A right-wing Liberal Party reform group allegedly accepted donations through a sham arrangement with a wealthy hotelier, disguising his support for their political recruitment as business expenses.
The NSW Independent Commission Against Corruption is investigating alleged illicit political donations and branch-stacking, spearheaded by the Reformers, a conservative Christian faction among the NSW Liberals.
Key Reformers figure Robert Assaf appeared at the inquiry on Thursday, saying he assumed the "bogus" arrangement with their hotelier donor, Michael O'Hara, was set up for tax reasons.
Mr O'Hara earlier told the commission he paid monthly $5000 donations to consultancy firm Beckington, established by Christian Ellis, another member of the Reformers.
Mr Ellis provided invoices to Mr O'Hara labelled as being for consultancy advice which counsel assisting Peggy Dwyer called "an arrangement in subterfuge", saying the money was only ever intended to support the Reformers.
"You were aware in effect a bogus arrangement had been made by Christian with Mr O'Hara, whereby he would continue to provide money to the Reformers, but through Beckington," Ms Dwyer asked.
Mr Assaf said Mr Ellis was older than him and seemed to know what he was doing, so he "just trusted him".
Prominent players in the Reformers bloc included two brothers of former NSW premier Dominic Perrottet.
Jean-Claude Perrottet was under pressure from Mr Ellis and Charles Perrottet to ramp up recruitment in the Hills Shire Council area, Mr Assaf told the hearing.
The Hills Shire is where allegations of branch-stacking to benefit the business interests of fugitive property developer Jean Nassif are being investigated.
To increase recruitment numbers, Jean-Claude Perrottet paid for the membership fees of friends, either buying them dinner or giving them cash to avoid detection, Dr Dwyer told the hearing.
Mr Assaf said he was firmly against the practice because it was against party rules and could result in a branch being frozen.
"Renewal time, I recall, being very stressful for Jean-Claude because a lot of his people were friends and doing it for him as opposed to the cause," Mr Assaf told the commission during a closed-door hearing in June.
In 2021, Mr O'Hara became dissatisfied with the anti-vaccination stance being taken by the Reformers which he said was prolonging lockdowns.
Jean-Claude Perrottet secured an arrangement with Mr O'Hara whereby he would continue to pay the group $60,000 a year to support recruitment, texting a group chat of members, "O'Hara saved".
Mr Assaf mentioned several events his group organised attended by right-wing media figures such as Alan Jones and Miranda Devine, as well as efforts to bring down moderate Liberal prime minister Malcolm Turnbull.
He recalled a barbecue in 2018, at the home of current senior Liberal MP Damien Tudehope, geared towards "whacking Turnbull" for not being conservative enough.
Under questioning from Dr Dwyer, he likened the factional infighting to epic war film Braveheart.
"The right faction was like, not sure if you've seen Braveheart, but these warring kingdoms, they would slaughter each other and then every now and then they'd come together for a big fight," Mr Assaf said.
"We wanted people to be loyal to policies, not personality."
The 30-year-old, who spent a year in a Catholic seminary training to be a priest, rose through the ranks of the party working as a staffer for several ministers, eventually being hired by former prime minister Tony Abbott.
