Police raid properties connected to Salim Mehajer

Police and government authorities have raided properties across Sydney connected to property developer Salim Mehajer.

Salim Mehajer.

Police and government authorities have raided properties across Sydney connected to property developer Salim Mehajer following action by his bankruptcy trustee.

Teams of investigators, including NSW Police, forensic accountants and IT specialists this morning raided eight residential properties and business premises connected to Mehajer, and targeted “accountants, lawyers and family members” associated with the former deputy mayor of western Sydney’s Auburn.

The raids, which involved up to ten investigators at each property, were launched at the request of Mehajer’s Trustee in Bankruptcy, Paul Weston of Pitcher Partners, who sought to secure records relating to Mehajer’s businesses affairs.

“The NSW Police Force and Australian Financial Services Authorities (AFSA), as well as representatives from the Trustee’s office Pitcher Partners, raided residential and business premises at eight separate locations in Sydney,” a statement from Pitcher Partners said.

“Up to ten investigators including police, forensic accountants and IT specialists were involved at each of the premises that were raided, indicating the size and scope of the investigation.”

The financial services group said Mr Weston had instigated the raids after “almost three months of investigation” after Mehajer became bankrupt on March 20.

Mehajer declared bankrupt by the Federal Circuit Court in March after the liquidator of his failed development company SM Project Developments launched action against him in November last year over a $200,000 debt.

He is before the courts facing around 10 concurrent civil and criminal matters, including charges of fraud and perverting the course of justice over allegedly staging a car crash in October last year to avoid a court appearance.

Mehajer spent two months in custody earlier this year in relation to those charges, but was granted bail in April.

He has subsequently been found guilty, in unrelated matters, of over 100 counts of electoral fraud, after Sydney Local Court magistrate Beverley Schurr found he had operated a “joint criminal enterprise” with his sister Fatima to rig the 2012 Auburn council election.

He is yet to be sentenced in relation to that matter with a sentencing hearing last week postponed until tomorrow after his lawyers told the court Mehajer had been diagnosed with bipolar disorder.