Terrorists at my home every week, George Alex tells union probe

The worlds of terrorism and union corruption collided yesterday as businessman George Alex appeared at the unions royal commission.

UNDERWORLD figure George Alex returns after lunch to continue his appearance before the Royal Commission into Trade Union Governance and Corruption.

The worlds of terrorism and trade union corruption collided yesterday as bankrupt businessman and terrorist associate George Alex appeared at the royal commission to give evidence about ­alleged bribes to construction union ­officials, while his lawyer ­revealed large amounts of painkilling medication might ­affect his ­testimony.

Mr Alex, who cultivated a close relationship with a senior official from the Construction Forestry Mining and Energy Union and is alleged to have given kickbacks to union representatives, disclosed details of his dealings with Sydney terrorists Khaled Sharrouf and Mohamed Elomar.

Elomar’s father asked Mr Alex to supply boilermakers from his ­labour hire companies for a project overseas, Mr Alex said, adding that he had declined the labour ­request, but then agreed to help Sharrouf and Elomar make money from boxing.

Sharrouf was acting as ­Elomar’s boxing manager at the time.

“Sharrouf and ­Elomar didn’t want to train in front of their ­community and I had premises at my house at the back and they trained there maybe two, three days a week,” Mr Alex told the commission. “Cause they knew me and (Mr Alex’s murdered business partner) Joe (Antoun) were in the boxing industry and they asked that we get them, if we could assist them in trying to get paid.”

Before giving evidence, Mr Alex, who has been photographed with Sharrouf and Mike Tyson, and reportedly went on holiday with Sharrouf and Elomar, sat in the gallery listening to testimony from Dennis Greenfield, a CFMEU organiser.

The commission has heard ­recordings this week in which Mr Greenfield calls Mr Alex and his associates “c...s” and “dogs”. Mr Greenfield has also said dealing with Mr Alex had been life-threatening and “a nightmare”.

Yesterday, Mr Greenfield, with Mr Alex sitting in his line of sight, admitted he had ­financially ruined Mr Alex’s struggling company by “destroying its cashflow” by div­erting money owed to workers at the Elite ­Access Scaffolding hire business.

“Elite basically said to me … they wouldn’t be able to pay the wages and the workers had been complaining to me, saying ‘enough was enough’.” Mr Greenfield said.

“About $600,000 (from builders who ordinarily would have paid direct to Elite) … was disbursed to all the employees and then basically ... that was the end of the company.”