{"id":526944,"date":"2026-03-08T14:56:16","date_gmt":"2026-03-08T14:56:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/526944\/"},"modified":"2026-03-08T14:56:16","modified_gmt":"2026-03-08T14:56:16","slug":"ma-services-group-founder-micky-ahuja-accused-of-rape-harassment-and-intimidation-by-former-staff","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/526944\/","title":{"rendered":"MA Services Group founder Micky Ahuja accused of rape, harassment and intimidation by former staff"},"content":{"rendered":"

When Sara discovered the bedsheets covered in blood, her training as a police officer immediately kicked in. Crime scenes need to be documented, so Sara reached for her phone and snapped pictures of the bloody sheets and vomit.<\/p>\n

Next, she made contemporaneous disclosure of what had happened, one of two such records of the grave crime allegedly committed in a hotel suite at Melbourne\u2019s Crown casino in April 2019.<\/p>\n

Sara*, though, was no longer a police officer, having left the force two years earlier. And it wasn\u2019t a stranger\u2019s ordeal she was meticulously documenting.<\/p>\n

She had woken up at the scene. Sara was the alleged victim.<\/p>\n

And the accused rapist was her boss, Micky Ahuja, a powerful and wealthy businessman in the midst of building an empire in Australia\u2019s private security industry by winning the trust of the nation\u2019s biggest companies, AFL clubs and sporting events<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cI woke up in a panic and I was alone in the room. I was naked and there was a vomit to the side of the bed and then the bottom half the bed and a little part of myself was covered in blood,\u201d she says. \u201cI knew as soon as I woke up, I knew what had happened to me. I could feel what had happened to me.\u201d<\/p>\n

For seven years, Sara stayed mostly silent, apart from working with one of those she had first told about the alleged rape, her psychologist, to process the trauma. All the while, she watched on as Ahuja took the security world by storm, winning over Coles, Kmart and Bunnings as key clients.<\/a><\/p>\n

Ahuja\u2019s firm MA Services became a sponsor of multiple AFL clubs<\/a> as his guards worked at the biggest sporting and cultural events in the country, including the Melbourne Cup.<\/p>\n

\"MickyMicky Ahuja with his wife, Sasha, at the AFL Brownlow Medal night.<\/p>\n

Federal government agencies<\/a>, including the Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission and the National Anti-Corruption Commission hired Ahuja\u2019s guards, as did multiple federal and state agencies across the nation. Universities and prestigious private schools did too.<\/p>\n

For Sara, the wealthier and better-connected Ahuja became, the more remote the prospect became of publicly calling him out. She did not know it, but Sara was far from alone.<\/p>\n

As Ahuja\u2019s empire expanded rapidly, so had the list of his alleged victims. After an eight-month investigation by this masthead and 60 Minutes \u2014 the sheer scale of Ahuja\u2019s perfidy was finally revealed.<\/p>\n

The now disgraced business leader is at the centre of a scandal without precedent in Australia\u2019s private security industry.<\/p>\n

Ahuja declined multiple interview requests but has denied any wrongdoing.<\/p>\n

He has fled to Dubai, accused of exploiting thousands of his own workers<\/a>, mostly vulnerable foreigners, and a multi-agency law enforcement and regulatory taskforce <\/a>is pursuing him as the key player in a syndicate that has allegedly stolen more than $100 million in unpaid tax and wages and engaged in criminal \u201cphoenix\u201d behaviour.<\/p>\n

Related Article\"Labour<\/a><\/p>\n

His firm\u2019s secret dealings with a bikie gang in order to secure a massive offshore contract <\/a>indirectly bankrolled by the Australian government have been exposed and the scandal has engulfed some of his major customers, led by Coles, which a regulator accused of complicity in the MA syndicate\u2019s \u201ccomprehensive abuse of Australia\u2019s industrial relations system and taxation system\u201d.<\/p>\n

Yet it wasn\u2019t MA\u2019s suspected mass worker exploitation, bikie gang links, tax evasion<\/a>, or complicity of some of his clients \u2013 all exposed by this masthead\u2019s ongoing investigation \u2013 that prompted the firm\u2019s sudden collapse in late December<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Those revelations contributed to the firm\u2019s Christmas Eve implosion, but it was public scrutiny of Ahuja\u2019s treatment of women that forced his customers such as the Formula 1 Grand Prix, Geelong Grammar and property giant CBRE to move to cut ties to the firm.<\/p>\n

What Sara didn\u2019t know is there were other alleged victims of sexual predatory behaviour by him. And they, like her, were slowly gathering the courage to speak up.<\/p>\n

Despite the breadth and scale of the suspected wrongdoing, the start of the end for MA Services began with one woman saying \u201cenough\u201d.<\/p>\n

It wasn\u2019t Sara, but another woman who, like her, thought she would be safe in what was known inside the company as the MA family\u2014 the circle of employees and their partners whom Ahuja initially showered with attention.<\/p>\n

\"RachaelRachael says she was harassed by Micky Ahuja.60 Minutes<\/p>\n

\u201cAhuja presents a very slick public image as an entrepreneur, a guy involved in charity, very charismatic,\u201d recalls Rachael*, who didn\u2019t work at MA but whose husband was one of Ahuja\u2019s right-hand men.<\/p>\n

Asked what she thinks of Ahuja today, she offers just a short description: \u201cHe\u2019s a predator.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rachael and her husband became part of the MA family after he helped secure the firm\u2019s biggest contract in 2021: a $50 million-a-year security services deal with Coles.<\/p>\n

Ahuja incentivised her husband to win over the supermarket giant by telling him \u201che would be gifted a convertible car\u201d if he could secure Coles as a customer.<\/p>\n

She says her husband \u201cworked really hard to get that contract\u201d and remembers the day it was won, because a yellow Mustang appeared in her driveway.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat night the car was dropped off to our doorstep,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

\"TheThe car given to Rachael\u2019s husband.60 Minutes<\/p>\n

The deal with Coles was like the new car: shiny on the outside but with strings attached.<\/p>\n

Rachael recalls her husband telling her MA had secured the Coles deal by \u201cundercutting everybody else\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey were underpaying other staff members to be able to make their costs lower,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

What Rachael describes as \u201cpillow talk\u201d could be dismissed as idle chatter, but belied an ugly truth.<\/p>\n

On Sunday, this masthead revealed how Operation Hermes \u2013 a multi-agency law enforcement and regulatory probe into what is known as the \u201cMA syndicate\u201d \u2014 is probing tax evasion involving MA Services and a series of related companies that employed thousands of mostly foreign workers.<\/p>\n

The MA syndicate is alleged to have operated between 2015 and late last year, pocketing unpaid tax and worker entitlements of more than $100 million.<\/p>\n

According to Operation Hermes\u2019 confidential assessments, the syndicate is suspected of running a large-scale and highly organised criminal \u201cphoenix\u201d operation involving a network of front companies with dummy directors which would collapse or disappear when tax debts or worker entitlements are due or demanded, only to resurface under new names.<\/p>\n

Internal MA records reveal some of the entities in the syndicate are the same firms used by Ahuja to supply guards to Coles.<\/p>\n

Labour Licensing commission chief Steve Dargavel, whose agency, the Victorian Labour Hire Authority, is working with the Tax Office, police and the Fair Work Ombudsman on Operation Hermes, has also claimed Coles must have known MA was rotten and the workers guarding its stores would be exploited.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat we now know is that there were thousands of workers who had their wages stolen,\u201d Dargavelsays. \u201cColes \u2026 had enough information to know that workers could not be paid properly under the contracts that they entered into\u201d with MA Services, he says.<\/p>\n

Coles refused an interview but said in a statement it strongly disputed Dargavel\u2019s claim while accepting MA Services was engaged in serious wrongdoing.<\/p>\n

Rachael says that as long as Ahuja and his managers were making money and buying fast cars care of contracts with Coles and other large firms, no one at MA cared about Ahuja\u2019s rorting of guards.<\/p>\n

Her husband\u2019s gifts\u2014 a Mustang and a Range Rover\u2014 paled into comparison with Ahuja\u2019s car collection.<\/p>\n

\"AA fleet of luxury cars outside Micky Ahuja\u2019s mansion.<\/p>\n

When administrators began searching for missing company assets in January, they discovered Ahuja had not only funnelled millions of dollars <\/a>he owed the Tax Office and workers into bank accounts and related companies, but had bought about a dozen properties and a car collection that included a Rolls-Royce 4WD, two Mercedes G-Wagons and a Lamborghini.<\/p>\n

It was only after her husband had an affair and left Rachael that she discovered just how predatory Ahuja was.<\/p>\n

Rachael suspected Ahuja was hiding a large chunk of her estranged husband\u2019s salary so he could minimise his tax and child support obligations.<\/p>\n

Rachael\u2019s ex-husband did not respond when contacted for comment, but this masthead has confirmed a firm registered in his new girlfriend\u2019s name has received regular \u201cconsulting\u201d and other payments from Ahuja, including almost $200,000 last financial year.<\/p>\n

As a newly single mother in financial distress, Rachael asked Ahuja to come clean about the consulting payments. His response shocked her.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe called me and he … basically word for word, he said, \u2018I\u2019ve always wanted to [f—] you\u2019, and said, \u2018I\u2019m prepared to offer you X amount of dollars for you to do X, Y, and Z.\u2019 It was explicit what he wanted me to do and I was just like, wow, it just threw me 100 per cent.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Rachael refused but Ahuja bombarded her with sleazy disappearing messages on Snapchat, telling her if she needed money, he would pay her but only if he had sex with her.<\/p>\n

One message stated: \u201cWant to make love, kiss those lips. Let\u2019s make a deal? $1000 for every time we catch up.\u201d<\/p>\n

Another said: \u201cHappy to pay. Asked a zillion times already.\u201d<\/p>\n

A third message said: \u201cIt\u2019s high time now. You don\u2019t have anything to worry about.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rachael says she felt \u201clike I was a piece of meat, like I was a commodity, something that could be bought.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Unlike others in the MA family chasing a piece of Ahuja\u2019s wealth, she also held to a simple truth: \u201cI can\u2019t be bought.\u201d<\/p>\n

She photographed the messages. When the story of MA\u2019s suspected rampant worker exploitation, tax evasion and bikie links first broke in this masthead in October \u2013 with Ahuja denying all wrongdoing \u2013 Rachael contacted one of the reporters and provided the messages.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

A few days later, when this masthead reported them, Ahuja stood down as CEO, hoping to prevent MA customers leaving.<\/p>\n

Coles was not one of them, although it had begun an \u201cinternal investigation\u201d, but other large corporations and the Victorian government moved more swiftly to sever ties with MA.<\/p>\n

Rachael hadn\u2019t acted only to expose her own sexual harassment, as part of the MA family \u2013 she knew of other complaints. As disgusting as Ahuja\u2019s behaviour had been, she considered herself one of the lucky ones.<\/p>\n

\u201cI know of other things that he\u2019s done to other women,\u201d she says. Ahuja was not just a sex harasser, says Rachael. The man who had won Australian young entrepreneur of the year was also an accused rapist.<\/p>\n

A few days after her life-changing ordeal, Sara told her psychologist what she had endured at Ahuja\u2019s hands.<\/p>\n

The self-described naive country girl had joined MA after leaving the police force aged 30 in late 2017 and, initially, Ahuja impressed her.<\/p>\n

\"SaraSara during her time as a police officer.60 Minutes<\/p>\n

He was 29 and, after arriving in Melbourne from India, had transformed himself from a dishwasher and security guard to the owner of multiple companies, including the fastest-growing security firm in the nation.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was charismatic. He\u2019s sort of a showman. I couldn\u2019t believe that he was so approachable being, you know, the head of the company, the boss, the owner.\u201d<\/p>\n

After Ahuja asked Sara to help him win clients, she joined an utterly foreign world of corporate networking.<\/p>\n

As another company insider explains: \u201cMicky is the Australian Wolf of Wall Street.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sara says it was all \u201cclient dinners, long boozy lunches that turn into long, boozy dinners and I thought, not being around that before, this is how these people network\u201d.<\/p>\n

Crown\u2019s high roller rooms functioned as a second office for Ahuja and his business partner, a man called Rao Nabeel Roshnan (who, along with Ahuja, is now a key target of the multi-agency law enforcement and regulatory probe Operation Hermes).<\/p>\n

\"SaraSara alleges she was raped by MA Services Group founder Micky Ahuja.60 Minutes<\/p>\n

\u201cThe money that was going through those tables was obscene,\u201d Sara says. \u201cOne night I had a drink and grabbed what I thought was a coaster to put my drink on and they all freaked out … they\u2019re like, \u2018That\u2019s not a coaster. That\u2019s a $100,000 chip\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n

The divide between Ahuja and the security guards he employed could not have been starker. As he lived it up at Crown, Sara says, she was getting phone calls from distressed security guards who had not been paid in weeks or months.<\/p>\n

Sara fielded complaints from workers who \u201ccan\u2019t feed their babies or they ran out of formula and they\u2019ve got no money or their wives are crying because they can\u2019t put food on the table.<\/p>\n

\u201cI couldn\u2019t figure out why they weren\u2019t paying, when we\u2019re sitting in this room and I\u2019m watching them put hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of chips down a hole.\u201d<\/p>\n

Editor’s pick\"MA<\/a><\/p>\n

She says many guards were not only badly underpaid in cash but forced to work long hours, often in breach of their student visa working limit conditions.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey would drive from job to job, sleep in the car. It was near on inhumane because it wasn\u2019t just a guard here or there, it was their workforce as a whole.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sara would ferry basic supplies, such as food and nappies, to the most desperate workers, while fielding demands from Ahuja to wine and dine clients. It was distressing. Still, Sara had no idea just how dangerous Ahuja could be.<\/p>\n

This she discovered after an especially boozy dinner and drinks evening Ahuja had arranged for his favoured managers. Sara recalls becoming very drunk, \u201cto the point where I was passing out in my chair\u201d, when Ahuja volunteered to take to her hotel.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ll make sure she gets home safe,\u201d she says Ahuja told their companions.<\/p>\n

Sara vaguely remembers the taxi ride to her hotel before Ahuja took her up to her room.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s only flashes and I\u2019m thankful for it being like that.\u201d<\/p>\n

She remembers Ahuja \u201ctrying to help me sit or help me lay down\u201d and being \u201csuper embarrassed\u201d as she passed out with her clothes on.<\/p>\n

The next thing, she woke up in \u201ca panic\u201d and alone in the room.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was naked and there was a vomit to the side of the bed and then the bottom half the bed and a little part of myself was covered in blood.\u201d<\/p>\n

The blood was from tearing Sara had suffered during the alleged rape. After calling her housemate and detailing what had happened, she went home.<\/p>\n

\u201cI had a bleach bath \u2026 because I just felt so dirty and like violated and disgusting.\u201d<\/p>\n

As a former police officer \u2013 and knowing the criminal justice system process that would follow \u2013 Sara couldn\u2019t bring herself to report what had happened.<\/p>\n

She told her psychologist and tried to put it behind her, even returning to work at MA for six months.<\/p>\n

Ahuja pretended as if nothing had happened. Sara could not forget it and quit MA in late 2019. Even then, she could not shake off the ordeal. In 2020, she confronted Ahuja in a message after seeing a news story about MA.<\/p>\n

\u201cNext time you rape someone \u2013 you might not be so lucky,\u201d she wrote. \u201cThe only reason I never went to the cops that night after crown is because I had enough on my plate.\u201d<\/p>\n

In November, after this masthead revealed the sex-for-money demands Ahuja made of Rachael, Sara decided to publicly tell her story.<\/p>\n

Leaked MA files and correspondence reveal others who worked for Ahuja, both at MA and his other businesses, have also raised complaints.<\/p>\n

Many found their way to MA health and safety manager Tim Jones, who prior to joining Ahuja, was a bikie gang member.<\/p>\n

\"MAMA health and safety manager Tim Jones.<\/p>\n

In a recent message to an associate, Jones wrote that it \u201csuxs to be Micky\u201d and that he knew of \u201cseven women that I know that [have] come forward in the business in regards to sexual misconduct as well as the nine managers that have come forward in regards to bullying harassment\u201d.<\/p>\n

Among the cases raised within MA is a second allegation of rape.<\/p>\n

Jones\u2019 bikie past made him a curious choice as Ahuja\u2019s health, safety and compliance manager. It was Jones who, in late 2024, suggested MA\u2019s controversial partnership with a small security firm controlled by the Finks outlaw motorcycle gang including its successful pitch for an Albanese government-bankrolled Nauru contract.<\/p>\n

The Nauru deal was, at least briefly, a coup for the Finks (it came unstuck after this masthead revealed the bikie involvement) Jones was less successful pushing the gang\u2019s security firm into MA\u2019s Australian operations.<\/p>\n

He was blocked by yet another brave woman on the MA payroll.<\/p>\n

One NSW manager, Hela Mejri, was ostracised when she refused to put the Finks firm on the MA subcontractor payroll. Things got worse when she raised concerns about Ahuja\u2019s underpayment of migrant cleaners.<\/p>\n

\"HelaHela Mejri says she felt threatened by Ahuja.Sam Mooy<\/p>\n

When Mejri took stress leave, Ahuja dispatched Jones and two other burly MA managers to her family home to collect her work car and laptop. She wasn\u2019t home, but her children were.<\/p>\n

She remembers her terror at learning her two young children were confronted by the MA trio.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou are not dealing with the normal corporate company. You are dealing with, like, some gangsters coming to actually put me under threat. They wanted me to feel that. They wanted to threaten me and threaten my kids,\u201d says Mejri.<\/p>\n

Jones declined repeated requests to be interviewed. Mejri ultimately blames his boss, Ahuja.<\/p>\n

\u201cMicky will be the sweetest person when you first meet him. He will introduce himself as kind, charismatic. But the minute that he will find that you are trying to question how he runs his business, he will become a monster,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

Ahuja also left a trail of distressed employees in his side-hustle businesses. This masthead has obtained multiple complaints from female staff at a cafe Ahuja previously owned.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

One waitress alleged that in her second day at work Ahuja \u201cpulled me close to him and tried to kiss me\u201d. Another worker describes how \u201cMicky Ahuja \u2026 started to harass me\u201d with \u201csleazy behaviour\u201d. A third described \u201cinappropriate and unwelcome comments\u201d along with \u201cinappropriate and sleazy behaviour\u201d.<\/p>\n

Two complainants have also contacted this masthead alleging Ahuja sexually harassed or preyed on women outside of businesses he owned, including a woman he met at Crown casino.<\/p>\n

The prospect of Ahuja facing justice for his alleged misdeeds from his new home in Dubai are unclear.<\/p>\n

Briefing notes reveal the ATO has confidentially assessed that the MA syndicate for years breached Australia\u2019s immigration, corporate and employment laws to allow Ahuja and other members to get rich.<\/p>\n

Ahuja remains a wealthy man. In January, administrators said that along with trying to recover a massive tax debt and repay workers, they were also pursuing $13 million in suspicious company loans, including at least $4.8 million that ended up in Ahuja\u2019s personal accounts. Many more millions are still missing.<\/p>\n

Sara says she has waited a long time for Ahuja\u2019s conduct to catch up with him.<\/p>\n

She hopes that by telling her story, she will save other women and workers from the man who wanted so badly to become an Australian business titan and did not care who he hurt along the way.<\/p>\n

\u201cA man that has built his pedestal on lies, deceit, rape, like every evil and terrible quality … he needs that pedestal taken away,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

\u201cI want the whole world to know who he is because then they won\u2019t be in the position I\u2019m in.\u201d<\/p>\n

*Names have been changed.<\/p>\n

1800 RESPECT (1800 737 732)<\/p>\n

National Sexual Abuse and Redress Support Service 1800 211 028<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When Sara discovered the bedsheets covered in blood, her training as a police officer immediately kicked in. Crime…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":526945,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,44],"class_list":["post-526944","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/526944","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=526944"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/526944\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/526945"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=526944"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=526944"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=526944"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}