Only hours before he was executed outside his Cremorne home last Thursday, Michael McGurk left Kings Cross a worried man.His attempts to scupper a rival multimillion-dollar hotel deal had failed.In his last weeks Mr McGurk had been frantically trying to convince the owners of the Crest Hotel to sell the landmark building in the heart of the city's red light district to the syndicate he was representing.
Ex Wollongong bookie linked to Michael McGurk Richie Vereker donated $75,000 to the ALPMr McGurk was representing the billionaire property tycoon Bob Ell as well as interests associated with the organised crime figure John Ibrahim.The latter's group was planning to put in up to $20 million to establish a hotel in the 10-storey building.But all the negotiating was to no avail with the Crest's owners set to sell the building to the developer Michael Sanchez, leaving Mr McGurk, who was in dire financial straits, empty-handed.After lunching with his friend Richie Vereker, a former Wollongong bookie, in Paddington, Mr McGurk made his way to the Kings Cross hotel.His mission was to try to convince the tenants to take legal action to stymie the planned sale.''He was angry and frustrated at being cut out of the deal,'' said one of those who saw him that afternoon.''He always had an extreme approach to whatever the problem was,'' said the tenant, who had had several dealings with him in recent months.When Mr McGurk left at about 4pm, having failed to secure any commitment from the tenants, he was dispirited.''He appeared to be flat and down,'' the tenant said.The Herald also understands that one of the last calls Mr McGurk made that day was to Justin Brown, an executive with the commercial property group CB Richard Ellis, who was handling the sale of the Crest.Mr McGurk had also been lobbying on the sale of Currawong, a 23-hectare Pittwater site owned by Unions NSW. Mr McGurk had told the Herald that Moses Obeid, son of the ALP powerbroker Eddie Obeid, was helping them with negotiations with the then Unions NSW boss, John Robertson. Moses Obeid confirmed this last night.In one of the many strange twists in this already murky case, Mr Brown's $5 million house in Balmoral was firebombed earlier this year. The Herald understandsMr McGurk was also a suspect in this arson attempt but that Mr Brown did not want to talk to police about the incident.Mr Brown and Mr McGurk had been locked in a bitter dispute about a house in Orlando Avenue, Mosman. At the time of his death, the pair were battling in the Supreme Court over the transfer of the property from Mr McGurk to Mr Brown. There is no suggestion that Mr Brown is suspected of being involved in Mr McGurk's murder.Mr Brown had been involved in previous property disputes, including one relating to apartment developments in Cammeray and St Kilda, Melbourne. During that case he tried, unsuccessfully, to rely on a handwritten agreement drawn up over numerous schooners in the Lord Dudley Hotel, Paddington. Mr Brown insisted on being a ''silent partner" through his company incorporated in the British Virgin Islands. He failed in his bid to get nearly $1 million.Mr Robertson, now the Prisons Minister, said last night he had met Mr McGurk twice during the Currawong sales process. He said that Mr McGurk was with five other people when he came to see him in his office to talk about the property and that he did not recall if Moses Obeid was present. Last night Moses Obeid told the Herald he had not been at the meeting but had telephoned Mr Robertson at Mr McGurk's urging.Mr Robertson said Mr McGurk was representing the Point Piper developer Ron Medich and that while their $30 million bid was the highest, it was conditional on development approval. Mr Robertson said Unions NSW had accepted the $15 million bid from the developers Allen Linz and Eduard Litver because there were no conditions attached. The development is on hold.In a curious twist, Mr Linz and Mr Litvar are former owners of the Crest Hotel, having sold it about four years ago to the owner of the Coogee Bay Hotel, Chris Cheung, who on-sold it to Australand for $63 million in 2007.Mr Brown's lawyer, Hector Ekes, said that his client had no comment to make owing to ''Supreme Court proceedings and the criminal investigation into the murder of Mr McGurk''.Mr Ekes knows first-hand just how sour his clients' business dealings can be. In 2007 the banned company director Jim Byrnes, a close associate of Mr McGurk's, pleaded guilty to affray, malicious damage and having an offensive weapon in public after smashing Mr Ekes's office window and threatening him with a baseball bat. Mr Byrnes initially received a jail term but it was reduced to a good behaviour bond on appeal. smh.com.au
