September 25, 2026 — 5:00am
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After watching Jean Nassif give his unhinged evidence to the corruption inquiry recently from his Beirut bolthole, the impression left was that the fugitive developer was certifiably crazy.
But receiving a surprise mention during Thursday’s evidence, supposedly as Nassif’s “enforcer”, was a genuinely crazy figure, one-time bikie gang enforcer “Crazy Dave” Lima, whose corporate entities have included Krazye and Mother Clucker.
Also known as Sofe Veiru Levi, “Crazy Dave” has a conviction for violence and was second-in-charge of a bikie gang known as Notorious. On one occasion, Crazy Dave’s parole was revoked after police discovered he’d met “The Executioner”, a martial arts fighter, at the Gypsy Lounge in Kings Cross.
Sharangan Maheswaran, left, at the ICAC on Thursday.Ben Symons
The day’s evidence could best be described as “mooshed”, a word the witness appeared to use for “muddled into a confused mess”. In the ICAC hotseat for his fourth day was lawyer Sharangan Maheswaran, 36, who has been dubbed Nassif’s right-hand man.
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Extortion attempts, secret recordings and shakedowns all featured in Maheswaran’s evidence. The great confusion was who was doing what to whom.
In 2021, Nassif’s paranoia seemed to be raging unchecked about who within his organisation or among his contractors was leaking damaging photos of defects in his Skyview building at Castle Hill.
He was accusing people of being in cahoots with the building commissioner to destroy him and his development empire, Toplace.
The day’s evidence focused on allegations – which Maheswaran denied – that he had willingly encouraged his boss’s wild conspiracy theories, passing them on the media and to Liberal Party operatives including Charles Perrottet.
Nassif’s suspicion fell on two tradies – Navid Ardestani and Adrian Healey – who had carried out painting and rendering work for Nassif. The two men were trying to get Nassif to pay what he owed them. They also had recommended a contractor to do remedial work on Nassif’s apartment block Skyview, which had been hit with rectification orders by the building commissioner.
“Stay away from me because I’m forwarding this to my criminal attorney and putting you on notice that you’re going to be responsible for any harms or damages that happen to me and my family and my business,” Nassif typed in a text to Ardestani.
Ardestani responded: “I really don’t understand your text, Jean. Get us paid, please, and we can finalise friendly. We don’t make threats, and we never did. And also, we don’t do anything illegal. Very confusing text. Get us paid, please.”
Jean Nassif appeared before the ICAC in a video link from Beirut.ICAC
In his evidence at an earlier private hearing, Ardestani said that in an attempt to get money to pay his own workers, he’d agreed to meet Nassif at a cafe next door to Nassif’s then office in Majors Bay Road, Concord.
He explained that he was also attempting to introduce Nassif to a builder who could rectify the Skyview defects that had come to the attention of David Chandler, the building commissioner.
“The only corrupt person here – I’m not an angel, let’s get this right – but the only person, corrupt person here, is Jean Nassif,” Ardestani told the ICAC.
Ardestani said he told Nassif: “If you don’t, this guy is going to demolish you and finish you off. He’s not a person you can pay off … or try to play games or arrange to get him shoot [sic] or something, some shit like that.”
Angry words were exchanged and Ardestani said Nassif had threatened him with “Crazy Dave” Lima. It wasn’t quite clear if “Crazy Dave” turned up in person but Ardestani told the commission that Nassif had people in cars with “dark windows” outside the cafe.
Healey, who also provided evidence in a private hearing in 2024, insisted that neither he nor Ardestani had any connection to the building commissioner. Instead, Ardestani knew a builder who could help fix the defects, which might get the commissioner off their backs.
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When he met Nassif at the same cafe, Nassif accused Healey, in a profanity-laced rant, of leaking information about Toplace’s defects.
One thing Healey mentioned in his evidence was that Nassif had “presented … that he was an engineer” but in his discussions with contractors Nassif “didn’t sound like he was an engineer”.
Nassif, who fled the country in December 2022, has claimed to have completed a master of science in the field of construction management from Somerset University in 2006.
Two years earlier, a retired FBI agent who specialises in education fraud said that for $US1995, Somerset University offered to deliver him an MBA within 15 days, complete with a grade point average and professorial letters of recommendation.
There is a warrant out for Nassif’s arrest over for fraud offences involving a $150 million construction loan. Toplace collapsed in 2023 with debts of more than $1.6 billion.
More “mooshed” evidence is expected when Maheswaran returns for his fifth day of evidence.
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