Although they constitute a substantial portion of the prosecution’s case, intercepted phone conversations between a daughter and her father, a fugitive property developer, may not be admissible in the fraud prosecution against her.
The calls made during the investigation of her father, Jean Nassif, should be considered part of the legal professional privilege, according to Ashlyn Nassif, a trained lawyer.
On Wednesday, the court heard that during an investigation into potential money laundering at Sydney’s The Star casino in 2021, hundreds of calls made by Mr. Nassif were intercepted by the NSW Police.
After a series of problems in numerous large apartment projects, Ms. Nassif’s father’s development company, Toplace, was barred from doing construction work by NSW Fair Trading.
Ms. Nassif was an executive there.
She is allegedly accused of submitting false paperwork to activate a $150 million loan from Westpac.
The loan was intended to fund the development of three residential towers in Castle Hill, a suburb in Sydney’s northwest.
Prior to the continuation of Ms. Nassif’s case, Magistrate Christopher Halburd ordered the interrogation of a senior officer with the NSW Police Detective Unit over the aforementioned phone conversations.
At the Burwood Local Court hearing, he stated that the prosecution’s case would be “very strong case indeed” with the calls permitted but much weaker without them.
According to the prosecution, the calls might be anything from a father and daughter chatting about family issues to anything else.
Halburd further noted that the conversations might have been between an attorney and client or between executives of Toplace discussing business.
“I intend to allow cross-examination on a much narrower scope than was sought by the applicant,” stated the judge.
The senior constable who is investigating the calls will testify at a hearing scheduled on November 29.
The NSW Police are currently pursuing Mr. Nassif, who departed Australia for Lebanon in 2022, as a result of a two-year investigation into fraud.
