men said he had never tried to blackmail them, although Mr Badalati agreed the videos were intended as a “blackmail tool”.

Screengrab of video showing Hurstville councillors former Hurstville and Georges River councillors Vincenzo Badalati, Philip Sansom at a dinner with escorts in China in March 2013. Picture ABC News

“The commission is satisfied Mr Uy believed the videos provided a means by which he could, if necessary, secure their votes,” the commission said.

The ICAC investigation was rocked by the apparent suicide last year of one councillor called to testify. Former Hurstville Labor councillor Clifton Wong, 62, was found dead in his Sydney office two days after he admitted he failed to report a developer allegedly handing $10,000 to Mr Hindi.

ICAC made 11 recommendations including that a code of conduct prohibit council members and officials from accepting benefits from property developers.

ICAC does not have the power to lay criminal charges, but it recommended advice be obtained from the NSW DPP about prosecuting Mr Sansom, Mr Badalati, Mr Hindi, his wife and Mr Uy for various offences.