‘Let's make some money together': Inside the CFMEU's bribery scandal

The Age

4 days ago

Sometimes it was a foot tap, others a little kick under the table, but always there was a signal. A few seconds later, the CFMEU official would drop a hand down to accept $5000 in rolled-up $100 notes.
The now-ousted CFMEU NSW leader Darren Greenfield and his son, branch deputy Michael, repeated this ritual six times over three years, collecting literal under-the-table payments and even the occasional envelope stuffed with cash at union offices or their home.
After four years of hiding behind public denials and a cover story of a union 'stitch-up', the CFMEU leaders confessed last month to taking $30,000 in bribes from a Chinese gyprocker in return for access to major building projects and promises to remove competitors from work sites.
An agreed statement of facts released this week by the District Court of NSW, despite the Greenfields' opposition, provides new and damning details into how the bribes were paid, what they were for and how the union leaders brazenly wielded their power on some of the state's biggest projects.
It is a spectacular fall, particularly for Greenfield Sr, who had verbally attacked union leaders such as the ACTU's Sally McManus for questioning his integrity.
The record of bribes confirms that corruption infected the highest levels of the CFMEU for years. Its release comes after the Albanese government forced the broader construction union into administration last year over reports of underworld infiltration in this masthead's Building Bad investigation with 60 Minutes and The Australian Financial Review.
Supporters of the CFMEU's former leadership have also backed a High Court challenge to that administration which has hampered the administration's efforts to clean up the union.
This masthead can reveal that the behaviour exposed in the Greenfields' court case, which saw the pair admit the cash they received was for no legitimate purpose, was likely to be the tip of the iceberg.
Two law enforcement officials with deep knowledge of the police probe into the Greenfields, speaking anonymously to discuss confidential information, said that investigators uncovered evidence suggesting the father and son received improper benefits from another major developer in return for keeping the CFMEU away from its sites.
It was while police investigated this suspected corruption – which never led to any charges due to a lack of sufficient evidence to support a criminal brief – that they uncovered the Greenfields' pocketing of cash bribes from another company.
A sentencing decision for the gyprocker, 'Chen', whose real name cannot be published for legal reasons, revealed his payments also extended beyond the CFMEU's top echelons and to an unnamed CFMEU employee who received $1000 worth of David Jones gift cards and $5000 cash payments, rolled up inside a paper copy of a CFMEU enterprise agreement.
The gyprocker himself pleaded guilty to bribing the CFMEU in 2022 and was sentenced to 2½ years' prison, served by an intensive corrections order. He later told police, 'I paid Darren Greenfield because he helped us do things'.
'People don't help you for nothing,' he said. 'This payment was on top of membership fees and other donations to the union. I believed by paying them something I would get something. The something was jobs and other help with other issues.'
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Chen told the judge he felt he was 'unable to survive in the industry without engaging in bribery with union officials'.
At one point, according to secret police surveillance detailed in the agreed facts, Chen offered Darren Greenfield payments worth tens of thousands of dollars.
'Let's make some money together,' Chen said at a meeting at the union's offices. His translator relayed the offer as 'if you can help him get on big project, he can put $100k … $50ks'.
'No dramas,' Darren responded. 'Let's see what we can do.'
The relationship between Chen and then-assistant secretary Darren Greenfield began in 2017 when Chen's company secured a prized CFMEU enterprise agreement – viewed as key to getting onto big building projects.
As the deal was negotiated, Darren asked Chen to do renovation work on his home.
The day after the CFMEU signed off on the agreement, Chen ordered building materials to be delivered to Darren's home.
He instructed his employees to install new plasterboard and complete finishing work to the walls at the house. He organised for the interior to be painted. The work, valued between $6000 and $7000, was done for free.
Just one month before, CFMEU NSW president Rita Mallia had emailed Darren to advise him that the Coalition's Corrupting Benefits Bill – the same law he would later be charged under – had commenced.
By 2018, Darren was made state secretary of the CFMEU. For three months Chen pursued Darren to push Decode Construction Design, a non-union company expected to engage Chen's firm, over a major project at Olympic Park.
Chen left two bottles of wine for Darren at his house – 'not too expensive', Chen later told police, 'a little bit over a $100' – and slipped an envelope with $5000 cash into Darren's pocket.
'The $5000 was not for any legitimate business purpose, and no receipt was issued,' Darren admitted. He made no attempt to return it.
In December that year, Chen discovered he had lost a job to a cheaper competitor. An employee advised him: 'I think you should go to the union and put that company to death.'
At a meeting inside his CFMEU office, Darren assured Chen that he would meet with the builder responsible, Parkview, over projects Chen had lost.
'I can stop it,' he promised. 'If it's $1.8 million different [in the competitor's cost] I can tell him he can get f---ed. I'll tell him he is not going to sign it.'
As they talked, Chen took out $5000 in cash, concealed from his interpreter. He gave Greenfield a 'little kick' on the leg and passed him the money under the table.
Shortly before, Chen had also found a way to win favour with Michael Greenfield, who Darren had made second-in-charge of the union.
Michael had been panicking as his CFMEU vehicle had been photographed going through a red light and he couldn't afford to lose more points off his licence.
Accompanied by his father, he asked a CFMEU employee if they knew anyone that 'can fill out a stat dec and pretend they were driving the vehicle'.
After a meeting at McDonald's, Chen sent the union a visa worker's statutory declaration taking the rap for the offence. Michael signed what he later admitted was a false declaration nominating the worker as the driver.
By January 2019, Chen wanted to make sure that Michael – as the official in charge of CBD projects – was taken care of. It would be the first time Michael received cash bribes from Chen.
'You have to give something to him for sure,' Chen told his business partner. 'Otherwise he has done so much for you that he won't feel good.'
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His partner agreed. It was good to have 'sorted' the union. 'Now that you are in, they won't make trouble for you.'
Chen bragged that with this bribe they had 'nailed' the union leaders. 'The biggest union bosses are all in the palm of our hands.'
Meeting at the CFMEU offices, Michael promised Chen he would put pressure on Parkview by 'giv[ing] him a bit of a kick there' and that if the builder had signed up a non-EBA company, 'we'll be on that job next week, kicking the f--- out of them'.
He recommended developers to help Chen get work and said he would raise a $200,000 debt owed to their company with his father.
When Michael and Chen were left alone, Chen removed $5000 in cash and handed it to Michael under the table.
Chen also didn't forget an unnamed CFMEU employee who had assisted him, handing him 10 David Jones gift cards worth $1000 after the meeting, according to his sentencing decision.
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Four months later, as Labor was tipped to win the federal election, Chen delivered a $3200 cheque to the CFMEU offices for a union charity dinner table. He took the opportunity to personally attend to the branch's most senior leaders.
In his union office, Darren assured Chen he would get him work with builders and developers including Hutchinson and Parkview – the latter of which had not given Chen's company two jobs despite indicating it would.
'I have already warned him [Parkview's project manager],' Darren said. 'If you make an agreement going forward, you don't stick to it – we don't help you any more. It's over. Our relationship with him is finished.'
Darren said he had stopped a job at Parkview when the builder used one of Chen's competitors, and the project manager would 'not give them another job'.
He also explained that Labor's potential win that weekend's federal election would increase his power over builders and developers.
'[The election] is very important,' Darren said. 'Need this government to go … Much easier if they're gone and Labor comes in. Much easier … don't have to butt heads with the builders all the time. They do what you say.'
In the meantime, Darren boasted how he would exploit his ties with billion-dollar CFMEU industry fund Cbus to influence who got work on the fund's mega projects, such as its $500 million apartment development in Epping with Hutchinson Builders.
'What happens is Cbus comes to me, and I am in to Cbus every two weeks,' he said.
'They have a list for say … formwork, gyprock, steel fixing, scaffold. They have three names there, four names here, three names here and they'll say to me 'which one's good?' … and I'll just tick it for him … and they say to Hutchinson 'that's who you are going to use'.'
A Cbus Property spokesman previously said that its contractors were independent and 'subcontractors on all sites are appointed by the contractor, not Cbus Property'. Hutchinson did not return requests for comment.
As they talked, Chen pulled out $5000 cash, rolled up with an elastic band, and reached under the table towards Darren's leg while tapping the official's foot.
Darren shifted his hand under to take the money and placed the roll on his thigh, concealing it with his hand. A Parkview director did not return requests for comment before publication.
But this time, a secret camera installed by police in Darren's office had recorded the handover.
With Darren's bribe sorted, Chen paid a visit to the son. In Michael's office, Chen again removed $5000 cash from his pocket, tapped the union official to get his attention and gave him the cash under the table. 'Thank you,' Michael said, as he took the money.
Later, Chen would tell his business partner that 'Loa Da' [Darren Greenfield] has told him 'no worries, the Epping job is definitely yours, you don't have to worry about it'.
'Once the Labor Party is in power, the union will be king again,' Chen said.
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Three days later, Labor lost in a shock upset.
Chen went back to CFMEU headquarters to complain to an unnamed employee that Darren had cancelled a meeting with him and his company had lost a major tender.
Asking his interpreter to leave, he gave the CFMEU employee a $5000 roll of cash. Later that day, Parkview messaged Chen congratulating him on winning work on its $400 million construction project at Granville.
In February 2020, as Chen looked to renew his CFMEU enterprise agreement, he met the same CFMEU employee at a Pyrmont cafe to discuss the deal and tenders for two Parkview projects.
At the end of the meeting, as the pair walked back to Chen's car, Chen took a copy of the CFMEU enterprise agreement from the union employee, placed a bundle of banknotes totalling $5000 within the document, rolled it up and handed it back to the employee.
By June, Chen was out of work and his competitors were winning jobs over him. Darren promised him a list of CFMEU-backed builders and said: 'If you have problems to get in the door, to tender, let me know.'
When Chen flagged he would text message the jobs he was tendering for, the union boss cautioned him 'don't say anything, just the name … that's all I need to know'.
Again, Darren took $5000 from Chen under the table, this time wedging it under his thigh to conceal it from the interpreter. Surveillance caught him placing the cash in his top desk drawer and covering it with a blue cloth.
Darren admitted in the statement of facts that the money was to push Chen's company for jobs around Sydney 'which would not legitimately be due to Chen'.
Police raided the CFMEU offices in November that year. They would find no receipt for the six payments.
Five years later Darren would admit 'dishonestly' taking payments. But in a conversation recorded by police the next day, Michael asked his father 'what are we going to tell the boys? How much do you tell them?'
'Just tell them there is a stitch-up going on,' Darren said.
The Greenfields will next face court for sentencing in November.