The development – known as Landmark Square – has come under the spotlight of the Independent Commission Against Corruption. It is investigating whether former Hurstville and Georges River councillors Con Hindi and Vince Badalati,and former Hurstville councillor Philip Sansom,accepted benefits,including overseas flights and accommodation,from developers in exchange for supporting their developments in Hurstville from 2014 to 2021.
The commission is also examining whether the councillors deliberately failed to declare a conflict of interest arising from their relationships with developers Philip Uy,Wensheng Liu and Yuqing Liu.
On Wednesday,Mireille Hindi,a former Kogarah councillor who has owned Sydney Realty in the St George area since 2011,said she had met Philip Uy,also a real estate agent,at an event in 2014. She later spoke to him about the industrial site for sale.
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Uy told her Wensheng Liu’s company One Capital Group was interested in purchasing the site. Hindi met with Uy and Liu to discuss the sale and entered into a buyer’s agency agreement with One Capital Group in July 2014.
Counsel assisting the commission Zelie Heger questioned why the buyer’s agency agreement listed “Malcolm James” as the agent,rather than Mireille Hindi.
The inquiry heard the Hindis’ son Malcolm,now 28,was getting paid $150 a week to work part-time at Sydney Realty while he was studying. Hindi said he had used the name “Malcolm James” on his business cards because there had been “negative articles in the newspapers attacking Con” for council matters,and he preferred not to use his family name.