A corruption investigator of Western Australia is inspecting whether the public servant Paul Whyte was intentionally trying to sell land to the State Government at a higher price to support his gambling associates.
The investigation is supposed to reveal the truth about the sale of the Roebourne estate, which was sold to the State Government for $1.3 million. A representative of the Corruption and Crime Commission (CCC) said that this price was intentionally inflated and the land could have been bought cheaper. The worst part about this deal is that there are speculations that Whyte raised the price to underwrite his gambling.
The Police Housing Deal Under Investigation
In 2011, the then-housing minister, Troy Buswell, was warned about his police officers being harassed near their homes in Roebourne, Pilbara. If there were no actions taken to protect the police officers, they would leave the town. To protect its police officers, by the end of 2011, the department bought land on Hampton Street that was planned to be developed into police housing.
Back then, Whyte was the Commercial and Business General Manager of the department. He represented the department and signed the housing contract on its behalf. The two blocks of land were purchased in April 2011 and were bought from Robert Ottone and his wife for $400,000.
It was reported that by early 2013, the seller had received almost $1.3 million for the sold land. According to Acting Commissioner Scott, this was a return of almost 300% thanks to the deal signed by Whyte.
The investigation shows that Ottone had connections with Graeme Michell, who is a friend of Whyte. In addition to that, he was also reported to be Whyte’s bookmaker who was placing bets worth millions on Whyte’s behalf. Tse Chee Loo who is a Counsel Assistant reported that in the years of the police housing deal, there were several transactions between bank accounts owned by Whyte, Ottone, and Michell. The CCC’s investigation revealed that these transactions were all worth hundreds of thousands of dollars, which is the reason for the speculations surrounding Whyte.
Further investigation of the case will examine whether the inflated price of the land was to benefit the community of Roebourne or simply to underwrite Whyte’s gambling. This is not the first time Whyte is involved in such a scandal. Earlier this year, he pleaded guilty to 530 corruption charges involving the embezzlement of over $22 million through taxes.
Although he has been granted a bail of $1 million, he decided to stay in the Hakea prison where he has been held since December 2019. In addition to these corruption charges, he was also charged with laundering about $254,000. However, he did not plead guilty as there was a dispute about the amount involved in the case.
- Author
Daniel Williams
