$100m Mokbel 'bribed Magistrate'

The Age

Wednesday April 18, 2007

Peter Gregory, Chief Court Reporter

FUGITIVE drug boss Tony Mokbel told underworld contacts that he paid a $20,000 bribe to a magistrate and was connected with a break-in at police headquarters.

Mokbel - on the run since March last year - was estimated by one associate to have made $100 million from the drug trade.

He also ran a country training track for horses owned by drug dealers, and allegedly told one of his brothers that before he vanished, he had left money in a safety deposit box to pay off his creditors.

The information was revealed when two former contacts of Mokbel gave evidence and made statements to oppose his sister-in-law's court bid to get out of jail. Renate Mokbel, 36, is asking the Supreme Court to let her sell her family home at Brunswick, so she can pay a $1 million surety owed when Mokbel disappeared.

In his absence, Mokbel was found guilty of being knowingly concerned in importing two kilograms of cocaine, and was sentenced to 12 years' jail, with a nine-year minimum term.

Mrs Mokbel is married to Mokbel's brother, Milad. She was sent to jail last month after failing to pay the $1 million, which she said was secured by the home, worth up to $1.2 million. The house has been frozen under a court restraining order related to drug charges laid against Milad Mokbel. Mrs Mokbel, a mother of three, is asking Justice Kim Hargrave to vary the restraining order so she can sell the house. Justice Hargrave has reserved his decision.

Yesterday in court, Mrs Mokbel was in tears when asked how she could explain, other than through her husband's gambling, how more than $2.2 million came into her house in six years. When asked by Tom Gyorffy, for the Office of Public Prosecutions, if she wanted to keep Mokbel out of jail, she replied: "I believe he should be sitting in jail, and not me."

In a statement before court, an underworld drug figure said Mokbel "told me I owed him big-time" as he had paid a $20,000 bribe to a magistrate to assure the man's bail. Speaking via videolink in court, the witness said he did not receive $3.3 million promised by Mokbel for manufacturing drugs and educating others about the process. He agreed with Christian Juebner, for Mrs Mokbel, that at one stage, he was to be paid $250,000, plus $80,000 a week, as his slice of money earned from selling the drugs.

The man said in a statement that Milad Mokbel made it clear that Mokbel had told him he left cash in the safety deposit box to repay drug debts, legal fees and other sums owed. The money supposedly included $1 million to reimburse Milad for the Brunswick house.

According to the witness, Milad Mokbel claimed to have checked the box and it was empty. The man said he believed it did not exist. He said he did not doubt Renate Mokbel was aware her husband made money by selling drugs.

Another witness, a confessed killer, said he had sold drugs sourced from Mokbel. He said Mokbel told him he had "something to do" with the St Kilda Road break-in at the former police drug squad in 1996.

The witness said he supplied a van for Mokbel and returned to find it had boxes in it, with a blanket over them. "I still didn't realise that the white van I had delivered to Tony had the papers from the drug squad in it," he said in his statement.

The man estimated Mokbel had made $100 million through dealings in the drug world, and that underworld figures George and Carl Williams had made about $15 million from drugs.

The man alleged George Williams laundered drug money through a local TAB branch. He also said Mokbel had a Kilmore farm that was being developed as a racehorse training facility. Mokbel had about nine horses, including two called Frosty The Snowman and My Cook. He also ran horses owned by others in the drug trade.

© 2007 The Age

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