Fugitive Sydney developer Jean Nassif was captured on a phone tap offering $100,000 to one of Jean-Claude Perrottet’s brothers to support a Liberal Party preselection, in stunning evidence before a bombshell corruption inquiry.

The revelation emerged in a June 2021 phone conversation between Jean-Claude, the youngest brother of former premier Dominic Perrottet, and Nassif which was played to the Independent Commission Against Corruption on Thursday. Nassif was a client of Jean-Claude’s when he worked at Medallion Finance.

On the call, Jean-Claude provided an update on investments to Nassif when the developer suggested giving $100,000 to the Perrottets. “I was thinking to give it to your brother for the preselection,” Nassif told Jean-Claude. Nassif did not specify which brother.

Nassif also mentioned the money could be given to Jeremy Greenwood or Christian Ellis, who were both key members of the right-wing Catholic group the Reformers, set up to branch stack for the Liberal Party.

Counsel assisting Juliet Curtin suggested to Jean-Claude Perrottet the recording was evidence the Reformers were actively looking for sources of money to fund their factional work, and Nassif offered to support them in their work during that call.

Perrottet rejected that characterisation. “This is obviously just some nonsense. I mean, yeah, like you can hear from my tone on the phone,” Jean-Claude said.

In a second intercepted investment update call on September 1, 2021, Jean-Claude thanked Nassif for “all the support for the family”. Jean-Claude told the commission the comment was nothing more than a “throwaway” line.

Nassif was also heard warning Jean-Claude Perrottet that then environment minister Matt Kean wanted to be premier and was conspiring with Liberal MP David Elliot. Nassif said Dominic Perrottet needed to “open his eyes”.

The developer also mentioned intervening in the Baulkham Hills Liberal branch and helping to stack members in Castle Hill, prompting Jean-Claude Perrottet to respond: “If you can help in that area, that’d be awesome.”

In a third and final intercepted phone call played to the commission, Nassif complained to Jean-Claude that then building commissioner David Chandler was not going to “pull back” from targeting his projects.

That call was in October 2021, just after Dominic Perrottet became premier.

“Take a message to Charlie or to Dom; the building commissioner, we need to stop him. He’s a bully. He’s attacking me left, right, and centre. He wants to destroy my image in the media,” Nassif said.

Jean-Claude told Nassif he would meet with his brother Charles and promised he would “definitely be having a conversation with him”. Nassif listed a litany of complaints he had about Chandler and Jean-Claude asked him to keep him posted on “these things”.

After being played the final intercepted recording, Jean-Claude Perrottet described the idea his brother Charles was doing work for Nassif as “crazy talk” from the disgraced property developer.

“Okay, so when you say it’s crazy talk, do we take from that you were completely surprised when Mr Nassif suggested that you should convey these messages to Charles,” Curtin asked.

“Yes,” Perrottet said, insisting he had never heard of Charles agreeing to do anything for Nassif.

Curtin pressed again: “And did that remain the case? As in, you never heard, aside from the matters that are being explored by this commission, you never heard that your brother was doing work for Mr Nassif?”

“No, I didn’t think so,” Perrottet said.

Earlier, the commission heard the Reformers had “zero dollars” to pay Jean-Claude Perrottet for branch stacking, and in text messages blamed a wealthy supporter for withholding payments. The commission also heard of federal Opposition Leader Angus Taylor’s hatred of one of the members.

In the texts, revealed to the ICAC on Thursday, Ellis, a Reformers founder, suggested Jean-Claude Perrottet should help him with work “in Farrer”, the southern NSW electorate of former federal leader Sussan Ley. Ellis wanted to branch stack Farrer to remove Ley as the MP.

Ellis’ text, read to the commission, said he believed Perrottet deserved some money but the Reformers had “zero dollars” to give because “Michael O’Hara hates the Vax campaign and Angus Taylor hates Rob”.

O’Hara is a hotelier and banned donor who contributed to the Reformers but told the commission he ultimately decided to stop making payments because he did not like the group’s opposition to the the roll-out of the COVID vaccines during the pandemic.

Curtin asked Perrottet whether the mention of Taylor in Ellis’s text indicated the federal Liberal Leader was contributing to the Reformers. The “Rob” is Robert Assaf, another co-founder of the Reformers.

“That seems to be suggesting that Mr Taylor had paid some money for Reformers too, doesn’t it, or was refusing to?” Curtin asked. Perrottet said it “sounds like that’s the suggestion”. Taylor has repeatedly denied making payments to the Reformers and is not accused of wrongdoing.

Perrottet also told the commission he could not remember performing any marketing services for a company set up to fund the Reformers despite invoices being issued for such work.

He was pressed on whether he did any marketing for Beckington, the company set up Ellis and Greenwood.

The ICAC is investigating whether Perrottet, and several others, solicited or accepted allegedly illegal political donations from prohibited donors.

Perrottet, who was paid $5000 by Beckington on May 25, 2021, said he could not remember why he received that payment. He received monthly payments, each worth $5000, over five months.

Curtin asked Perrottet about “substantial injections of cash” it appeared he had received from Beckington.

Curtin asked Perrottet if he knew the purpose of the payments. “I dunno. Could have been for work. Maybe Christian [Ellis] owed me money,” Perrottet told the commission.

Perrottet was employed at Medallion Financial, where he was paid $55,000 a year, with brokerage fees on top, the commission heard.

He told the commission Beckington’s three clients in 2021 were Catholic Schools NSW, Catholic Cemeteries and Toplace, the construction company owned by Nassif.

Earlier, the commission also heard that James Tudehope, who worked at Catholic Schools NSW, complained that his colleague and member of the Reformers Robert Assaf was not pulling his weight at work.

“What is going on with Assaf? Is he delivering numbers or what? Because he is totally MIA at work,” the message from Tudehope said.

Curtin suggested these texts, passed on to Ellis by Perrottet, showed there was an arrangement that Assaf would do factional work, instead of his work for Catholic Schools NSW.

“I’m sure sometimes he might have done that,” Perrottet said. He said he was not aware of any formal agreement, rather that he was employed at the education body and was interested in factional work at the same time.

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