Billionaire family at the centre of Sydney’s asbestos nightmare break their silence as they slam government attempts to blame them for the crisis: ‘We’re being made scapegoats’

EXCLUSIVE

The billionaire family behind the asbestos scare sweeping Sydney have denied all responsibility, telling Daily Mail Australia they are being scapegoated.

The Vitocco family operates the Greenlife Resource Recovery Facility at Bringelly in Sydney’s south-west.

It has been named by the NSW government as the alleged source of the asbestos-contaminated mulch spread on public land at 22 locations across the city, including the parks at the new Rozelle Interchange in Sydney’s inner west.

In the wake of that discovery, asbestos has now also been found in the topsoil of parks, a hospital and a school stretching from the CBD to the Emu Plains at the foot of the Blue Mountains, and from Parramatta to Campbelltown.

The NSW Environment Protection Authority has now set a deadline of February 16 for Greenlife to contact anyone they have supplied with recycled mulch to begin the clean-up operation.

But Greenlife general manager Domenic Vitocco, son of billionaire boss Arnold Vitocco (59), insists his company is not to blame.

“We feel like we have been scapegoated,” he told Daily Mail Australia. ‘We are not yet entirely sure how this could have happened.

“All EPA tests came back clean from our yard. Our tests showed clearly and we are a little surprised at how this all happens.

‘During the investigation I can’t really talk much, but what I do know is that a number of these sites are major remediation sites… but I can’t comment further on that.’

Greenlife is an offshoot of Vitocco Enterprises, founded by chief executive Arnold Vitocco – estimated to be worth $1 billion according to the latest AFR Rich List – and in which his family members hold key corporate roles.

His wife Irene is director and responsible for business strategy, with a focus on the family empire’s ‘food and drink sector and key retail real estate assets’.

Son Anthony Vitocco is operations manager and plays a key role in ‘price and revenue strategies’ for Vitocco’s real estate portfolio.

And in addition to running Greenlife, eldest son Domenic is responsible for the family’s financial analyzes to ‘support sustainable business growth’.

The company website adds: ‘Domenic is particularly interested in new opportunities in the waste management and energy sectors.’

Greenlife was founded almost six years ago to recycle waste in collaboration with the former boss of an earthmoving company, Adrian Runko.

The Greenlife Resource Recovery Facility in Bringelly opened in 2022 to take waste from various sources and convert it into “sustainable landscape facilities,” according to its website.

It offers mulch and a “custom landscape soil mix made from our recycled garden materials and composted organics that are widely used in the landscape trade.”

“The Greenlife resource recovery facility delivers quality products using sustainable recycling options to improve our future,” it adds.

“Our team will find a way… All products have been tested to meet Australian standards and can be delivered within the Sydney region.”

The Vitocco family made their fortune building houses and housing developments in Sydney’s south-west.

A five-hectare site development near a crossroads in Narellan, near Campbelltown, in 1989 turned a hamlet into a thriving town center now valued at almost $1 billion.

Arnold Vitocco’s parents, concrete worker Domenic and wife Maria, arrived in Sydney from Italy in 1956 before his father laid the foundations for the family empire and started his own construction company.

D. Vitocco Constructions built around 2,000 apartments in Liverpool in the 1980s before Arnold took over and took it to the next level.

He and his wife Irene have diversified the business into new areas of land development and retail, as well as the more recent move into recycling with Greenlife.

Now the family is working together to build 7,000-lot projects on 1,800-acre sites – but still with a focus on the Southwest, with projects in Gregory Hills, Maryland, Central Hills, Elyard Street and Emerald Hills.

“Vitocco Enterprises is committed to an open and honest approach to all its business transactions,” the company says of its values ​​on its website.

“Many of the businesses within the Vitocco Enterprises facility have long-standing partnerships with other families.

‘The company attaches great importance to loyalty and returns this loyalty in its business relationships.’

It says the company ‘devotes significant time and resources’ to good causes, and makes efforts to boost local businesses.

It adds: “We work closely with local suppliers to ensure Western Sydney’s economy is supported.

‘Investing takes a long-term approach, combining conservative values ​​with an innovative and entrepreneurial spirit.

‘A strong emphasis is placed on maintaining the excellent reputation we have built in the business community over many years.’

Greenlife has now filed a legal challenge to the EPA’s decision to ban the company from selling any more of its mulch while the investigation continues.

Most of the asbestos found so far is bonded asbestos, which poses less risk, but the more dangerous friable asbestos was discovered at Harmony Park in Surry Hills on Monday.

The contamination has led to the cancellation of Mardi Gras celebrations planned for the park this week.

NSW Premier Chris Minns vowed to prosecute those responsible following the latest discovery and said Greenlife was in its crosshairs.

He insisted the government was “not aware of any other company or corporation that may have been responsible for the distribution.”

“It is fair to say that the company disputes the suggestion that they are responsible for pollution within public facilities and public parks,” he said.

“That specific type of (friable) asbestos – and not the bonded asbestos – found in a Sydney park is of great concern… This is completely unacceptable.

“We (must) ensure that compliance measures are taken against companies that are (allegedly) doing the wrong thing.

‘A situation cannot arise where large public facilities such as schools and parks contain asbestos. The government is prepared to take action.’