Tony Mokbel knew almost from the moment the judge began speaking that he was a free man, but he waited right to the end before he turned to his supporters packed in the doorway of the court to smile and wink.
The Cheshire Cat grin touched off a wave of back slapping and hugs for his associates and family members in the lobby outside, and the news spread like wildfire throughout Melbourne’s underworld.
Tony Mokbel leaves court on Friday.Credit: Joe Armao
The 59-year-old has been behind bars since 2007 – gone from the streets but clearly not forgotten.
“About damn time,” one underworld source said. “Great, he’s done his time,” said another. Even a long-running enemy said: “He deserves to be free”.
The expectation in the underworld, and in the broader legal and law enforcement community, is that the decision to release Mokbel on bail — a man who famously fled the country in a yacht the last time he was out — is the clearest sign yet that the Court of Appeal is likely to quash his drug convictions because they are hopelessly tainted by the Lawyer X scandal.
But no one is under any illusion that not guilty at law means innocent.
Tony Mokbel is a life-long criminal, the chief executive officer of The Company, a drug-dealing empire that was brought down for the right reasons the totally wrong way, according to the High Court of Australia, a royal commission and a slew of legal cases.
Drugs made Mokbel the flashy, Ferrari-driving big wig who spun illicit profits into a property development empire worth tens of millions of dollars in only a matter of a few years.
He was one of the first people banned from entering Crown Casino and helped spark a ban on suspected organised crime figures from racetracks when he attended Oaks Day at Flemington while on bail.
Mokbel became so well-known in Melbourne that referring to him by his unflattering nickname “Fat Tony” was enough to identify him.
When Mokbel absconded in March 2006 hidden in a yacht that sailed from Fremantle, it sparked a worldwide manhunt. His time on the run came to end in Greece in 2007 when he was arrested wearing a wig as a disguise.
Back then iPhones weren’t yet released and Melbourne’s underworld was at the end of a long and bloody war that had cost, by some accounts, 30 lives.
Going to jail has helped preserve Mokbel as one of the last men standing, with a score of his enemies and allies now dead.
Inside he was the Barwon Prince, a power in the high-security Acacia and Melaleuca units where he spent virtually all of his time.
Credit: Matt Golding
It was Mokbel who tipped off new gangland boss George Marrogi that his drug empire was collapsing. He brokered prison truces and made introductions for new alliances.
That came back to bite him in 2019 when a Herald Sun story trumpeting Mokbel’s power inside led to him being stomped and stabbed to within an inch of his life by gang members who took exception to the claim.
It’s been said Mokbel now has a serious acquired brain injury as a result of the prison attack but his performance while on the stand during his hearings for his appeal showed someone who doesn’t seem to miss a step.
In 2020, as the true scope of the misconduct by his former barrister Nicola Gobbo and Victoria Police came to light in a royal commission, Mokbel allegedly became so incensed that he threatened one of the officers who locked him up.
In the 17 years and 10 months that he’s been in jail, there’s never been any sign that Mokbel has left his past behind.
And while today’s gangland has become a radically different place in the nearly two decades since he was on the streets – with new bosses, more money at stake, and what many regard as a far more violent scene – Mokbel isn’t likely to find his safety at risk.
Mokbel was arrested in Greece in 2007.
In fact – if he chooses – he will probably be welcomed back as a kind of elder statesman, the OG boss who survived and, eventually, beat the system.
“I’ll tell you who’s done the best job at this – the whole underworld started through Tony. Tony was the money man. He showed how it could be a business, a proper business. He was the first,” an underworld source said.
It certainly doesn’t appear like Mokbel will be doing it hard on the outside.
His supporters were coming to pay homage even as his lawyers were still arguing he should be granted bail at a hearing on Tuesday, arriving in a bright orange Lamborghini.
They were back again on Friday, this time in a Mercedes-Benz wagon.
And when Fat Tony was ushered out of the Court of Appeal, just after 1:30pm, he was whisked away in a waiting Mercedes.
Mokbel had private security vehicles follow him from the courthouse back to his bail address. A news helicopter tracked his every move as the car made a long loop around the city, heading to his sister’s modest, unassuming home in Viewbank where he has been bailed to live.
It’s not the luxe Port Melbourne penthouse he used to once call home, but it’s a start.
Security remained parked nearby as an almost overwhelming contingent of media prompted neighbours to walk out into the street and inquire what all the fuss was about.
Inside the home, people could be seen peering out at the crowd through white plantation shutters. Brown paper had been stuck over some of the windows.
Neighbours said the unit where Mokbel will stay has only recently been constructed – the Barwon Prince set to become the Viewbank Viscount.
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