Secret recordings reveal Ibrahim world

John Ibrahim
A COVERT police tape recording of John Ibrahim's views on thuggery, police, crime and his family has exposed the Kings Cross nightclub baron's unerring authority over his domain.

In the previously unpublished transcript, Mr Ibrahim talks for more than an hour to a man who claims his leg was broken with a baseball bat in a fight over money with another Ibrahim brother and Nomad bikie gang members.

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Charges against Michael Ibrahim over this incident were later dropped. A transcript of the tape recording, which The Sunday Telegraph has accessed via official court records, is a revealing insight into Mr Ibrahim's world.

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In a vivid exchange, he says police cannot be trusted, lawyers are a must and crimes can't be proven without a witness.

"I've been on charges for murder, f****** attempted . . . it doesn't mean they get me. Because they come up with all this bull**** to get you charged, and then; but the time you get to court, everyone's gone, you know what I mean?" Mr Ibrahim is recorded as saying.

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He has never been convicted of a crime.

The other man on the tape, Roy Malouf, told Mr Ibrahim he had arrived at hospital in 2003 after an incident allegedly involving Michael Ibrahim and others - in which his leg was broken in two places - when he received a call from his mother.

She told him she, too, was on the way to hospital because Michael Ibrahim and the others had allegedly returned to their house at Guildford and that Mr Malouf's younger brother, Richard, and father, Pierre, had been shot, but were alive.

No convictions have arisen from this incident. The secret recording resulted in Mr Ibrahim being arrested and charged in October, 2004 with perverting the course of justice and threatening a witness.

Police papers on the court file set out the reasons why they believed Mr Ibrahim should not receive bail.

"The accused is a major organised-crime figure, the subject of 546 police intelligence reports in relation to his involvement in drugs, organised crime and associations with Outlaw Motorcycle Gangs.

"He has previously been investigated for intimidation, extortion and organised crime. He was also the subject of a similar investigation by the Wood Police Royal Commission." Bail was granted.

Mr Ibrahim was committed to stand trial on April 28, 2005, but his lawyers successfully argued that the tape was inadmissible as evidence and the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) dropped the charges in December that year.

Sydney District Court Judge Michael Finnane found that during the taped conversation, Roy Malouf flattered Mr Ibrahim and begged him to sort out the situation over the alleged assault and shootings.

This amounted to "aiding and abetting, counselling and procuring" threats from Mr Ibrahim that Mr Malouf and his family would find themselves in a worse situation if they gave evidence against Michael Ibrahim and his co-accused.

The police case was further weakened by Mr Malouf's failure to appear in court, despite a subpoena and bench warrant. Mr Ibrahim had a further win when the judge awarded costs of $135,000 to cover his legal bills when the charges were dropped.

Five months after the attack, Malouf was fitted by police from the Middle Eastern Organised Crime Squad with a listening device and sent to a meeting with John Ibrahim.

During the conversation, Mr Ibrahim suddenly demanded that Mr Malouf lift his shirt, which he did; but the wire was not found and the conversation continued.

This is what he told Roy Malouf on December 2, 2003, in the poker machine room of UN Nightclub, a Darlinghurst venue with which Mr Ibrahim was involved:

On his clean police record, he said: "I've got five f****** businesses to run myself. You know what I mean? . . . I've never done any crime. I don't have a criminal record. It's all my f******, my brothers f*** up.

They think they are all working for me . . . They think my brothers, Sam and Michael, work for me. Work that one out. And I know they're f****** lunatics. I can't control them. But we're still stuck in this situation, man.

Where's it gonna go from here? . . .

"I know, better than all of youse . . . I've been charged 5000 times . . . Unless they have someone else to say that I saw him do this, this, this, they can't do s***. DNA and all that, they can't do s***.

The one thing I know for sure: you can't trust the police. They'll just dump you as soon as they finish with you."

As to the Guildford bashings and shootings, Michael Ibrahim, at the time of the taping, had not been charged.

Later, he and three co-accused were charged with assault, malicious wounding and shoot with intent to murder. The charges against Michael were dropped in 2005.

On the tape, John Ibrahim says: "Listen, my advice to you, you gotta get your family, you just (claps) drop the whole thing."

On the prospect of Mr Malouf's father and brother giving evidence, Mr Ibrahim says: "If your brother and dad are thinking about doing that, they might as well move to the moon . . . No point in moving houses . . .

"They are trying to get him (Michael) for 15, 20 years . . . And, to be honest with you, I'm not gonna let that happen, 'cause, you know, whether he is wrong or right, he is still my brother, I am not gonna see him go and do 15 years, I am telling you now.

So, that's not a threat. So, you can take that any way you want. Down the track, I'll stop it. I've got my own ways of stopping it . . .

"And now your brother's got - oh yes, he's upset, he's got a limp, he's this and he's that, but he could get a lot worse, bro."

The court file shows police searches of the Maloufs' home found items suggesting they were engaged in the theft and possession of firearms.

Judge Finnane said: "I have no doubt that he (Roy), his father and his brother, were engaged in criminal activities and that those who attacked them were engaged in similar activities."

It is not clear from court documents whether any charges had been laid at the time.

On the NSW Crime Commission, Mr Ibrahim and Mr Malouf discuss the fact that both have received a subpoena to appear.

"But you have to go. If they subpoena you, you have to go . . . but listen, if you go, what you don't know, you don't know. Know what I mean?" Mr Ibrahim said.

The Crime Commission also weighed into his court case, telling the court registry that it had a Supreme Court order freezing Mr Ibrahim's assets.

The Commission told the court to send it all documents related to Mr Ibrahim's $50,000 bail, because it wanted to trace the source of the money: "Those monies are restrained and cannot be dealt with."

The Commission had "frozen" two properties held by Mr Ibrahim's Edge Point Holdings, including his Dover Heights home, a Merrylands property and his company's St George Bank account.