EXCLUSIVE
The wife of one of ‘s biggest property developers has been ordered to pay back almost $25million to the tax office, after her husband was declared bankrupt.
Maria Fayad, whose husband Sam Fayad was the director of the collapsed Dyldam Developments, has been ordered to pay back the staggering sum in a judgment handed down by the Supreme Court of NSW last week.
The wider Dyldam group, which was once ‘s second-largest private residential property developer, has been embroiled in a litany of controversies in recent years, including bankrupt businesses and allegations of unpaid taxes, suppliers being ripped off and defective buildings.
Now, Ms Fayad – who was in the past listed as a director of several companies within the Western Sydney-based firm – has been ordered to pay $24.4m in unpaid tax and penalties.
Over $11.5m of that stems from income tax-related liabilities for the period between 2006-2015, while the rest is made up of administrative penalties for late payments.
Ms Fayad’s lawyer, James Pope of Pope & Spinks Solicitors, argued that ‘tax was an opaque area’ and described the defendant as a ‘lovely woman’ with ’10 grandchildren’.
Ms Fayad had also disputed the tax assessments at an earlier hearing but all of her objections were disallowed, the judgement noted.
She had tried to rely upon a ‘hearsay’ affidavit from her tax agent which argued that all she owed the n Taxation Office (ATO) was $4,050.90.
But that did little to convince the Hon Justice Natalie Adams.
‘The hearsay assertion by the defendant’s tax agent that instead of owing over $24 million the defendant only owed about $4,000 was, on its face, very difficult to accept,’ ruled Justice Adams.
‘That is particularly so when regard is had to the fact that nearly half of the amount owed is derived from penalties.’
Justice Adams ordered Ms Fayad to pay the ATO $24.4m, as well as its costs.
Daily Mail approached Ms Fayad for comment.
Dyldam Developments was originally founded by Naim Khattar and his sons, Joe and George, in the early 1970s.
The company was eventually run by Joe and Sam Fayad, both men having married each other’s sisters.
The firm rose to become one of NSW’s biggest apartment builders but it was dogged by accusations of malpractice and dodgy dealings.
It was once the major sponsor of NRL side Parramattta Eels but the club took them to court over Dyldam’s failure to pay its sponsorship.
A major Four Corners investigation last year exposed how Dyldam allegedly used an incredibly complex web of companies to conceal huge tax debts, leaving a long line of creditors who were owed millions.
There was an established pattern to how Dyldam did business.
After cashing in on the profit from large construction projects and transferring several apartments to friends and family members, the company would go bust, owing the ATO and subcontractors millions.
Another company would then be set up for the next project.
Liquidator Stephen Hathway, who wound-up dozens of Dyldam-related businesses, described the Fayads as ‘masterminds of manipulation’ and likened their style of business to a game of whack-a-mole.
‘A head pops up, you hit it, and another one pops up. They just create more and more companies to deceive the system,’ Mr Hathway told the Sydney Morning Herald earlier this year.
Mr Hathway was brought in to administer Plaza West, the company established to build the Entrada apartment complex at Parramatta in Sydney’s west, after it went bust in 2012 owing $28m to creditors, including the ATO.
Mr Hathway told the ABC that Plaza West had around 180 companies linked to it, with ‘massive tax debts and a fairly interesting balance sheet’.
‘Some of the so-called assets weren’t really assets at all,’ he said.
Months before the company went under, Joe Khattar and Sam Fayad all resigned as company officers, leaving Ms Fayad listed as the sole director.
But Mr Hathway said he thought she was a director in name only.
‘She had no idea of the detail of any of the transactions or of any of the machinery of which this company had operated,’ he added.
When Dyldam’s complex corporate structure eventually collapsed in spectacular fashion on New Year’s Eve 2020, it reportedly had debts of half a billion dollars.
The Khattars and Fayads are now at war with one another in the courts.
The two brothers-in-law, Mr Fayad, now 64, and Mr Khattar, 75, no longer speak.
Mr Fayad was bankrupted by a former business partner.
George Khattar, Maria’s brother, died in 2010.
His wife, Carol, is suing Maria and her other brother George for her part of her deceased husband’s estate.
But the pair have repeatedly ‘frustrated attempts to enforce’ a court-ordered settlement to Carol, which now stands at $21million with interest.
Ms Fayad reportedly has a large property empire, including a nine-bedroom country estate in Matcham, on the Central Coast, with a tennis court and pool.