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A NSW state MP has asked a federal court to bankrupt iGroup Real Estate managing director Rabie Chehade over a hefty legal bill.
In 2018, the NSW Supreme Court ordered Mr Chehade to pay Labor MP Tania Mihailuk nearly $115,000 in legal costs after he lost a defamation case, The Sydney Morning Herald reported.
The original court case goes back to the September 2012 Bankstown City Council election, when Mr Chehade ran as an independent candidate.
The year after the election, Mr Chehade took Ms Mihailuk to court for defamation.
She was the former Bankstown mayor, and at the time, Mr Chehade accused her of telling voters outside a polling booth not to support him on the ballot.
He alleged Ms Mihailuk told voters they should not vote for him because his cousin was “a murderer” and was imprisoned for “double life”.
In 2014, he told the District Court those alleged comments “ruined” him.
However, Ms Mihailuk denied she said that. She did tell the court she knew of another candidate in a different area who had a family member serving a lengthy prison sentence, but she denied she got the candidates confused.
A year later, a District Court judge accepted her evidence that the allegations against her were false.
The judge ordered Mr Chehade to repay her legal costs.
However, court documents show he failed to repay his debts by 16 July 2019, and a formal demand has been made for payment.
Ms Mihailuk has since filed documents in the Federal Court to bankrupt Mr Chehade to recover her costs.
A preliminary hearing has been set for 28 January.
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