Three ringleaders of a scheme involving the false sale and development of $12 million of Aboriginal-owned land across the Lower Hunter and found by ICAC to be dishonest and corrupt have been charged with fraud obtaining financial advantage by deception and falsifying documents.
It follows the Independent Commission Against Corruption's Operation Skyline, which investigated transactions involving Awabakal Local Aboriginal Land Council (ALALC) properties around Newcastle and Lake Macquarie between 2014 and 2016.
Thirty eight witnesses appeared before the commission between March 2018 and November 2019.
The inquiry found that Gows Heat Pty Ltd (Gows), a company secretly controlled by former assistant tax commissioner Nicholas Petroulias, had an option to purchase five ALALC-owned properties.
Petroulias's partner, Despina Bakis, who was acting for both Gows and the land council, was alleged to have prepared false contractual documents between the parties.
Petroulias is alleged to have improperly altered land council board meeting minutes and participated in preparing the sham agreements.
In its final report released in October 2023, the ICAC found that Petroulias received more than $1 million from the scheme.
An option was later sold to another entity, with Petroulias found to have received the money rather than the ALALC.
ICAC found that Mr Petroulias ultimately received over $600,000, and Mr Green and Ms Bakis received sums totalling $244,000 and $179,000 respectively.
The transaction breached multiple requirements of the Aboriginal Land Rights Act 1983.
The Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions advised the ICAC in May that there was sufficient evidence to charge Green, Petroulias and Bakis.
Mr Green has been charged with six counts of dishonestly causing financial disadvantage by deception, one count of attempting to dishonestly cause financial disadvantage by deception, two counts of making a false document and two counts of misconduct in public office.
Mr Petroulias and Ms Bakis have been charged with six counts of dishonestly causing financial disadvantage by deception, one count of dishonestly causing financial disadvantage by deception, and two counts of making a false document.
The matters are listed for mention at the Downing Centre Local Court on July 23.
Mr Petroulias, who at one point argued that the ICAC did not have the jurisdiction to investigate the allegations, provided a 212-page unsworn written statement to the commission.
Among other complaints he alleged the commission had denied him procedural fairness and that certain commercial negotiations that formed part of the investigation were beyond ICAC's jurisdiction.
Commissioner Peter Hall QC rejected Mr Petroulias's application.
The commission found that pre-existing entrenched poor governance, failures to follow the Aboriginal Land Rights Act, and a breakdown of communication made the land council vulnerable to the corrupt conduct found by the investigation.
It made 15 corruption prevention recommendations, some of which were specific to the Awabakal land council.
