sorry cpt, but since this thread was already covering it, i thought i'd just add your excellent pulling together of some threads (the rug) here
Here's the first article I read:
Wealthy developer gunned down on Sydney street
Quote:
SYDNEY (AFP) – A millionaire Australian property developer who once tried to sue the sultan of Brunei was gunned down in front of his young son outside their exclusive Sydney home, police said Friday.
Scottish-born Michael McGurk, 45, was shot once in the head by a lone gunman as he stepped from his luxury Mercedes in the harbourside suburb of Cremorne with his 10-year-old son on Thursday night, said Superintendent Geoff Beresford.
Beresford would not confirm claims McGurk had feared a hitman was on his trail and had approached police to ask for protection, but said the developer appeared to be the victim of a callous and "very targeted" act.
"We are very open-minded at the moment but what I can confirm is the deceased is very well-known to the police," he said.
"This gentleman did have a lot of associates that are also known to us, and those inquiries are well and truly under way."
Beresford said McGurk's young son was "very close" to his father as he was shot, and though unhurt, had been "very traumatised" by what he saw.
McGurk's mother-in-law Noreen McDonald said her grandson had come running into the house screaming "Mummy, mummy, mummy, quickly, daddy".
"She raced out. He was bleeding all over the place and passed away," McDonald said.
McGurk, who in 2007 unsuccessfully tried to sue the Sultan of Brunei over an alleged eight million US dollar agreement to buy a 400-year-old gold-lined miniature Koran, was alive when police arrived but died a short time later.
McGurk claimed to have bought the matchbox-sized Islamic artefact from a former colonel in the KGB secret police, and said the sultan reneged on a deal to buy it as a gift for his third wife.
The well-known developer was due to appear in Sydney's Supreme Court on Friday over a property dispute, and lawyer Mark Johnson told the judge his client had been murdered.
"He was a charismatic, intelligent, generous bloke," Johnson said outside the court, adding that the murder was "awful, unspeakable."
Local media said McGurk had, until two weeks ago, been facing assault and arson charges related to the fire-bombing of a waterfront mansion on Wolseley Road, Point Piper, which is Australia's most expensive street.
Prosecutors dropped the billionaires' row case against McGurk last month, but he reportedly told journalists there was a hitman on his trail.
Warren Mallard, a private investigator who had worked for McGurk, said he had worked a number of "bizarre" cases for the developer, involving people who did not play "by the rules".
"I would imagine ... that there are a lot of people that may have had what they thought was reasons to do him in because of the nature of the work and the business that he was involved in," Mallard told commercial radio.
"I'd imagine it's a bit of a needle in the haystack in relation to the cast of suspects," he added.
Neighbours said McGurk's home had been under sporadic police surveillance.
That last sentence becomes a bit more relevant later.
This link will search Google News for his name and show you all the various threads of this incident:
michael mcgurk
Things like:
Quote:
"New revelations about Mr McGurk's role as a loan shark and standover man have emerged, with the case threatening to reverberate through the state's political and business elites.
Sydney entrepreneur Jim Byrnes said Mr McGurk had told him that he had a tape recording of a conversation capable of bringing down the NSW Government and was concerned for his life."
Quote:
"Apart from using four birth dates, McGurk is not his real name. In the early 1990s Michael Rushford, a salesman, arrived at ECC lighting in inner Sydney. Hot on his heels were Customs officers with a deportation notice because Rushford, who was in his mid 20s, had overstayed his visa.
Rushford flew to New Zealand via Fiji and returned with a new passport and a new identity - Michael McGurk."
Quote:
"Private detective Warren Mallard said yesterday McGurk had hired him to go to a property near Bathurst to ensure the owners had vacated. McGurk had acquired the property when the owners fell behind in their repayments.
Mr Mallard said he was aghast to find that the owners had been devil worshippers who had a pit filled with blood and surrounded by bones."
Quote:
THE captain of the Socceroos, Lucas Neill, and the former NSW planning minister Craig Knowles, have been caught up in the aftermath of the murder of Sydney bagman Michael McGurk.
Mr McGurk had been approached to be a behind-the-scenes financial middleman for an $8 million bid for a Western Sydney A-League team fronted by Neill. Mr Knowles is the chairman of the team, known informally as the Sydney Wanderers.
[...]
Mr McGurk's murder came a day after the Western Sydney A League team proposal by Mr Meissner collapsed on Wednesday. Mr Meissner was supposed to supply financial details to the Football Federation but the bid's chairman, the marketing executive Ian Rowden, officially told it that the proof of working capital of about $6 million would not be forthcoming. At the same time he withdrew from his role as chairman of the bid.
Mr Meissner has had a colourful past, being a former world karate champion and professional poker player. But it was his connections to the NSW Labor Party and his convictions for assault and the theft of machine-guns that raised eyebrows. Mr Meissner's boat, Kanzen, became known as the ''Love Boat'' when politicians and organised crime figures consorted with a prostitute on it more than 20 years ago.
Quote:
The mystery surrounding the Michael McGurk murder has deepened, with revelations his lawyer complained to the police internal standards unit earlier this year about an investigation into the businessman.
Police say the lawyer made an official complaint, but then later indicated he didn't want to pursue the matter.
It comes after the Seven Network last night alleged Mr McGurk visited a police station last Thursday, the day of his death, to make a formal complaint about a police officer.
Seven says the officer was being paid by a businessman to frame Mr McGurk, but police have denied the report.
This link has ABC News' rundown of data on "McGurk" as of today:
Who was Michael McGurk?
And here's an article I just found which fleshes out some of the info:
ICAC to examine McGurk murder
Quote:
THE NSW Independent Commission Against Corruption is to investigate the murder of Michael McGurk, amid unconfirmed claims a police officer could have been involved in the Sydney businessman's death.
NSW police and the corruption-fighting body met yesterday, with the police handing over undisclosed evidence, understood to include a tape recording that allegedly contains claims of government corruption related to the property sector.
A new twist in the increasingly murky case was aired on Seven Network news yesterday, with associates of Mr McGurk reportedly saying the businessman had told them he had visited Sydney's Surry Hills police station just hours before he was murdered last Thursday.
They said Mr McGurk had feared for his life and that an influential Sydney businessman had bribed a corrupt detective to frame him. It was alleged the detective had become aware of Mr McGurk's complaint and had contacted the business associate.
But NSW police quickly issued a statement hosing down the latest claims.
They said they had no record of Mr McGurk attending Surry Hills "or any other police station" on the day of his murder.
A police spokesman said Strike Force Narrunga, which is investigating Mr McGurk's murder, was not investigating any allegation of police corruption made by Mr McGurk.
The ICAC said it was undertaking a "preliminary investigation" into Mr McGurk's murder after meeting NSW police, but would not comment further.
Former Labor heavyweight Graham Richardson has claimed Mr McGurk tried to blackmail his client, Sydney property developer Ron Medich, for $8million, by threatening to publicly release a taped conversation. Mr Richardson has dismissed the tape as inaudible at crucial points.
An associate of both Mr Medich and Mr McGurk, Sydney businessman Jim Byrnes, has reportedly said the tape related to the zoning of a parcel of former CSIRO land in Sydney's outer west. It is not suggested the men were involved in the death of Mr McGurk.
A company controlled by Mr Medich and his brother Roy bought a parcel of land at Badgerys Creek from the CSIRO in November 1996 for $3.5m.
Mr Medich's Ron Medich Properties is attempting to redevelop that land as part of a consortium with Sydney University and the local Damjanovich family.
The combined site covers 875ha and is south of the Western Sydney Development Hub, an 800ha site rezoned for development by the NSW government last month.
The Medich parcel, forming almost half of the land in the consortium, known as the Badgerys Creek Consortium, is next to the site where the state government had planned to build a second major Sydney airport.
However, plans to build the airport were scrapped.
The land owned by the Badgerys Creek Consortium is currently zoned rural but forms part of a larger area known as the Western Sydney Employment Lands Investigation Area, which the state government is considering rezoning for commercial and industrial uses.
If the land is rezoned, the Badgerys Creek Consortium members stand to make substantial windfall profits.
The NSW Department of Planning released a letter yesterday it had sent to the consortium in May last year rejecting calls to have the parcel of land named a "state significant site", which would have allowed the consortium to develop the land.
The department told the consortium the site's zoning would be considered in the broader review of the part of the Western Sydney Employment Lands Investigation Area.
CSIRO spokesman Huw Morgan rejected suggestions the property had been sold to the Medich brothers at below the market rate.
He said the CSIRO had publicly offered the site for sale and had obtained two independent valuations of the land, each of which valued the site at "$3.5m or less".
(all from here
http://www.rigorousintuition.ca/board/v ... hp?t=25093 )
I missed this one...