What's Going On at ICAC: The Perrottet Brother, a Fugitive Developer, and $2 Million

Charles Perrottet, the brother of former NSW premier Dominic Perrottet, appeared before the state's corruption watchdog on August 28, 2026. He told the hearing he met a fugitive property developer named Jean Nassif in December 2019 and gave him advice on his building projects for several years The Guardian.

The corruption watchdog is called ICAC, which stands for the Independent Commission Against Corruption. It's a government body in New South Wales that investigates whether public officials or people close to them have acted dishonestly. ICAC can hold public hearings where witnesses give evidence under oath.

Perrottet told the commission he was paid for his advice to Nassif, but not directly. Instead, the money went to his wife, Anita Perrottet. He said he didn't want to be paid himself because he already had a full-time job as head of strategy at BP, the energy company. According to his evidence, a man named Jeremy Greenwood, part of a group of Liberal Party members called the Reformers, offered to share in their success. Charles said they could keep paying Anita instead of him The Guardian.

ICAC is investigating whether Nassif paid $2 million in an undeclared political donation to the Reformers, a group that includes Greenwood and Christian Ellis. An undeclared donation is a payment to help a political party or candidate that is not reported to authorities as the law requires. The inquiry, called Operation Rosny, is looking at whether this broke election funding laws. ICAC announced it would hold a public inquiry starting on 27 July 2026 ICAC NSW. The investigation also covers whether Charles Perrottet himself solicited or accepted political donations ICAC NSW.

Perrottet and Nassif had something in common: they were both frustrated with a politician named David Elliott. Elliott was a member of NSW parliament from the rival centre-right faction of the Liberal Party. Perrottet said he was angry that Elliott had tried to push his brother Dominic out of the leadership, and he was looking for information on Elliott The Guardian.

Perrottet's evidence on August 28 doesn't match what he said a few days earlier. On August 24, he told the commission he had nothing to do with Nassif or his company, Toplace, until a separate parliamentary inquiry ICAC NSW transcript. But on August 28, he described a relationship with Nassif going back to late 2019.

The investigation started with the dismissal of a local council in Sydney's Hills district and a speech in NSW parliament in 2022, where someone alleged that a developer had made secret payments. Since then, Operation Rosny has grown much wider. It has reportedly looked into a pressure campaign to remove the NSW building commissioner, the official responsible for overseeing building standards. Investigators have reviewed phone records, text messages, WhatsApp messages, mobile phone tower data, bank records, computers, tax returns, and flight records The Guardian.

Anita Perrottet, the sister-in-law of the former premier, gave evidence as ICAC widened its inquiry Weekly Times Now. Her appearance followed her husband's. Charles Perrottet had been reluctant to show up at earlier hearings. He stayed in Fiji to avoid a formal order to appear at the parliamentary inquiry, according to an Operation Rosny transcript ICAC NSW transcript. By the time of that parliamentary inquiry, he had moved to Melbourne, per ICAC's opening address ICAC NSW opening address.

One detail in Perrottet's evidence matters beyond the specific allegations. He is not listed as a lobbyist, and he doesn't show up in ministerial diaries, the public records of who meets with government ministers. That's because meetings about political matters with ministers don't have to be disclosed The Guardian. This gap means his advisory work for Nassif, and any access to government figures that came with it, would not have shown up in the usual places where the public can check who is influencing decisions.

The broader context here is how political factions, developer money, and election funding laws all overlap inside the NSW Liberal Party. The Reformers, the council dismissal, the alleged pressure on the building commissioner, and the decision to route payments through a family member rather than directly to a politically connected adviser all connect into one investigation. ICAC has gathered a large amount of evidence, from phone and financial records to travel data. Charles Perrottet's shift from denying any connection to Nassif to admitting years of advisory work paid through his wife will likely shape where the inquiry goes next.

What we don't yet know is whether the payments to Anita Perrottet can be connected to the alleged $2 million undeclared donation at the heart of Operation Rosny. We also don't know whether Charles Perrottet's advisory relationship with Nassif opened any doors to NSW government decisions that shouldn't have been opened. The commission has not yet released its findings.