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AAP
AAP
National
Jack Gramenz

Nassif's daughter facing indictment on fraud charges

Sydney lawyer Ashlyn Nassif has saved her family $2.6 million simply by showing up to court.

It will be even easier next time as her case has been moved closer to the Concord home she is legally required to share with her mother.

The multimillion-dollar surety was posted when the 28-year-old daughter of controversial property developer Jean Nassif was granted bail earlier in March.

She was charged in February with dishonestly obtaining financial advantage by deception and publishing false misleading material to obtain advantage after allegedly securing a $150m loan from Westpac with a falsified pre-sale contract in 2021.

Nassif allegedly submitted misleading contracts to meet a $10.5m pre-sales condition for Skyview Apartments at Castle Hill, in Sydney's northwest, to trigger the $150m bank loan for construction of three towers.

Her father is believed to be overseas after declining to appear at a NSW parliamentary inquiry into property development in the Hills Shire Council.

Nassif made a brief appearance at Sydney's Downing Centre Local Court on Wednesday, where Magistrate Clare Farnan said she did not want to see her again.

"(This matter) should normally be at Burwood I'd have thought, what's it doing here?" Ms Farnan asked the court.

Prosecutors were not able to say.

"Do you know if there are any co-accused?" Ms Farnan asked.

"No one else has been arrested yet," the police officer in charge said.

The Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions has elected to indict Nassif, taking the matter to a higher court and potentially a jury, rather than have her dealt with by local court magistrates.

"Noting that there has been an election by the DPP in the matter, I'm adjourning," Ms Farnan said.

Nassif's case will return to a Burwood court on May 10, with a brief of evidence to be served by that date.

Her bail was varied by consent to alter a night-time curfew.

She is still prevented from contacting 25 people, including her father, and required to live at home with her mother.

Nassif handed herself in on February 28 after police simultaneously raided four properties, including her father's multimillion-dollar Chiswick mansion and his Concord-based Toplace development firm.

Search warrants were executed at the CBD legal firm EA Legal, where Nassif was a managing partner.

The firm's website on Wednesday listed "nothing here" under a tab headed "your team", but its careers page shows two available positions for a construction and planning lawyer.

An archive of the site, taken the day she was arrested, showed Nassif, her sister Evelyn Nassif Helou, and six other lawyers working for the firm.

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