One of the biggest property developers in NSW is suing Nine over news reports the company and its boss had links with organised crime figures, including the notorious Alameddine gang.
Coronation Property, which claims to hold almost $2 billion in real estate assets and a further $5.7 billion in the pipeline, has taken the media company to court.
The firm's owner Joe Nahas claims his reputation has been seriously impacted by articles published in the Sydney Morning Herald.
"The matters associate Mr Nahas with the Alameddine organised crime group which is notorious in Sydney for its alleged role in serious criminal activities, including multiple murders," his lawyers from Mark O'Brien Legal write in court documents seen by AAP.
An August 2022 article by investigative journalist Kate McClymont related to former NSW deputy premier John Barilaro's short-lived appointment as executive director of the property firm.
The report said Mr Nahas and his brother Andy Nahas grew up in the same area of Sydney as the Alameddine family.
It claimed Andy Nahas had been photographed with alleged organised crime figures, including Masood Zakaria.
"Ms McClymont's 'evidence' was a manifestly inadequate basis to publish the serious imputations about Mr (Joe) Nahas and Coronation," the NSW Supreme Court pleadings say.
In September 2022 McClymont reported that a budget estimates hearing was told Zakaria was a shareholder in a labour hire firm engaged by the construction giant, the documents add.
A December 2022 article contained further allegedly defamatory imputations including that Coronation procured the firebombing of YouTuber FriendlyJordies' Bondi home.
The YouTuber, whose real name is Jordan Shanks-Markovina, took down a video on Coronation after the arson attack.
Joe Nahas has not been criminally charged over the incident and no findings have been made against him.
The reports were again "manifestly inadequate" to justify repeating the defamatory imputations, Coronation's pleadings say.
In March, McClymont wrote an article about three private investigators accused of illegally installing tracking devices on behalf of Joe Nahas.
These criminal allegations were not newsworthy enough to warrant another article, the pleadings claim.
"It is to be inferred that the publication of the March 2025 article was a specious pretext for the defendants to publish further matters associating Mr Nahas and Coronation with alleged criminal activity."
Nine is accused of a three-year campaign of "baseless imputations" against Coronation and Mr Nahas by July.
At this time, an article by McClymont and another investigative reporter Perry Duffin was published about alleged underworld links to arson at two childcare centres.
This report was also defamatory by implying Joe Nahas had ordered the attacks on the daycare facilities, the pleadings say.
Nine and McClymont have also been accused of acting with malice in "threatening" to publish further imputations against Coronation.
Mark O'Brien Legal has emailed Nine to say Andy Nahas had no ownership interests in Coronation or any of its companies.
In August, solicitor Paul Svilans asked Nine for an apology and the payment of compensation plus legal costs to his client.
The lawsuit also takes aim at an article from September about a number of arrests of organised criminals made at an apartment block managed by Coronation in western Sydney.
These claims were false, the firm says.
As well as damage to Joe Nahas' reputation, Coronation claims the articles have financially impacted its business with prospective renters, investors and lenders.
Coronation needed to raise $1.6 billion in debt to manage activities over the next 12 months, the firm wrote in its pleadings filed in October.
"We stand by our journalists and our journalism, and the matter will be vigorously defended," a Nine spokesperson told AAP on Friday.
Responding to AAP on behalf of Coronation, Mr Svilans said it was disappointing the Sydney Morning Herald had publish stories with unsubstantiated allegations and speculation.
"As a result, Coronation Property has been left with no choice but to take legal action."
