Chandler Tells ICAC of Nassif Threat and Pressure Campaign as Operation Rosny Scrutinises $2m Liberal Party Payments
Former NSW building commissioner David Chandler told ICAC on 27 August 2026 that fugitive developer Jean Nassif threatened him during a 2021 phone call, saying: "Don't you harm my project, and if you harm my project, I'll harm you" (The Guardian, 27 August 2026).
Chandler's testimony came in the third week of public hearings for Operation Rosny, ICAC's investigation into whether payments made by or on behalf of Nassif and his company Toplace Pty Ltd constituted illegal political donations to the NSW Liberal Party. The commission is examining whether approximately $2 million allegedly paid by Nassif to three young conservative operatives — Jeremy Greenwood, Christian Ellis, and Charles Perrottet, the brother of former premier Dominic Perrottet — was intended to secure the removal of Chandler as building commissioner. ICAC's public notice, dated 1 July 2026, frames the investigation around "the removal of the Building Commissioner, David Chandler OAM, from public office in respect of Mr Nassif's developments" (ICAC, 1 July 2026).
The alleged threats must be understood against Chandler's regulatory posture toward Toplace. As building commissioner, Chandler had ordered a destructive inspection of a Toplace building in Botany, requiring bathrooms to be ripped up to verify waterproofing integrity. In April 2021, he placed a prohibition order on Skyview, a Toplace apartment complex in Castle Hill, preventing it from being occupied. That prohibition followed photographs of substantial basement cracking sent to Chandler by Greens senator David Shoebridge and others, which prompted urgent action. ICAC's opening hearing on 27 July 2026 noted that Nassif faced problems with Chandler's regulatory scrutiny across approximately 40 development sites.
The personal confrontation between the two men predates the phone call. Chandler testified that he and Nassif had clashed in person in 2020, at a meeting where Nassif became "loud and overbearing." After the 2021 call, Chandler banned Nassif from being present on sites during inspections and resolved not to deal with him directly. Chandler emphasised that he had conducted hundreds of inspections over his five-year tenure, but was aware Nassif believed he was being singled out.
What followed the phone call, Chandler told the commission, was what he described as "an accumulation of pressure." The first concrete manifestation was an anonymous email sent to Toplace suggesting that a $5 million payment to lawyer William Roberts would cause the building commissioner to lift orders holding up occupancy certificates for Toplace developments. Toplace executives, including Sharangan Maheswaran — identified as a person of interest in the inquiry — raised the email with Chandler. Chandler suggested they go to police immediately. Maheswaran told him they were still investigating the email's origins and were unsure of its provenance. Chandler took contemporaneous notes, reported the matter to his departmental head Emma Hogan, and an internal audit was ordered. Toplace executives did not engage with the departmental inquiry. Chandler was cleared. He is not under investigation by ICAC.
ABC News, reporting on 27 August 2026, described Chandler's evidence as detailing an alleged "shakedown" involving Nassif, Liberal Party operatives, and potential breaches of NSW electoral laws (ABC News, 27 August 2026). The Age's live coverage framed the testimony around Nassif's alleged threat to hurt Chandler during the building commissioner's investigation of Toplace developments.
The commission also heard that pressure extended beyond the anonymous email. Chandler became aware of claims made to politicians that he was "on the take," and journalists were offered material intended to undermine his integrity. The ICAC opening address on 28 July 2026 noted that a Mr Williams raised allegations of corruption concerning Nassif and senior figures in the NSW Liberal Party (ICAC opening address, 28 July 2026). ICAC is investigating whether the payments to the Reformers, a group of young conservatives, amounted to illegal donations under the Electoral Funding Act, which prohibits property developers from making political donations in New South Wales.
Nassif fled Australia for rural Lebanon in 2022 and is expected to appear before the inquiry by video link next week. His absence from the jurisdiction has shaped the commission's approach to his evidence.
The broader stakes of Operation Rosny extend beyond a single regulator's ordeal. The inquiry sits at the intersection of NSW building regulation, electoral funding law, and factional Liberal Party politics. The involvement of Charles Perrottet, brother of a former premier, gives the investigation a political dimension that opposition parties and transparency advocates will scrutinise closely. The $2 million at the centre of the investigation, if proven to have been directed at removing a regulator who was actively impeding a developer's projects, would constitute a transactional attempt to capture a regulatory function. Whether ICAC can establish the requisite intent, the chain of causation between the payments and any political action taken against Chandler, and the knowledge of those who received the funds will determine the inquiry's findings.
For now, Chandler's testimony has placed on the public record the mechanics of alleged pressure: a direct threat from a developer under active regulatory scrutiny, an anonymous attempt at a financial workaround, reputational attacks channelled through politicians and journalists, and a regulator who documented each step. The commission's task is to determine whether that pressure was merely Nassif acting alone or part of a coordinated effort facilitated through political channels.
