Backyard blitz: Spagnolo's crisis talks
Kate McClymont and Jacquelin Magnay
July 7, 2009 - 12:23AM
THE usually peaceful Koala Way in Horsley Park was a buzz of activity yesterday as a convoy of cars arrived for a crisis meeting.
Despite living only two houses away, at 7am the property developer Vince Lombardo arrived in his Porsche at Roy Spagnolo's house armed with some bad news: Mr Spagnolo's face plastered across the front page of the Herald .
As the morning progressed others assembled in Mr Spagnolo's backyard for a crisis meeting about allegations in the Herald that property development companies associated with the Parramatta Eels boss had failed, owing the Tax Office $1 million. Also that companies associated with him and Mr Lombardo had provided "investment opportunities" to Eels players that might have breached the salary cap.
Another Koala Way resident, Mr Spagnolo's brother-in-law Domenic Sergi, also attended yesterday's sit-down in the crescent-shaped street whose mansions are home to wealthy citizens aspiring to a rural lifestyle.
Nicknamed "Doom" Sergi, his older brother is Pat Sergi, one of Mr Spagnolo's business partners. Pat Sergi received an unfavourable mention in the Woodward royal commission on drug trafficking that suggested he was money laundering for the Griffith Mafia.
A close friend of Mr Spagnolo and a fellow Eels fanatic, Mr Lombardo lives in an impressive pile with its own lake. Apart from being a business associate of Mr Spagnolo's, he has also done property developments with another of those at the meeting, George Gaitanos. Mr Lombardo also owns a pub with the porn king and rugby league aficionado Con Ange.
Mr Ange, who has provided rugby league players with products from his "adults only" empire, was introduced to Parramatta and Cronulla players by his friend, the disgraced Sharks boss Tony Zappia.
Mr Ange, who has been prosecuted for selling unclassified material, has a new business partner - a former state Liberal leader, Kerry Chikarovski, who has joined him in a business venture called Pharmaslim.
When asked on radio yesterday how he knew Mrs Chikarovski, Mr Ange replied: "I dunno - I know people. I run into people at places."
He has also run into the Gobbo family, more Koala Way residents, who are other business partners of his. None of the Koala Way folk or Mrs Chikarovski have anything to do with the more racy side of Mr Ange's business empire.
Well beyond the realms of rugby league, there are a lot of other characters on the street. One of the most established is the bikie boss Alex Vella, who has lived on his two-hectare acreage for nearly 30 years.
More than a decade ago Vella, the national president of the outlaw bikie gang the Rebels, had his house raided by officers from the NSW Crime Commission and the National Crime Authority. They seized 44 Harley-Davidsons, four Corvettes, a Mercedes, a Bentley and two Rolls-Royces, one of which sported the number plate "Rebel 1".
Also in the street, and unrelated to any of the activities of the league identities or Vella, is a Fairfield councillor, Lawrence White, who provided a character reference for the former Fairfield mayor Phuong Ngo, who is serving a life sentence for the assassination of the Labor MP John Newman.
Mr White said Ngo was "honest and sincere, gentle, humble ? who never had a bad word for anyone".
Coincidentally, another Fairfield councillor, Frank Oliveri, turned up in a business called Fairfield Investments Corporation. Four months after Mr Oliveri was replaced by an employee of Mr Spagnolo's, Xavier Lo, the company collapsed owing the Tax Office $36,000 and Roy Spagnolo and Associates $5500.
Peter Ngan, who has liquidated several other Spagnolo-associated companies, also liquidated this company.
Another associate of Mr Spagnolo who lives on Koala Way is Ross Mittiga, who two years ago bought a five-bedroom, four bathroom house for $1.58 million.
In 2006 Mittiga, who runs a flower business, replaced his neighbour Mr Spagnolo and Pat Sergi in a company called State of Exports. In 2002 the company had paid $1.5 million for a Fairfield building owned by a client of Mr Spagnolo's, the baker Giuseppe Barbaro, who was convicted of assaulting a photographer at the funeral of his relative, the crime boss Bob Trimbole.
Meanwhile, the solicitor Domenic Carbone, whose property adjoins Mr Spagnolo's, was found guilty of professional misconduct earlier this year and was fined and publicly reprimanded.
