EXCLUSIVE
The wife of one of Australia’s biggest property developers has been ordered to repay almost $25 million to the tax office after her husband declared bankruptcy.
Maria Fayad, whose husband Sam Fayad was a director of the collapsed Dyldam Developments, was ordered to pay back the staggering sum in a ruling by the New South Wales Supreme Court last week.
Once Australia’s second-largest private residential property developer, the Dyldam Group has been embroiled in a litany of controversies in recent years, including failed companies and allegations of unpaid taxes, ripped-off suppliers and faulty buildings.
Ms Fayad, who was previously listed as a director of several companies within the western Sydney-based firm, has now been ordered to pay $24.4 million in unpaid taxes and penalties.
Of that amount, more than $11.5 million comes from income tax obligations for the period 2006-2015, while the remainder 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 challenged the tax assessments at a previous hearing, but all her objections were rejected, the ruling noted.
She had tried to rely on an affidavit from her tax agent which claimed that all she owed the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) was $4,050.90.
Maria Fayad, whose husband Sam Fayad was the director of the collapsed company Dyldam Developments, was ordered to pay back the staggering sum in a ruling by the NSW Supreme Court last week (Maria and Sam pictured together)
The first major sign that something was wrong with Dyldam came when Plaza West, the company set up to build the Entrada apartment complex in Parramatta, western Sydney (pictured), went bust in 2012 owing $28m to creditors, including the ATO.
But that failed to convince the honorable judge Natalie Adams.
“The defendant’s tax agent’s hearsay claim that instead of owing more than $24 million, the defendant only owed about $4,000 was, on its face, very difficult to accept,” Judge Adams ruled.
“This is especially true when you consider that almost half of the amount owed is in the form of fines.”
Judge Adams ordered Ms Fayad to pay the ATO $24.4 million, plus its costs.
Daily Mail Australia has contacted 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 company grew to become one of the largest apartment developers in New South Wales but was dogged by allegations of malpractice and shady dealings.
It was once the main sponsor of the Parramatta Eels NRL team, but the club took them to court after Dyldam failed to pay its sponsorship.
A major Four Corners investigation last year exposed how Dyldam allegedly used an incredibly complex web of companies to hide huge tax debts, leaving a long list of creditors who were owed millions.
There was an established pattern to how Dyldam did business.
Dyldam was once the title sponsor of NRL side Parramatta Eels, but the club took them to court after the company failed to pay for their sponsorship.
A major Four Corners investigation last year exposed how Dyldam allegedly used an incredibly complex web of companies to hide huge tax debts, leaving a long list of creditors owed millions (pictured, Sam Fayad)
After cashing in on profits from large construction projects and transferring several apartments to friends and family, the company went bust, owing millions to the ATO and subcontractors.
For the next project another company would be created.
Liquidator Stephen Hathway, who liquidated dozens of companies linked to Dyldam, described the Fayads as “masterminds of manipulation” and compared their business style to a game of whack-a-mole.
“One head pops up, you hit it and another one pops up. They just create more and more companies to game the system,” Hathway told the SSydney Morning Herald Earlier this year.
Mr Hathway was hired to run Plaza West, the company set up to build the Entrada apartment complex in Parramatta, western Sydney, after it went bust in 2012 owing $28 million to creditors including the ATO.
Mr Hathway told the alphabet that Plaza West had around 180 companies linked to it, with ‘enormous tax debts and a rather interesting balance sheet’.
“Some of the so-called assets weren’t really assets at all,” he said.
Months before the company closed, Joe Khattar and Sam Fayad resigned as directors of the company, leaving Fayad as the sole director.
But Mr Hathway said he thought she was a director in name only.
“She had no idea of the details of any of the transactions or any of the machinery that this company had operated,” he added.
When Dyldam’s complex corporate structure finally collapsed in spectacular fashion on New Year’s Eve 2020, he was reportedly $500 million in debt.
The Khattars and the Fayads are now at war with each other in the courts.
The two brothers-in-law, Mr Fayad, now 64, and Mr Khattar, 75, are no longer on speaking terms.
Mr. Fayad was declared bankrupt 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 their share of her late husband’s estate.
But the couple have “repeatedly thwarted her attempts to enforce” a court-ordered settlement with Carol, which now totals $21 million with interest.
Ms Fayad reportedly owns a vast property empire, including a nine-bedroom estate in Matcham on the Central Coast, complete with a tennis court and swimming pool.