Lawyers for Ashlyn Nassif will contest allegations she falsified official documents to trigger a multimillion-dollar development loan, during an upcoming committal hearing.
The 30-year-old daughter of fugitive property developer Jean Nassif appeared at Burwood Local Court today.
She was charged in February with dishonestly obtaining financial advantage by deception and publishing false misleading material to obtain advantage after allegedly securing a $150 million loan from Westpac with a falsified pre-sale contract in 2021.
Mr Nassif left Australia for Lebanon in 2022 and is being pursued by NSW Police following a two-year fraud investigation.
Ms Nassif’s lawyer told the court they are prepared to file a section 82 application to examine prosecution witnesses before the matter proceeds to trial.
Prosecutors will have until August 7 to respond to the application.
Ms Nassif allegedly submitted misleading contracts to meet a $10.5 million pre-sales condition for Skyview Apartments at Castle Hill, in Sydney’s northwest, to trigger the $150 million bank loan for construction of three towers.
Her father is believed to be overseas after declining to appear at a NSW parliamentary inquiry into property development in the Hills Shire Council.
In 2022, Fair Trading suspended his licence for 10 years and permanently banned his company Toplace from engaging in construction work.
Ms Nassif handed herself in to police earlier this year after officers simultaneously raided four properties, including her father’s multimillion-dollar Chiswick mansion and his Concord-based Toplace development firm.
In December, Premier Chris Minns personally urged Mr Nassif to turn himself in to authorities.
“I would encourage him to make himself available to investigators in NSW so that we can find out exactly what he’s done in this state and what his potential liabilities are,” Minns said at the time.
The matter is due to return to court on August 28.
