If they had pulled it off, two former Labor ministers could have perpetrated a potential billion-dollar fraud on the taxpayers of NSW and one that could have gifted untold wealth to the family of the now jailed Labor powerbroker Eddie Obeid.
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Former Labor ministers, Joe Tripodi and Tony Kelly, falsified a cabinet document in an attempt to deliver untold wealth to the family of Eddie Obeid, says Fairfax Media reporter Kate McClymont.
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Former NSW Labor minister Eddie Obeid, Joe Tripodi and Tony Kelly engaged in serious corrupt conduct, according to the Independent Commission Against Corruption's report on Operation Credo.
Ex-Labor ministers attempted billion-dollar fraud
Former Labor ministers, Joe Tripodi and Tony Kelly, falsified a cabinet document in an attempt to deliver untold wealth to the family of Eddie Obeid, says Fairfax Media reporter Kate McClymont.
In 2010, two former Labor ministers Joe Tripodi and Tony Kelly, along with Mr Kelly's chief of staff, Laurie Brown, falsified a cabinet document in an attempt to turn a struggling water infrastructure company into a billion-dollar enterprise that would deliver $60 million to the family of Obeid, their then colleague.
Mr Kelly, Mr Tripodi, Mr Obeid and Mr Brown had all been found to have engaged in serious corrupt conduct for their various roles in trying to get this doctored cabinet minute approved. The Independent Commission Against Corruption has also recommended that the Director of Public Prosecutions consider criminal prosecutions against the four men for misconduct in public office.
It was just after 8am on March 13, 2013, - three years after the attempted fraud - that Mr Tripodi set off on a most unusual road trip.
He arrived about 5½ hours later – unannounced – but with a hamburger and coffee in hand at the Wellington home of his former colleague Tony Kelly.
Most mysteriously, Mr Tripodi had his phone switched off for the entire day. He hadn't even phoned ahead to warn Mr Kelly he was coming.
After a half-hour chat, he turned and drove back. It wasn't until 6.35pm, after Mr Tripodi had crossed the Blue Mountains, that he turned his phone on.
Fairfax Media had revealed that the corruption watchdog was undertaking a major inquiry into Australian Water Holdings, a water company in which the family of the now jailed Obeid had a secret stake.
Mr Kelly and Mr Tripodi had good reason to be very, very worried about this new ICAC inquiry as they had committed what was later to be described as an act "tantamount to fraud".
The pair had been involved in the doctoring of a cabinet minute and, if ICAC found out about it, they could be in serious trouble.
It was essential that they get their stories straight and to do so without fear of the prying eyes and ears of ICAC investigators.
As it turned out it was all to no avail.
In 2010, Obeid's efforts to lobby the relevant ministers to get the government to commit to a private-public partnership with AWH had come to nothing.
That was when his close political allies, Mr Tripodi and Mr Kelly, came to the rescue with a doctored cabinet minute that was completely the opposite of the recommendations of experts from the Department of Premier and Cabinet.
Word of the dubious nature of the minute reached then premier Kristina Keneally who warned Mr Kelly to withdraw the minute and not to resubmit it.
Giving evidence in April 2014, Mr Kelly admitted signing the document and putting it forward to cabinet but claimed it was drafted by Mr Tripodi, then a backbencher, and advisers from both of their offices.
According to the doctored minute presented by Mr Kelly, AWH was worth up to $200 million but the government's experts had estimated AWH's assets were worth only $36.
Laurie Brown, former chief of staff to Mr Kelly, admitted to the ICAC that he incorporated facts in a cabinet minute about AWH that he didn't understand and that he had not verified as accurate.
He also deleted facts that showed that the public-owned Sydney Water would be hundreds of millions of dollars worse off if the proposed public-private partnership deal was accepted.
Asked where much of the information came from, Mr Brown said: "It could well have been Mr Tripodi."
But Mr Tripodi denied any involvement in the doctored cabinet minute. He claimed he had merely given Mr Kelly's staff some draft notes he had from his time as the minister.
Mr Tripodi also claimed that he had no idea that the Obeids had an interest in AWH.
"On one occasion, I said to him, 'Eddie, you and your family don't have any commercial interest in this?' He said, 'No, no, [Eddie Obeid] Junior's giving Australian Water a hand up in Queensland,' " Mr Tripodi said.
And as to the reason his phone was off during the entirety of his whirlwind trip to Wellington, Mr Tripodi told the inquiry: "Um, my, my telephone - just let me think about it. My telephone was off that day but it wasn't, it was actually in the car. I remember it was, I remember it was an issue driving out there because I didn't have my, I thought I didn't have my phone, it was in the car in the back seat and it was off, yes."
These are the second corruption findings for Mr Kelly and the third for Mr Tripodi
Mr Kelly was found to be corrupt over a back-dated document authorising the government's purchase of Currawong cottages at Pittwater at the time the Labor government was in caretaker mode.
Criminal charges for misconduct in public office were recommended for Mr Tripodi over leaking a confidential government document to curry favour with then mining magnate Nathan Tinkler.
He was also found to be corrupt when he didn't disclose to his cabinet colleagues his knowledge that the Obeid family had a financial interest in cafe leases at Circular Quay.
Obeid, who is already in jail over misconduct in public office and facing a criminal trial for another, may face further charges if the DPP takes up the ICAC's latest recommendation.