AAA<\/p>\n
A two-year attempted clean-up of Victoria\u2019s Big Build has failed to stop large sums of money flowing from state and federally funded projects to the underworld. Payments are still being made this year.<\/p>\n
An explosive leak from an associate of Mick Gatto exposes his secret empire, revealing a sprawling and continuing money trail from Big Build subcontractors to the gangland veteran and his associates. More than a dozen subcontractors on Labor projects have placed Gatto on their payroll.<\/p>\n
![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/3a7e4193c988e870f1db3615e9bb4f1a7ae18fe4ac440e7bb64fdf4c1c9c40de.webp\")
A leak of financial information has revealed the extent of Mick Gatto\u2019s empire and payments from construction companies. <\/p>\n
The revelations come amid a separate leak<\/a> revealing principal contractors confidentially documented state government directions to cave in to the CFMEU\u2019s lawless takeover of the Big Build. The CFMEU\u2019s Big Build takeover became entrenched while now Victorian Premier Jacinta Allan was minister responsible for the government\u2019s signature $100 billion infrastructure program.<\/p>\n The situation allowed gangland figures embedded in the union to profit from the unprecedented boom in publicly funded construction.<\/p>\n Big Build firms have separately broken their silence to publicly declare they had paid Gatto \u201cdue to the power of [the CFMEU] to stop our access\u201d to projects.<\/p>\n Business records leaked to this masthead and 60 Minutes by Gatto network insiders confirm several Big Build subcontractors are still paying Gatto, a self-styled \u201cmediator and arbitrator\u201d, large sums two years after Allan publicly vowed to stop such conduct.<\/p>\n On Sunday, Allan deployed her preferred refrain, urging anyone with information about payments to underworld figures to alert the police, as she defended her government\u2019s efforts to clean up the state\u2019s construction industry.<\/p>\n The state opposition repeated its call for a royal commission.<\/p>\n The leaked records show repeated payments in 2025 and 2026 from the owners of multiple Big Build subcontractors, including Cycon Civil, Project Labour Solutions and Elite Roads.<\/p>\n Dozens of payments to Gatto from Big Build subcontractors totalling millions of dollars have been made as Allan repeatedly said over the past two years that she had zero tolerance for wrongdoing on taxpayer-funded projects.<\/p>\n Editor’s pick This masthead has separately confirmed that multiple owners of Big Build firms with Gatto on their payroll have previously made donations to the state Labor Party and the CFMEU as another means of seeking to improve access to the Big Build.<\/p>\n The Victorian government is also still licensing Big Build labour hire providers despite their owners making recent payments to Gatto and other gangland-linked fixers. The providers include a major crane company and a large labour hire firm.<\/p>\n Former senior Victoria Police anti-corruption detective Daniel Baulch said the corruption that had infested Victoria\u2019s Big Build was comparable to that in Papua New Guinea, where he served as deputy commissioner of the notoriously graft-ridden country\u2019s corruption commission.<\/p>\n \u201cI think the way in which it operates is very, very similar [to PNG], and it was really surprising,\u201d said Baulch, who is now a leading anti-money-laundering expert. \u201cThere\u2019s a phrase that I keep hearing [connected to the Big Build], and I\u2019ve heard it a lot over my time [dealing with] organised crime and in corruption. It\u2019s: \u2018Everybody eats\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n This masthead revealed on Saturday that some of the state\u2019s biggest principal contractors claimed in secret correspondence<\/a> from 2023 and 2024 that the state government had directed them to cave in to the CFMEU takeover of the Big Build for \u201cpolitical\u201d reasons and in the knowledge it was causing massive cost blowouts.<\/p>\n In 2024, the Metro Tunnel consortium told the government this had blown out labour costs on the project by almost $200 million.<\/p>\n On Sunday, Victoria\u2019s top labour hire cop separately launched a scathing attack <\/a>on large contractors, without singling any out, saying huge gaps in the law meant they were getting away with or supporting what should be \u201cunlawful conduct\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cUltimately, the fish rots from the head; the principal contractor is the head,\u201d Labour Hire Commissioner Steve Dargavel said, calling for law reform.<\/p>\n Victoria\u2019s former top anti-corruption officials \u2013 ex-ombudsman Deborah Glass and former senior judge and Independent Broad-based Anti-corruption Commission chief Robert Redlich \u2013 also used a joint statement to describe the rolling Big Build scandal as the worst in the state\u2019s history and to call for an urgent royal commission.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is an unprecedented historic scandal,\u201d Redlich said. \u201cI know of no scandal that\u2019s involved the sort of public wastage that has occurred here, and it\u2019s only a royal commission that can root out all of the causes, all of the reasons why the checks and balances that are in place have failed.\u201d<\/p>\n Gatto\u2019s empire has been laid bare by figures in firms connected to his gangland crew who have requested anonymity to preserve their safety.<\/p>\n More than a dozen Big Build firms have paid Gatto and, to a lesser extent, his associates, including his right-hand man, John Khoury.<\/p>\n \u201cIf you don\u2019t pay Gatto, you don\u2019t get access to the Big Build. Through Gatto, and through the union, they control who goes onto the project and who doesn\u2019t get access to the project,\u201d one owner of a Big Build subcontractor said, describing how he had paid Gatto for the right to work on major projects ultimately funded by taxpayers.<\/p>\n \u201cIf we didn\u2019t have to pay Gatto, we would do the work for cheaper, and ultimately it\u2019s the general public that pay for that.\u201d<\/p>\n The insider confirmed that Tony Ciccone, who owns major Big Build subcontractors Cycon Civil and Project Labour Solutions, is still making payments to Gatto. The insider enabled this masthead to access Gatto\u2019s business records, revealing three companies controlled by Ciccone have paid Gatto over $1 million dollars in total.<\/p>\n Ciccone-controlled firms made more than 30 payments to Gatto-controlled consulting firms Arbitrations and Mediations Pty Ltd and Bridgeview Consulting from mid-2020 until May of this year ranging from $5000 to $250,000.<\/p>\n Cycon Civil and Project Labour Solutions \u2013 which have a Victorian government licence to provide workers to major projects \u2013 work across the Big Build, servicing state and federally funded projects such as the North East Link, the Westgate Tunnel and several rail level-crossing removal projects.<\/p>\n Records also reveal Ciccone donated several thousand dollars in 2022 to Victorian Labor\u2019s election campaign and gave $45,000 to the CFMEU while it was still a major Labor donor.<\/p>\n Quizzed about the payments to Gatto, Labor and the CFMEU, Ciccone denied making them.<\/p>\n \u201cNo payments to any of them. Sorry mate can\u2019t help I\u2019ve retired,\u201d he said in a text message.<\/p>\n Gatto also declined to answer questions, although he has previously denied receiving money from Big Build subcontractors and he has said he is not involved in any wrongdoing.<\/p>\n The Gatto network insider also had records showing the accountants of another Big Build labour hire operator still operating in the Big Build recently paid Gatto $500,000, while separately donating to the Labor Party at the same time as Ciccone.<\/p>\n Corruption expert Geoffrey Watson, SC, who wrote a damning report into the CFMEU<\/a>, said gangland-linked Big Build firms had donated to state Labor for the same reason they paid Gatto: to get privileged access or remain on the Big Build and other big Victorian projects.<\/p>\n Editor’s pick \u201cThe point is that they want the connections with the Labor Party the same way that they wanted with the CFMEU\u201d by paying Gatto, Watson said.<\/p>\n Redlich described firms paying gangland figures to access projects as a type of extortion that could be properly countered only with a royal commission.<\/p>\n Another frequent and regular payer of Gatto is scandal-tainted firm Women in Construction.\u00a0<\/a> Records reveal the company paid him more than $700,000 since it started supplying female workers to the Big Build, including multiple payments in 2025 and 2026 of between $16,000 and $40,000.<\/p>\n The company\u2019s owner, Luke Ellery, who has two family violence convictions, has previously denied any wrongdoing. He could not be reached for comment for this article.<\/p>\n Last week, and after this masthead revealed that Women in Construction had been run by men with criminal records and deep gangland links, Dargavel, the labour hire commissioner, issued an order tearing up the firm\u2019s licence<\/a> and giving it until this coming Friday to remove its workers from the $26 billion North East Link road tunnel project.<\/p>\n Construction industry insiders, speaking anonymously due to the threat of repercussions, said Ellery was now seeking to move his company\u2019s Big Build workforce to another labour hire firm with gangland links.<\/p>\n The leak also outs asphalting firm Elite Roads as making regular payments to Gatto this year, and in 2025 and 2024.<\/p>\n Elite Roads\u2019 manager director, Deon Coote, declined to answer questions when called, referring queries to a company email.<\/p>\n When asked to confirm why the firm had paid Gatto and how much, a marketing manager responded: \u201cAll contracts obtained by Elite Roads on Victoria\u2019s Big Build were secured through a rigorous and fully scrutinised procurement process. We have no information relevant to your enquiry.\u201d<\/p>\n Some Gatto payers did provide public comments. Tony Paragalli, owner of labour hire firm M1 Trades & Labour, said his firm had to pay Gatto to retain work. Various M1 entities paid Gatto over $1 million.<\/p>\n \u201cWe have only ever won contracts conducted through the proper commercial and legal processes. Unfortunately, the issue we found was that after winning commercial tenders we were blocked from working on sites by the union,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cWe tried to negotiate with the union directly, but we did not have the personal relationships and it did not work. After repeated failed attempts, in 2012 we reluctantly joined other companies in employing Mr Gatto to provide industrial relations services and which then allowed us to provide the work we had successfully won through the tenders.\u201d<\/p>\n Paragalli said he did not \u201cwant to use this [Gatto industrial relations] service, but we felt we had no choice due to the power of the union to stop our access to the site. We stopped paying Mr Gatto for his union IR services in May 2025. As soon as we stopped paying Mr Gatto we started to get blocked from some sites again where we had already won tenders,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cWe have nothing to hide and have already presented all our company deeds, bank accounts and all other records to all authorities and regulators to fully establish the facts.\u201d<\/p>\n Rangedale, whose trucks service Big Build and government water projects, paid Gatto more than $250,000 up until April this year.<\/p>\n Rangedale director Neil Kermeen also said his company engaged Gatto\u2019s mediation business \u201csolely for the purpose of mediating an ongoing dispute between Rangedale and the CFMEU\u201d.<\/p>\n Editor’s pick \u201cThe outcome of the mediation was simply that Rangedale was able to continue performing work on projects where it had already established itself over many years prior to that engagement,\u201d Kermeen said in an emailed statement.<\/p>\n Kermeen said Gatto had never assisted Rangedale \u201cinfluence the awarding of contracts\u201d, all of which he said Rangedale had won on merit.<\/p>\n The owner of Big Build subcontractor Major Cranes, Norm D\u2019Ambra, has also made recent and regular $40,000 payments to Gatto totalling more than $500,000.<\/p>\n Another D\u2019Ambra company, S and N Cranes, has an active Victorian government labour hire licence, enabling it to send crane workers across the Big Build.<\/p>\n Files analysed by this masthead reveal D\u2019Ambra also paid Gatto to get the CFMEU to stop forcing his firms off major Victorian projects, but when he was called by this masthead on Friday, D\u2019Ambra hung up the phone.<\/p>\n Former senior law enforcement official Dan Baulch, who analysed the information provided by the Gatto network insider, said he could see no legitimate reason for any firm on the Big Build, or servicing any other large project, to pay Gatto.<\/p>\n Baulch said the fact companies were still paying Gatto showed that police, despite their best efforts, did not have the power or resources to stop such an entrenched system. He, too, called for a royal commission.<\/p>\n \u201cI think they [Victorians] deserve nothing but the truth. This absolutely needs to be exposed,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Stan Dryden, whose Indigenous Big Build labour hire firm Jarrah closed in mid-2025 but which previously listed Gatto\u2019s daughter\u2019s company<\/a> as a shareholder, denied paying Gatto\u2019s industrial relations company, despite records showing he had given Gatto $50,000 in mid-2025.<\/p>\n The owner of since-collapsed Metro Tunnel subcontractor A C Civil Build Pty Ltd, Rocco \u2018Rocky\u2019 Barba, also admitted paying Gatto. Records show Barba\u2019s companies have paid Gatto or Khoury about $250,000 over several years.<\/p>\n Barba initially said he had engaged Gatto oly to \u201cnegotiate with\u201d the CFMEU before he got an enterprise bargaining agreement in 2003. He later said he \u201cmight have used him to do some IR work\u201d closer to when A C Civil went into liquidation in 2023.<\/p>\n Barba also said he paid Gatto and Khoury a fee for helping him offload formwork.<\/p>\n \u201cThat was a finder\u2019s fee as far as we were concerned. They done us a favour,\u201d Barba said, adding he considered Gatto a friend. \u201cHe\u2019s always helped me.\u201d<\/p>\n Big Build subcontractor LTE has paid Khoury between $400,000 and $700,000 a year over several years.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n The firm has previously denied making the payments. When Khoury was called on Friday, he said: \u201cI haven\u2019t received that mate \u2026 f—ing hell. You gotta prove that one, mate.\u201d<\/p>\n Prior to its collapse, Big Build subcontractor Adcon, which also worked on the Metro Tunnel, paid Gatto over $1 million. Adcon founder Danny Isaacs, who moved to Dubai amid the collapse of his company in 2023, could not be reached for comment.<\/p>\n Save<\/p>\n You have reached your maximum number of saved items.<\/p>\n Remove items from your saved list<\/a> to add more.<\/p>\n![\"Joes](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/f79205c004ee8ac142622fcd67d27298667c388f0a61a33df06b238c573d101f.webp\")
<\/a><\/p>\n![\"Outgoing](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/78e09c0e14bfa7fc00933e9141d6a9873b13bc186d6f2c95a7f001515abf8a2f.webp\")
Outgoing Labour Hire Commission chief Steve Dargavel (left), former ombudsman Deborah Glass and former IBAC chief Robert Redlich. <\/p>\n![\"Tony](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/2e1c89e727e02abd6d7244d18e5ca2c58d7b5e5c.webp\")
Tony Ciccone60 Minutes<\/p>\n![\"Tony](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/8b9da89101205503717871f8efe30d0de7a5d0d3.webp\")
Tony Ciccone denied making payments to Mick Gatto.60 Minutes<\/p>\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/eca7239f43893614788672e155467f3301dec245.webp\")
<\/a><\/p>\n![\"Women](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/5b767518b5bfc0eb231484e91c36f43218addbb6.webp\")
Women in Construction\u2019s Luke Ellery.60 Minutes<\/p>\n![\"M1](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/ad54f79e14cc112dd6368168f4c45475c90acff5.webp\")
M1 Trades & Labour\u2019s Tony Paragalli. Supplied<\/p>\n![\"Records](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/8519399cd8c38bafeafd106227dbf4d2ec4eefba851420cca6769247c1547b16.webp\")
<\/a><\/p>\n![\"Former](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/11d3113e3cbc3669f473aec370649aaa5d577129.webp\")
Former Victorian police officer and ex-PNG deputy corruption commissioner Dan Baulch.60 Minutes<\/p>\n![\"Nick](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/2607dc7d0bce6837f07d379a9a5b2856ce871e1e.webp\")
Nick McKenzie<\/a> is an Age investigative journalist who has three times been named the Graham Perkin Australian Journalist of the Year. A winner of 20 Walkley Awards, including the Gold Walkley, he investigates politics, business, foreign affairs and criminal justice.Connect via email<\/a>.![\"Lachlan](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/f3f0faa45aeb365d7b6cf06085c41167f1e6b728.webp\")
Lachlan Abbott<\/a> is a crime reporter at The Age. He was previously a city reporter and covered breaking news.Connect via email<\/a>.From our partners<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Save You have reached your maximum number of saved items. Remove items from your saved list to add…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":765569,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[43,44,41,39,42,40],"class_list":["post-765568","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/765568","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=765568"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/765568\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/765569"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=765568"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=765568"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=765568"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}