{"id":116382,"date":"2025-09-03T19:13:09","date_gmt":"2025-09-03T19:13:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/116382\/"},"modified":"2025-09-03T19:13:09","modified_gmt":"2025-09-03T19:13:09","slug":"two-charged-by-victorian-corruption-watchdog-after-operation-sandon-investigation-into-casey-council","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/116382\/","title":{"rendered":"Two charged by Victorian corruption watchdog after Operation Sandon investigation into Casey council"},"content":{"rendered":"

Two people have been charged by Victoria’s anti-corruption watchdog after a seven-year investigation into planning and property development decisions by the City of Casey in Melbourne’s south-east.<\/p>\n

The Independent Broad-based Anti-corruption Commission’s (IBAC) final report from Operation Sandon, tabled in Victorian Parliament in 2023, found developer John Woodman paid hundreds of thousands of dollars in exchange for councillor support for projects in the outer growth area.<\/p>\n

IBAC releases Operation Sandon report<\/a><\/p>\n

Property developer John Woodman plied suburban councillors with hundreds of thousands of dollars in exchange for support of his lucrative projects, a damning report from Victoria’s\u00a0anti-corruption watchdog has found.\u00a0<\/p>\n

IBAC has today announced that a former Casey councillor had been charged with five offences, including receiving secret commissions, misconduct in public office and misuse of position.<\/p>\n

It said a property development consultant had been charged with giving secret commissions.<\/p>\n

IBAC has not named those charged and said it would not be providing any further comment as the matter was now before the courts.<\/p>\n

Both accused are expected to appear in the Melbourne Magistrates’ Court on September 25.<\/p>\n

Operation Sandon included 40 days of explosive hearings that unearthed sensational and at times bizarre evidence<\/a>, from former MPs delivering bags of cash to City of Casey councillors, clandestine meetings in a Subway restaurant, dozens of secretly recorded phone calls, and one councillor and former VFL footballer being paid tens of thousands of dollars for a racehorse that never ran.<\/p>\n

The report named councillors Sam Aziz and Geoff Ablett as receiving more than $550,000 each from Mr Woodman in exchange for support for his plans to rezone tracts of land in Cranbourne West.<\/p>\n

It said covert phone calls revealed Mr Woodman’s right-hand woman and lobbyist Megan Schutz coached Cr Aziz to support their planning applications, including providing him with a script.<\/p>\n

“IBAC uncovered a web of well-orchestrated strategies designed to manipulate Casey Council decision-making processes, buy influence and undermine the effectiveness of the Victorian planning system in exchange for certain benefits,” the report found.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

John Woodman denies he bribed any Casey councillors. (ABC News: Danielle Bonica)<\/p>\n

Following the release of the report, John Woodman held a lengthy press conference defending himself<\/a>, although most of his PowerPoint presentation did not directly address the claims against him.<\/p>\n

Former councillor Aziz also attended the media call and denied any wrongdoing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Two people have been charged by Victoria’s anti-corruption watchdog after a seven-year investigation into planning and property development…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":116383,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,82405,82406,19673,82404,82401,82400,82402,44,82399,75692,82403],"class_list":["post-116382","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-bribes","tag-city-of-casey","tag-corruption","tag-geoff-ablett","tag-ibac","tag-independent-broadbased-anti-corruption-commission","tag-john-woodman","tag-news","tag-operation-sandon","tag-property-development","tag-sam-aziz"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116382","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=116382"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116382\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/116383"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=116382"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=116382"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=116382"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}