EXCLUSIVE
A former partner has launched an attempt to charge underworld figure Mick Gatto with a series of serious crimes.
Jamal Mohammad, who also goes by the name Jamal Khan, appeared in the Melbourne Magistrates Court earlier this month, acting as a private prosecutor.
The former restaurateur and jewelery designer to the rich and famous is trying to get police to charge the former Carlton Crew boss with 10 offences, including blackmail.
Mohammad has lodged a private prosecution against the former heavyweight boxer turned industrial mediator, hoping the Victorian Director of Public Prosecutions will take up the case.
There have reportedly been 39 private prosecutions launched in Victoria since 2011, with the OPP taking over 23 of them and suspending all of them.
Most of the other 16 had not proceeded for various reasons, and several of them were still pending.
Jamal Mohammad, who also goes by the name Jamal Khan (right) and underworld identity Mick Gatto (left), in happier times.
Jamal Mohammad made a name for himself running Port Melbourne’s waterfront in the early 2000s.
In court this month, Magistrate Brett Sonnett warned Mohammad that his prosecution already seemed doomed, with some of the charges brought due to be heard in a higher court.
Under Victorian law, private citizens can only prosecute minor charges.
Mohammad told the court he had been trying to persuade Victoria Police detectives to charge Gatto since June last year.
“This started in 1999,” he said in court Monday.
Mohammad claimed police were investigating his claims.
“They will contact me,” he said. ‘The (criminal investigation unit) has not contacted me yet.
‘They are saying they are doing an investigation and will contact (me).’
Mohammad said he had initiated the private prosecution after becoming frustrated with the legal process.
‘Your Honor, I have been trying to speed things up because I have been (the victim of) extortion attempts,’ he said.
Mohammad said he had compiled his own brief of evidence spanning 1,100 pages against Gatto and Adam Wright, the owner of a Melbourne-based security company.
Sonnett adjourned the matter until June in an effort to get a decision from the OPP on whether or not he intended to take over the prosecution.
Gatto did not appear in court for the hearing.
The bad blood between the former teammates began to hit social media last year, Age reported.
In one exchange, Mohammad posted a video on TikTok calling Gatto a “weak dog.”
Jamal Mohammad has launched a private prosecution against Mick Gatto
Anthony Mundine celebrates with Mick Gatto after a victory in 2014. Gatto had been a heavyweight boxer.
Gatto was acquitted of the murder of underworld killer Benji Veniamin (pictured with Roberta Williams)
The couple had been good friends in the early 2000s, when Mohammad owned Port Melbourne restaurant Waterfront.
A monetary dispute involving “millions of dollars” is said to be at the heart of the dispute between the couple.
In September, Mohammad was interviewed by Viper Task Force detectives after two guns and ammunition were found in his Beaumaris home, but no charges were filed.
In court, Gatto’s lawyer dismissed all of Mohammad’s allegations and suggested that he would be forced to pay Gatto’s legal costs when the private prosecution failed.
Gatto reportedly called Mohammad a “real worm” in a 1,000-word message to friends and business associates, The Age reported last July.
“All these threats and ultimatums are made,” Gatto said in an SMS on July 20.
‘I, Mick Gatto, in my almost 70 years on this planet, have never met a human being inferior to you.
“I hate you with a passion for what you’re trying to do.”
The OPP is expected to make a decision on prosecution by the end of May.