Former New South Wales MP David Elliott testified on Friday at an Independent Commission Against Corruption (Icac) inquiry into allegations of illegal secret donations used to fund branch-stacking operations.
Elliott, who is not a person of interest in the investigation, told Icac he believes developer Jean Nassif, now a fugitive, was responsible for planting news stories that harmed his career, arranging for private investigators to follow him, making death threats, and spreading rumours of an affair.
The former senior minister stated that his disagreements with Nassif stemmed from his view that development in the Hills area needed to be slowed due to insufficient infrastructure. Elliott also claimed that Nassif attempted to make impermissible donations and followed him in public places.
Elliott's chief of staff, Tanya Raffoul, reportedly received threats via her church, and Nassif allegedly told her, "we have pictures of your boss, we need you to spill the beans on your boss or it would not end well." Elliott also became aware of a "shit sheet" produced by a group called the Reformers, which contained baseless allegations of an affair. A former Liberal staffer and associate of the Reformers, Dylan Whitelaw, accepted under cross-examination in July that no affair had occurred.
Nassif is a person of interest in the Icac inquiry and has an arrest warrant for alleged fraud. Charles Perrottet, brother of former premier Dominic Perrottet, has also been named as a person of interest in relation to alleged illegal donations from Nassif and is scheduled to give evidence next week.