Blackmail, murder and politics

Michael McGurk was shot last month as he sat in his car outside his home on Sydney's North Shore with his 10-year-old son. Photo / Daily Telegraph

A decade or so ago a Glaswegian-born salesman called Michael Rushford flew from Australia to New Zealand, apparently just ahead of immigration officials seeking him in regard to an expired visa.

Soon afterwards, Rushford returned to Sydney with a few years reportedly trimmed off his age and a new name: Michael Loch McGurk, businessman.

A month ago McGurk was killed by a single shot to the head as he sat in his Mercedes Benz with his 10-year-old son Luke outside his home in Cremorne on Sydney's North Shore. McGurk's wife Kimberley and his three other children were inside the house. Just a week earlier, McGurk had told a reporter a contract had been taken out on his life.

The snowballing revelations following the fulfilment of his fears have opened the door to a dark world spanning the globe. They reach from allegations of corruption that if confirmed could be the final, fatal, blow for New South Wales' teetering Labor Government, to threats against the life of a Jersey-based British businessman caught up in an improbable tale involving a former agent of the KGB, the spy agency of the extinct Soviet Union, and the Sultan of Brunei.

Under severe pressure from an Opposition that has tasted real political blood in a series of scandals hammering the State Government, Premier Nathan Rees has buckled to demands for an investigation into McGurk's death.There are now several: the police murder inquiry, another by the Independent Commission Against Corruption, and a third by the Legislative Council, the State Parliament's Upper House.

Much of the focus centres on a tape - or tapes - that before his death McGurk claimed contained "explosive" evidence of corruption at high political levels, dealings involving attempts to rezone land that would reap a McGurk associate hundreds of millions of dollars, and an alleged trail to senior Labor figures.

None of this comes as a real surprise to the people of NSW, long used to scandal among the state's political and moneyed elite. Last month Labor powerbroker and former state Health Minister John Della Bosca's career crashed over an affair with a younger woman, adding to an already damning list of misdeeds within the party.

But McGurk's execution-style murder has added a chilling new dimension. The enigmatic Scotsman, whose real age is uncertain but is reported to have been 45, was a man with a maze of contacts and business interests. Company searches by The Australian showed him to have been a director of 50 companies over the past decade, 28 or them now collapsed or deregistered.

His Australian career began on the fringes, and darkened to allegations of blackmail, violent standovers, loan sharking, firebombings and assault. Through various dealings he was also associated with well-known, and wealthy, Sydney businessmen and political figures.

While a number of these have been named, including some who this week appeared before the parliamentary inquiry, there has been no suggestion that any were involved in his murder.

At least one major figure, property developer Ron Medich, fell victim to McGurk's machinations.

The events leading up to his murder, as far as they have unravelled so far, began when McGurk told McClymont that he had become the target of a hitman because of a taped conversation involving corruption that could bring down the Government.

McGurk had also written a note naming the person he believed wanted him dead - now in the possession of the police - and had further discussed his fears with Jim Byrnes, an entrepreneur whose own career has taken a chequered path.

Byrnes told the ABC he understood several copies of the tape had been made, and in the weeks before the murder McGurk's home and office had been ransacked. It is now known McGurk tried to use the tape to blackmail Medich, a former business associate whose relationship had soured over serious debt.

McGurk had worked for Medich as a commission debt collector, a task for which the Scotsman was apparently well suited.

The Sydney Morning Herald reported an incident in which thugs hired by McGurk attacked a debtor's car with sledgehammers. Another terrified debtor reportedly fled to Hawaii in an unsuccessful bid to escape McGurk's demands.

Financier Adam Tilley felt the power of McGurk's collection methods. Tilley had bought a A$12 million ($14 million) mansion from Medich in the exclusive harbourside enclave of Point Piper, but Medich claimed to be owed millions on the deal.

McGurk was engaged as trustee to collect the debt. Police allege McGurk firebombed Tilley's home and that of property valuer Stuart Rowan, in apparent retaliation for refusing to undertake a favourable valuation.

McGurk was also suspected of firebombing a real estate agent's home. Police charged McGurk in connection with the first two firebombings, and with an alleged assault on Rowan by a hired thug with an iron bar. The charges were later dropped. Soon after, Medich and McGurk fell out, with McGurk reportedly owing the developer $10 million ($11.7 million). Medich holds a multimillion-dollar caveat over McGurk's home.

McGurk allegedly turned his methods on Medich, using a prominent Labor supporter as an intermediary to approach Graham Richardson, a party strongman and former senator and federal minister who had been retained by Medich's brother Roy as a lobbyist on a $5000-a-month retainer. McGurk's aim was to blackmail Medich for $8 million with a tape he claimed would implicate the developer and senior Government figures in corruption.

The taped conversation centred on a parcel of former federal land bought by the Medich family for A$3.6 (NZ$4.4 million) more than a decade ago. The Medichs want the land rezoned for development, which would boost its value to about A$400 million. Richardson told Channel Nine he had heard the tape, and that there was nothing incriminating on it. Medich also told the parliamentary inquiry: "I'm telling you there is nothing on that damned tape." So far, the only person to be identified on the tape is NSW director-general of planning Sam Haddad, who has confirmed meeting Richardson a number of times.

Outside the inquiry, allegations about McGurk continue to unfold.

The Sunday Age reported McGurk arranged the hire of prostitutes for prominent men who wanted anonymity, paying for the service and billing his clients through his own sports management company.

And in Britain, Channel Islands businessman Mark Burby claims to be under police protection following fears for his life in the wake of McGurk's murder, because of "delicate information" shared by the pair.

Burby had become associated with McGurk through separate legal actions against the Sultan of Brunei, and claimed to have received death threats following the Sydney slaying. Burby has refused to disclose names, but there is no suggestion the Sultan was involved in the threats or the murder.

Burby won damages of almost £50 million ($105 million) against members of the Sultan's family over a failed business deal. McGurk unsuccessfully sued the Sultan for failing to honour the promised purchase of a miniature, jewelled, copy of the Koran, valued at £5 million, he claimed to have obtained by a former KGB agent.

Australia waits with bated breath for the next instalment.

PLAYERS IN THE DRAMA

* MICHAEL McGURK

Wealthy developer and alleged standover man gunned down outside his home on 3 September.

Accused of blackmailing his former employee Ron Medich with an explosive tape said to mention names of planning bureaucrats.

* RON MEDICH

Developer. Fell out with McGurk over property deals. Bought 344ha rural land with his brother Roy at Badgerys Creek on outskirts of Sydney in 1966 for A$3.6 million.

Rezoned for development, the land could be worth $400 million.

* GRAHAM RICHARDSON

Powerful Labor Party figure who was a lobbyist for Roy Medich. Urged NSW planners to rezone Medich land. Claims that McGurk was using a tape recording involving Ron Medich and alleged corruption to extort $8 million from the developer.

* SAM HADDAD

Director-general NSW Planning Department.

Told an inquiry he met Richardson four times in the past year, once with Roy Medich.