Wednesday, 18 November, 2020
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National success for local photographers
Popular restaurant up in flames
Plea to fix horror stretch of road
Cricketers back on the field
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Cash bag dispute By Cam Lucadou-Wells
Sam Aziz takes the oath during the IBAC hearing on 16 November. document to use in Family Court divorce proceedings. “That second contract represented a loan that didn’t exist?” Mr Aziz replied: “In the end it didn’t exist ... “I created it in order to validate a settlement process that we were trying to reach.” Mr Aziz denied requesting Woodman lobbyist and ex-mayor Lorraine Wreford to commit perjury at IBAC. Ms Wreford had told IBAC that Mr Aziz met with her soon after his private testimony and told her to state the loan was for $370,000. “I did not tell her to lie to IBAC. I did not tell
her, ‘We’ve got to get our story straight,’” Mr Aziz told the inquiry. “I just simply said to her, ’There is an irreconcilable matter in relation to what was accepted in mediation and the original loan amount, which IBAC has a copy of and was well aware of, including the withdrawal receipt, and I just wanted you to be aware of that’.” According to IBAC’s financial investigators, $600,000 was deposited and $660,000 disbursed from Mr Woodman’s company account to Mr Aziz’s interests. About $265,000 was deposited into Mr Aziz’s mother and his then fiance’s accounts
and then transferred into Mr Aziz’s accounts within days. Mr Aziz denied it was an attempt to hide or confuse the transactions’ path. “Because surely someone with my background and my experience in investigations would know that these - can I call them - amateurish attempts at hiding money would be easily discovered by any investigative agency worth their salt.” About $353,000 was paid from Watsons to Mr Aziz’s ex-wife’s settlement and a family trust’s tax bill, and $41,500 to pay out a BMW lease. Mr Aziz had been reportedly grounded ill in Egypt during the first two rounds of the inquiry in November 2019 and March 2020. He recently returned to Australia, telling the inquiry on 16 November that he was still in “poor health”. - For more on the IBAC inquiry, see page 4.
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Sam Aziz and Lorraine Wreford at Sandhurst Golf Club. Picture: IBAC
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Former Casey mayor Sam Aziz denied that he lied under oath about the extent of his $600,000 ‘investment’ with developer John Woodman. Mr Aziz made his first public appearance at IBAC’s Operation Sandon inquiry into alleged corrupt deals between councillors and developers on 16 November. Mr Aziz had delivered $600,000 cash in a suitcase to Mr Woodman at the Sandhurst Club in May 2017, the inquiry heard. “I took the suitcase that I used for travelling because that was the only thing that I could think of that could contain that much cash. “And I took it to the bank manager and said, ‘Can you please, once the money’s counted, put it in here and I’ll pick it up from you tomorrow.’” Mr Aziz’s testimony was at odds with his private statements to IBAC in October 2019 that he’d delivered $370,000. IBAC Commissioner Robert Redlich warned that perjury was punishable with up to 15 years jail. He said he was concerned that Mr Aziz’s latest explanation was “irreconcilable” with his private testimony. “I did not lie,” Mr Aziz told IBAC on 16 November. “I simply presented what happened at my divorce settlement.” He denied that he was keeping the remaining money secret from his ex-wife in divorce proceedings. His ex-wife “certainly knew that money existed”. “I needed to quarantine part of the money to pay for other debts that were incurred throughout the marriage that my former wife simply was not involved in managing or paying off.” Mr Aziz said an original 12-month loan agreement for $600,000 at 30 per cent interest was struck. The following year, a second contract for $370,000 at five per cent interest was written. Counsel assisting IBAC, Michael Tovey, asserted the latter was a “fabricated” and “false”