September 1, 2026 — 5:00amAccording to Proverbs 19:9, “a false witness will not go unpunished, and he who breathes out lies will perish”. Proverbs 21:6 is even more direct: “The getting of treasures by a lying tongue is a fleeting vapor and a snare of death.”Perhaps the deeply religious Charles Perrottet forgot those particular Bible verses while preparing for his much-anticipated grilling at the NSW Independent Commission Against Corruption. Or perhaps he suspects lying might be a helpful way to alleviate his bigger problems.Charles Perrottet appeared for a second day before the ICAC.Sitthixay DitthavongHow else to explain why Perrottet, a senior BP executive and “muscle” of the NSW Liberal Party’s hard-right faction, on Monday became the first Operation Rosny witness to happily admit to fibbing?Not to the ICAC, of course. Heavens, no! He’d never do that! Perrottet eagerly told the corruption watchdog that he had, though, repeatedly lied in his frequent communications with the fugitive Sydney developer Jean Nassif. The effect of this admission was to put a softer complexion on text messages that the ICAC might otherwise see as central to its case.Perrottet spent Monday in the witness box over his part in what the ICAC alleges was a scheme designed to rort donations laws, damage political opponents, influence government policies and line his own pockets in the process.Corruption investigators believe Nassif paid the younger brother of former premier Dominic Perrottet and two other Liberal Party operatives a $2 million bribe, and that the payments landed in the bank account of a sham company owned by Charles’ wife, Anita.In Nassif, Perrottet found something of a kindred spirit. Nassif identified with the politics of Perrottet’s hard-right faction, and the pair shared a loathing of centre-right Liberal cabinet minister David Elliott. The ICAC alleges Perrottet was paid to do Nassif’s bidding on all manner of issues.Perrottet was on Monday shown a series of text messages between himself and Nassif in which the BP executive promised to make calls to help accelerate various apartment projects. In one message, he referred to a “contact” within the government’s Planning Development Unit. But that contact didn’t exist, Perrottet said. “Ultimately, I made it up.”On another occasion in January 2021, Perrottet asked Nassif via text whether he could “drop over today to pick up that assistance for the upcoming preselections?” A cheque for $148,500 was cut later that day and handed over.But Perrottet said the ICAC had the wrong end of the stick. Assistance wasn’t a bribe or anything of the sort, Perrottet explained, but a way to describe outstanding money Nassif owed his friends Jeremy Greenwood and Christian Ellis and their lobbying business named Beckington. Perrottet said he would include his own “political flavour” to messages to keep the developer on side.“I told Jean a lot of things,” he offered.Counsel assisting the commission, Dr Peggy Dwyer, SC, was stumped.“Did you get pretty comfortable with lying to Mr Nassif?” Dwyer asked.“I would regularly mislead him about the involvement of myself,” Perrottet replied.“And were you pretty comfortable in politics with regularly misleading various people to achieve your ends?” Dwyer continued.“Look, in politics, sometimes you know you say things to people that aren’t 100 per cent the truth.”Does that include telling untruths at the ICAC, she asked? “No.”Telling lies is the most basic of human reflexes. We all do it. But invoking a pattern of deception as an element of your defence in a corruption hearing is a strange strategy.Perrottet’s evidence also caused grief for his wife, Anita, who last week assured the ICAC that $660,999 which flowed into her account between 2020 and 2022 was for genuine work she did for Beckington, and had nothing to do with Nassif or her husband.Anita and Charles Perrottet leave the ICAC on Friday afternoon.Louie DouvisBut Perrottet on Monday blew that up, revealing some of the money paid to his wife’s business was indeed for “advice” he gave Beckington on how to fast-track a Parramatta apartment tower for Nassif’s Toplace firm.“Do you accept that there is some inherent dishonesty there in suggesting that that invoicing is, in fact, for Anita’s work when it also encompasses yours?” Dwyer asked. No, Perrottet said.From our partners