Fadi Ibrahim to remain on bail after court finds his guarantors to be suitable

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This was published 6 years ago

Fadi Ibrahim to remain on bail after court finds his guarantors to be suitable

By Harriet Alexander
Updated

Fadi Ibrahim will remain under house arrest in Dover Heights after fending off a challenge by the Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions to the integrity of his bail guarantors.

The DPP attempted to vary Mr Ibrahim's bail conditions on the basis that the people who put up the $2.2 million surety - his wife Shayda and friend Benjamin Scott - were not suitable persons, in what magistrate Les Mabbutt described as an "unusual" application.

"I've never had an application such as this," Mr Mabbutt said.

"In fact the application for the assessment of suitable persons has taken much, much longer than the original bail application."

Fadi Ibrahim arrives at Central Local Court on Thursday.

Fadi Ibrahim arrives at Central Local Court on Thursday.Credit: Janie Barrett

Mr Ibrahim was arrested in August in connection with an alleged drug and tobacco importation ring and is accused of drawing from his mortgage to send money to his brother Michael Ibrahim to bring products into Australia. He allegedly received $1.6 million in return.

The DPP argued that Mr Scott should not have been accepted as a suitable person to put up bail because of his financial dealings with Mr Ibrahim around the time of the alleged offences, and that the title deeds to a house owned by Mrs Ibrahim should not have been accepted because they were part of the matrimonial property.

Mr Scott, a pawn broker and business partner of shock jock Kyle Sandilands, has been a friend of Mr Ibrahim for more than 10 years and was a co-director of Mr Ibrahim's company DI Developments until 2014 when he became secretary.

DI Developments owns Mr Ibrahim's clifftop mansion where he is confined as a condition of bail.

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Fadi Ibrahim (second from right) was arrested in connection with an alleged drug and tobacco importation ring.

Fadi Ibrahim (second from right) was arrested in connection with an alleged drug and tobacco importation ring.Credit: Janie Barrett

Central Local Court heard that Mr Scott recently advanced $200,000 to Mr Ibrahim in two equal amounts placed into separate bank accounts.

Mr Ibrahim had also made Mr Scott a signatory to one of his bank accounts, so that Mr Scott could transfer an amount of money on his behalf when he was overseas.

Fadi Ibrahim remains on a $2.2 million bail.

Fadi Ibrahim remains on a $2.2 million bail.Credit: Janie Barrett

Crown prosecutor David Staehli SC said it was a "coincidence" that these transactions had taken place around the time Mr Ibrahim allegedly sent money to his brother Michael and raised the possibility that the money advanced by Mr Ibrahim was "somehow laundered".

Mr Scott had originally been named a "person of interest" in the police investigation, although his status had been commuted into "a person in whom police are interested" and there was no allegation that he was involved in criminality for the purposes of the bail application, Mr Staehli said.

The court heard that he is one of Mr Ibrahim's most trusted advisors, and acted as an intermediary with solicitors and accountants when Mr Ibrahim was attempting to claw back debts owed by former brothel madam Jamelie Lahood.

​Mr Scott told the court that the $200,000 he loaned to Mr Ibrahim in July was to help buy some of Ms Lahood's properties over which he held caveats.

Their level of trust is such that Mr Scott also drives an Aston Martin lent to him by Mr Ibrahim.

But Mr Mabbutt said the prosecution had not put forward any evidence to satisfy the court that Mr Scott and Mrs Ibrahim were not suitable persons to post bail.

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"Mr Scott and Mr Ibrahim might have a lifestyle of lending each other large sums of money with very little paperwork," Mr Mabbutt said.

"It's probably not what many other people would do. It's also clear that's how many people in society operate."

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