Gattellari and Medich bribed an Aboriginal land council: ICAC inquiry told
A corruption inquiry has begun hearing allegations that Sydney businessman Fortunato "Lucky" Gattellari bribed an Aboriginal land council on the New South Wales south coast.
The Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) has heard that in 2005 a man called Ronnie Binge approached Lucky Gattellari with a plan to develop several parcels of land around Narooma.
The land was owned by the Wagonga Aboriginal Land Council.
The ABC reported Ronnie Binge told Gattellari that side payments would have to be made to the council's decision makers to secure the land.
The commission’s counsel assisting told the inquiry that Gattellari liked the plan and asked his business associate Ron Medich to put up the cash.
The inquiry heard that over five years the developers paid upwards of $130,000 to the chairman, coordinator and chief executive of Wagonga but ultimately the deals did not go through because the New South Wales Land Council intervened to stop them.
