The daughter of a fugitive property developer succumbed to pressure from her father when she falsified documents for a $۱۵۰m construction loan, a Sydney court has heard.
Ashlyn Nassif, the daughter of Jean Nassif, pleaded guilty in June to providing false or misleading information to obtain the loan from Westpac, which was used to construct three apartment towers in Sydney’s north-west in ۲۰۲۱.
The ۳۲-year-old has accepted her role but her lawyer, Murugan Thangaraj SC, on Monday argued her “notorious” father also played a part.
The NSW Independent Commission Against Corruption (Icac) is currently investigating allegations that NSW Liberal powerbrokers took a $۲m payment from Jean Nassif in breach of the NSW Electoral Funding Act.
Nassif, now ۵۸, had offered to appear on Friday via video link but produced a medical certificate to excuse himself. He fled Australia for rural Lebanon in ۲۰۲۲ and has previously denied wrongdoing.
Thangaraj told Burwood local court on Monday that his ex-wife had described experiencing a decade of coercive control and outlined how this was consistent with the way he treated his daughter.
Jean Nassif would tell his daughter to lose weight, get weight-reducing surgery or cosmetic surgery so “she could look better and he could show her off”, the lawyer told the court.
She was “hardly the glamorous heiress as portrayed,” Thangaraj said.
Her father – who was the head of failed construction firm Toplace – is being pursued by NSW police after a two-year fraud investigation.
A warrant has been issued for his arrest and ۵۷ companies linked with Toplace are in administration.
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“How any person could leave their child to face charges like this for his company’s benefit – to make her fend for herself, to sell per property for her legal fees … what does that say about who he is,” Thangaraj told the court.
Before his departure, Jean Nassif told his daughter he was “desperate” for the Westpac loan, her lawyer said in court.
“She agreed to do what she should not have and she’s explained how she succumbed to the pressure of her father.
“If she wasn’t working for him or if he wasn’t her father, she would never have committed this offence.”
The prosecution has argued Ashlyn Nassif knew the purchasers and contractors at Toplace did not meet the definition of an “at arm’s length” transaction. The defence has disputed this.
She was due to be sentenced on Monday afternoon.
