How bikie gang-linked company won immigration detention security contract on Nauru

The Nauru government’s support is critical not only to the detention regime but also in keeping Beijing at bay in the South Pacific.

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“I don’t think there’s any way possible that [federal government agencies] didn’t know,” Donohoe said, while also revealing how he had repeatedly contacted federal agencies and politicians about the bikie infiltration.

“I’ve complained to the ATO, I’ve complained to ASIC, the AFP, pretty much anyone that’s high up enough that will potentially listen, but through time I’ve found out that they’re happy to ignore me.”

Donohoe said he had also personally contacted a number of government, opposition and crossbench politicians with his concerns.

“The fact that I’ve had zero response from any of the ministers that I’ve contacted suggests that they’re more than happy to sweep it under the rug, and then the very next week hand over $2.5 billion to the Nauru government,” he said referencing a 30-year deal struck in September in which Australia will pay $408 million in up-front costs to set up the scheme.

“The only response I’ve had so far has been from the office of Jacqui Lambie, who said that they would put questions to parliament.”

Donohoe discovered the Finks were involved in the Nauru security operation earlier this year when he was recruited by a firm called Safe Hands, before this masthead reported on concerns about the gang’s role there in August.

The company won a contract supplying Australian security personnel in Nauru to manage the NZYQ detainees after arrival from Australia.

After being hired, Donohoe began to field orders on an encrypted communications platform from the son of Bilal, the worldwide leader of the Finks.

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Donohoe uncovered further evidence, including an encrypted platform message sent by Bilal himself in March in which the bikie boss appeared to be secretly overseeing the recruitment and deployment of the so-called quick reaction team (QRT) on Nauru.

“I still expect daily reports abd (sic) will try b available for our 4 calls,” Bilal said in the March 25 message in which he also appears to appoint managers under his control to run the Nauru operation.

“Plz direct all works / Naru and the staff we hired.”

Another senior manager running the team is Tim Jones, a bikie gang associate who owns the ACT property where Bilal resides and who has managed businesses on behalf of Bilal.

The Finks’ infiltration of the Nauru contract involves at least two Canberra-based companies under the apparent ultimate control of Bilal and Jones, via opaque corporate structures and suspected company fronts.

It appears the firms are to be paid by Nauruan corporate entities hired by the Nauruan government, but ultimately paid for with Australian taxpayer funds given to the Pacific island in return for its accepting the NZYQ detainees.

Donohoe said he was told by Bilal’s associates in the encrypted group chats, which included Bilal as a member under the name of fictional TV gangster Tony Soprano, that the Australian Federal Police and the Department of Home Affairs would assist with the deployment.

“AFP is now in direct contact with Nauru Airlines … AFP has confirmed that they will provide a formal start date through Home Affairs once their internal logistics are finalised,” Donohoe was told in an April 9 message.

The revelations come after Labor commissioned former spy chief Dennis Richardson two years ago to advise on how to prevent suspected criminal entities from infiltrating the large taxpayer-funded offshore detention contracts on Nauru.

While the Albanese government says the Home Affairs-controlled offshore processing regime is separate from its deal with Nauru to accept the NZYQ detainees, both schemes are possible only because Australia has promised billions of dollars to Nauru to solve Canberra’s immigration problem.

In his report, Richardson urges the Home Affairs Department to strengthen its due diligence systems after revelations by this masthead that now-former offshore detention service providers had made suspected bribe payments to allegedly corrupt Pacific island officials, as well as a business with links to the Comanchero outlaw motorcycle gang. The report did not examine the Safe Hands arrangements.

Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke declined an interview request and did not answer questions relating to the government’s role in the contracts.

In a one-sentence statement, he said he had full confidence in the relevant agencies.

Donohoe called on the government to conduct a public inquiry into the latest scandal.

“If no one’s gonna step up and actually hold [the bikie-linked firms and those enabling them] accountable, then they’ll be allowed to continue their operations,” Donohoe said.

“It needs to be called out once and for all. Because I do not want to see my government continue to hand over money without doing their proper checks.”

The revelations also raise questions for Nauru President David Adeang, who recently inked the NZYQ deal with Burke.

A confidential source with deep knowledge of the Nauruan private security operation linked to the Finks said gang associate Tim Jones claimed to have had personal dealings with Adeang and was angling to be appointed a special adviser to the Nauruan government.

The involvement of Finks-linked personnel on Nauru could give the bikie gang a new hub to run its operations, three sources with knowledge of the gang or the Nauru security operation said.

Adeang has a history of suspected corruption. Australian security agencies have told the federal government he might have pocketed alleged kickbacks paid by companies subcontracted to run Australia’s offshore processing regime on Nauru in 2020.

Adeang has also been suspected of using Australian banks to launder funds meant to be used to run offshore processing, according to intelligence briefings shared with federal government agencies and senior ministers.

The detainees to be deported to Nauru have been deemed by the federal government to be too dangerous or unsavoury to remain in Australia.

Donohoe has also launched legal action against the Safe Hands Group, alleging he was unlawfully treated as an employee and, in legal filings, he says the firm has “associations with OMCG-linked individuals (Ali Bilal, Timothy Jones) and other members of the Nauru project, including Bilal’s family and friends/ other known gang members”.

“Mr Ali Bilal himself disguising himself on this project as ‘Tony Soprano’ speaks for itself.

“The Nauru project itself raises grave concerns of corrupt conduct and fraud against the Australian government. This operation was never a genuine employment initiative – it was designed to defraud the Commonwealth by exploiting Australia’s multimillion-dollar aid commitment to Nauru.”

Safe Hands is contesting the case at the commission.

A Home Affairs Department spokeswoman said in a statement that Safe Hands was not involved in the offshore processing contracts it oversaw, which were separate from the NZYQ arrangement.

Australia’s offshore processing policy has involved sending asylum seekers to the Nauru detention centre since 2001. About 100 detainees are held in the facility.

The department did not answer questions about whether it was appropriate for an organisation like the Finks to be involved in the NZYQ system.

In a statement, the AFP said it was aware of the allegations about the involvement of the Finks but that it had “no involvement in private security arrangements in Nauru”.

Jones, who did not respond to requests for comment, was previously employed by Safe Hands Group as a general manager until about 2022, according to a now-deleted LinkedIn profile.

A source who had extensive dealings with the Finks, speaking anonymously out of fear of repercussions, told this masthead that Jones was a close associate of the Finks and Bilal.

The source also said they had been party to discussions involving Bilal, which related to the Nauru deal and showed Bilal was running Safe Hands via proxies.

His son, Branden Jones, 26, is an associate of the Finks who became a director of Safe Hands 002 Pty Ltd in August 2023, before the company was placed into liquidation last year owing almost $894,000 in “outstanding tax lodgments” to the Australian Taxation Office.

Safe Hands Group Pty Ltd was registered in February 2023, before assets and clients were transferred between the two companies in an alleged case of “phoenixing”.

The consulate-general of Nauru and the Nauru high commission did not respond to questions. Phone calls to the Nauru parliament were not returned. Bilal also did not respond to questions, but he has previously denied his involvement with the Finks and Rebels bikie gangs.

However, police made submissions in the ACT Supreme Court, the ACT Magistrates Court and the Greyhound Welfare and Integrity Commission, claiming the 53-year-old was a senior figure in the ACT chapter of the Finks outlaw motorcycle gang.

Detective Sergeant Owen Patterson, of the anti-bikie taskforce Nemesis, said in court in April that Bilal was previously a leader of the ACT Rebels but that members “patched over” to the Finks in 2023 and that Bilal was believed to have been appointed “world president” of the gang.

In 2022, Bilal was sentenced to three months in prison after pleading guilty to five charges relating to using a carriage service to harass or threaten, after his conversations were captured by telephone intercepts. Bilal changed his name by deed poll to Tony Soprano in 2002 before changing it back several years later.