The ICAC has heard that former Toplace lawyer Sharangan Maheswaran provided a private investigator with a brief naming David Elliott as its principal target and containing information about the former minister’s family and staff.
The material also listed details about Elliott’s sons, his wife, his chief of staff and several Hills Shire councillors, the inquiry was told.
Maheswaran is due to continue giving evidence for the rest of the week. He said property developer Jean Nassif was considering defamation action against a person who had made negative comments about his developments.
Maheswaran told the commission Nassif wanted to establish whether the comments had an “improper purpose or politically motivated purpose”.
During questioning, Peggy Dwyer SC suggested Maheswaran should have recognised that Nassif was developing conspiracy theories about why his projects were being blocked, rather than addressing genuine problems with the developments.
“It must have occurred to you that Mr Nassif was developing some conspiracy theories about why his developments were being blocked, rather than just actually looking at the genuine problems that were there with his developments,” she asked.
The inquiry has also heard that Maheswaran and Jeremy Greenwood repeatedly discussed finding a journalist to publish a negative story alleging Elliott had breached Covid restrictions.
They struggled to persuade a reporter to publish the claims, which were unsubstantiated, the commission was told.
