Senior manager at bikie-linked security firm charged over threats to Age journalist

2 months ago 5

A senior manager of bikie-linked security company MA Services Group has been charged with threatening the safety of investigative journalist Nick McKenzie following a call allegedly made to his home on Christmas Eve.

Victoria Police said a 31-year-old man from Melbourne’s north-west was charged with two counts of using a carriage service to menace/cause offence by detectives from Taskforce Hawk, the special unit set up to investigate crime and corruption linked to the construction industry.

The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald have published a series of stories detailing the alleged links of MA Services Group to a bikie club, its subcontractors being accused of tax evasion and worker exploitation, and a sexual harassment scandal involving its founder, Micky Ahuja.

McKenzie is a multi-award winning journalist who works for The Age, The Sydney Morning Herald and 60 Minutes.

MA Services Group has a series of lucrative but controversial contracts guarding immigration detainees on the Pacific Island of Nauru, and for a number of Commonwealth government agencies, including Australia’s peak criminal intelligence agency.

A search warrant was executed at a residential address in the suburb of Fraser Rise about 7am on Wednesday, where a 31-year-old man was arrested, interviewed and charged by police.

“Investigators will allege he made a threatening phone call to a journalist on the morning of 24 December,” a Victoria Police spokesperson said.

The man was MA Services Group’s national business development manager.

The group, which also had security contracts with AFL clubs, Coles, Kmart, Bunnings, Dan Murphy’s, Amazon, Sydney University and Melbourne’s Formula 1 grand prix, collapsed into voluntary administration just two days before Christmas.

The alleged threatening call was made the next morning.

“The reporting on MA Services has been undoubtedly in the public interest and journalists should be free to do this important work without fear of threats and intimidation,” The Age editor Patrick Elligett said.

Ahuja had already stepped down as chief executive earlier in December after this masthead uncovered allegations of sexual harassment, bullying and offering vulnerable women cash in exchange for sex.

The latest threat to McKenzie came after a previous security incident in October, when an unknown man entered his home through the roof and attempted to disable a CCTV system.

Police believe the break-in followed surveillance of the property. No one has been charged.

McKenzie has also been spearheading the media group’s reporting on crime and corruption in the building industry and CFMEU, known as the Building Bad series. He won the nation’s highest journalism honour, the Gold Walkley, for his reporting in November.

Anyone with information about these incidents is urged to contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000 or submit an online confidential report at www.crimestoppersvic.com.au.

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