What Happened at the NSW Corruption Inquiry: A Lobbyist's Surprising Admissions
A lobbyist named Jeremy Greenwood spent his third day answering questions at a corruption inquiry in New South Wales on 12 August 2026. He admitted to a striking list of things, including helping someone avoid showing up at a government hearing, accepting a private security guard for his home, and meeting with someone the inquiry told him not to talk to.
The inquiry is called Operation Rosny, and it's being run by ICAC — the Independent Commission Against Corruption, a government body that investigates possible corruption among public officials. ICAC is looking into two main things. First, whether a group within the Liberal Party called the Reformers accepted illegal donations — that is, money given in a way that breaks election laws — in exchange for signing up new party members. This practice is called "branch stacking," and it works like this: if you pack a local party branch with people who will vote the way you want, you can control who gets picked to run for office. Second, the inquiry is checking whether a property developer named Jean Nassif, who is currently on the run from the law, sent money to several people through his company Toplace between 2020 and 2023 so they would do favours for him in return.
The four main people being looked at are Greenwood, Christian Ellis, Robert Assaf, and Jean-Claude Perrottet. Former NSW premier Dominic Perrottet is not a person of interest in this case. Guardian
Greenwood told the inquiry it was his idea for Jean-Claude Perrottet, the brother of the former premier, to travel to Fiji. He suggested to a lawyer named Sharangan Maheswaran that Nassif pay for the trip. Maheswaran is named in the inquiry's allegations and also represented Nassif and his company. Greenwood admitted giving Perrottet his credit card details so flights could be booked. He then arranged three loans adding up to $25,000 through his lobbying company, JPG Advisory, to pay for Perrottet's February 2023 trip to Fiji. While Perrottet was away, Greenwood wrote to him asking to "send food photos." Guardian
Jean-Claude Perrottet went to Fiji and stayed for two weeks so he would not have to give evidence at a 2023 government hearing. While he was there, he worked out a $165,000 job contract with Catholic Schools NSW. The inquiry had already heard that Greenwood, Ellis, Jean-Claude Perrottet, and Charles Perrottet all found ways to avoid being legally forced to appear at public hearings in 2023. SMH; Guardian
Greenwood also admitted avoiding official orders to appear, saying he thought they were "invalid." He accepted a private security guard outside his home, arranged by Maheswaran. In messages with a private investigator working for Maheswaran about the security guard, Greenwood said he wanted "no numpties. Attentive ones." Guardian
The Catholic Schools NSW link came up in another exchange of messages. After the organisation's CEO, Dallas McInerney, received a letter from the chair of the government hearing, Greenwood sent him a message saying "WTF. Go to Brisbane." Greenwood told the inquiry he did not remember sending those messages. Guardian
Greenwood met with Jean-Claude Perrottet at a Sydney pub after Greenwood was questioned by ICAC in June 2025. The commissioner had told him not to discuss his evidence with anyone except his lawyers. In a similar vein, Robert Assaf — another member of the Reformers — said he met with Greenwood several times after they were both ordered to appear before ICAC. During at least one meeting at a cafe in Belfield, they left their phones in the car. Assaf mentioned this when he gave evidence earlier in the inquiry. Guardian; Brisbane Times
Greenwood said he was not a member of the Reformers. This conflicts with what Assaf and Jean-Claude Perrottet have said, as both have questioned whether Greenwood was really part of the core group. Greenwood also told the inquiry he told the group to stop what they were doing because "it became so toxic." The Reformers had pushed for stricter policies against same-sex marriage, abortion, and euthanasia. Guardian
The inquiry's list of evidence includes a photo of a spreadsheet titled "DISTRIBUTION" taken from Greenwood's phone, dated 27 July 2026. ICAC is streaming the Operation Rosny hearings live online. The public inquiry began on 27 July 2026. ICAC NSW
The broader context here is that Operation Rosny is pulling together two separate threads of alleged wrongdoing. One is about illegal donations being used to stack a political party with friendly members. The other is about a developer on the run supposedly funnelling money to people who could get things done for him. Greenwood's testimony connects these threads directly: he arranged for Nassif to pay for Perrottet's Fiji trip, and he relied on Maheswaran, a lawyer who was also working for Nassif at the same time.
There is also the question of whether Greenwood broke the rules of the inquiry itself. The commissioner told him not to talk about his evidence with anyone except his lawyers, but he then met Perrottet at a pub and sat with Assaf at a cafe with their phones left behind. The inquiry will have to decide whether those meetings amount to contempt — meaning deliberately undermining a legal process — alongside the main allegations about election funding.
What makes Operation Rosny unusual is how many damaging admissions have come from a single witness. Greenwood appears to have been a connecting point between political faction activity, lobbying deals, and a developer who is no longer in Australia. The Fiji trip, the security guards, the spreadsheet, and the avoidance of the government hearing are each separate pieces of evidence. But taken together, they suggest a coordinated effort to avoid accountability across several different forums at once.
