EXCLUSIVE
The wife of one of Australia’s largest property developers has been ordered to pay back almost $25 million to the taxman after her husband was declared bankrupt.
Maria Fayad, whose husband Sam Fayad was a director of the collapsed Dyldam Developments, has been ordered to pay back a staggering sum, the New South Wales Supreme Court ruled last week.
The Dyldam Group, once Australia’s second-largest privately owned residential property developer, has been embroiled in a series of controversies in recent years, including failed companies and allegations of unpaid taxes, defrauding suppliers and defective buildings.
Ms Fayad, who has previously been listed as a director of several companies within the Western Sydney company, must now pay $24.4 million in unpaid taxes and penalties.
More than $11.5 million of this comes from income tax liabilities from the 2006-2015 period, while the remainder consists of administrative penalties for late payments.
Ms Fayad’s lawyer, James Pope of Pope & Spinks Solicitors, argued that “tax is an opaque area” and described the defendant as a “lovely woman” with “10 grandchildren”.
Ms Fayad had also contested the tax assessments at an earlier hearing, but all her objections were dismissed, the ruling said.
She had attempted to rely on a statement from her tax advisor stating she owed the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) only $4,050.90.
Maria Fayad, whose husband Sam Fayad was a director of the collapsed Dyldam Developments, has been ordered to pay back the staggering sum in a judgment handed down by the NSW Supreme Court last week (Maria and Sam are 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, Sydney’s west (pictured), went bust in 2012 owing $28 million to creditors including the ATO
But that didn’t convince Judge Natalie Adams.
“The claim by the defendant’s tax advisor that he owed no more than $24 million, but only about $4,000, was difficult to accept on its face,” Judge Adams ruled.
‘This is even more true when you consider that almost half of the amount owed comes from fines.’
Judge Adams ordered Ms Fayad to pay $24.4 million to the ATO, plus costs.
Daily Mail Australia approached Ms Fayad for comment.
Dyldam Developments was originally founded in the early 1970s by Naim Khattar and his sons, Joe and George.
The company was eventually run by Joe and Sam Fayad, both men married to each other’s sisters.
The company grew to become one of New South Wales’ largest apartment builders, but was plagued by allegations of malpractice and shady practices.
It was once the main sponsor of NRL club Parramattta Eels, but the club took them to court after Dyldam failed to pay his sponsorship fee.
Last year, a major investigation by Four Corners revealed how Dyldam allegedly used an incredibly complex network of companies to hide huge tax debts, creating a long line of creditors owed millions.
Dyldam used a fixed pattern in its business operations.
Dyldam was once the main sponsor of NRL team Parramatta Eels, but the club has taken them to court after the company failed to pay its sponsorship fee
A major Four Corners investigation last year revealed how Dyldam allegedly used an incredibly complex network of companies to hide huge tax debts, creating a long line of creditors owed millions (Photo: Sam Fayad)
After cashing in profits from major construction projects and transferring a number of apartments to friends and family, the company went bankrupt, owing millions to the ATO and subcontractors.
Another company would then be set up for the next project.
Liquidator Stephen Hathway, who has liquidated dozens of companies in Dyldam, described the Fayads as “geniuses of manipulation” and compared their way of doing business to a game of whack-a-mole.
“A head comes up, you hit it, and another one comes up. They just keep creating more and more companies to game the system,” Hathway told the Sydney Morning Herald earlier this year.
Mr Hathway was brought in to manage Plaza West, the company set up to build the Entrada apartment complex in Parramatta, Sydney’s west. The company collapsed in 2012, owing $28 million to creditors including the ATO.
Mr Hathway told the ABC that approximately 180 companies were associated with Plaza West, with ‘enormous tax debts and a fairly interesting balance sheet’.
“Some of the so-called assets were actually no assets at all,” he said.
Months before the company went under, Joe Khattar and Sam Fayad all stepped down as directors of the company, leaving Ms. Fayad as the sole director listed.
But Mr Hathway said he believed she was a director in name only.
“She had no idea of the details of the transactions or the machines that this company was using,” he added.
When Dyldam’s complex corporate structure collapsed in spectacular fashion on New Year’s Eve 2020, the company reportedly had half a billion dollars in debt.
The Khattars and Fayads are now at war with each other in court.
The two brothers-in-law, Mr Fayad, now 64, and Mr Khattar, 75, no longer speak.
Mr. Fayad was declared bankrupt by a former business partner.
George Khattar, Maria’s brother, died in 2010.
His wife, Carol, sues Maria and her other brother George, demanding her share of her late husband’s estate.
But the pair have repeatedly thwarted “attempts to enforce a court-ordered settlement” with Carol, which now stands at $21 million including interest.
Mrs Fayad is said to own a vast property empire, including a nine-bedroom estate in Matcham, on the Central Coast, with a tennis court and swimming pool.