Farid Farid, AAP, National Indigenous Times (NIT)

Sham property agreements drawn up by lawyers working for a NSW Aboriginal land council worth more than $1 million have landed former senior officials in hot water with the state’s anti-corruption commission.

The NSW Independent Commission Against Corruption found four people devised a scheme involving the purported sale or development of properties owned by the Awabakal Local Aboriginal Land Council.

The “corrupt conduct” resulted in a handsome payout of more than $1 million from the sale of three properties, the ICAC said in a report released on Wednesday.

ICAC’s investigation dubbed Operation Skyline said former ALALC chair Debbie Dates and former deputy chair Richard Green were complicit in the fraud committed between 2014 and 2016.

The scheme involved former tax assistant commissioner Nicholas Petroulias falsely representing that a company he controlled, Gows Heat, had an option to purchase ALALC properties that it could on-sell to another party.

Read the full story at the National Indigenous Times here.

This article appeared on the National Indigenous Times on 12 October 2022.