‘Used the influence of the union’: Ex-CFMEU leaders jailed over kickbacks

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Two former NSW CFMEU officials have been jailed after pleading guilty to pocketing thousands of dollars in bribes from a construction industry figure.

Darren Greenfield, a former NSW secretary of the Construction, Forestry and Maritime Employees Union, and his son Michael, a former state branch assistant secretary, pleaded guilty this year to corruption-related offences after reaching a plea deal with prosecutors.

Former CFMEU leader Darren Greenfield outside court last week. He has been sentenced to a minimum 10 months behind bars.

In a decision on Friday, District Court Judge Leonie Flannery sentenced them to a minimum of 10 months and six months behind bars respectively.

The duo “used the influence of the union for their own personal benefit”, the judge said.

It marks the first time union officials have been sentenced for corruption offences introduced in the Fair Work Act in 2017 in response to recommendations of the trade unions royal commission.

“No penalty other than imprisonment is appropriate,” Flannery said. The judge emphasised the importance of deterring others in imposing full-time jail terms.

Bribes totalled $30,000

The court heard Greenfield snr took $20,000 in cash in four payments while his son received $10,000 in two payments from a union member and co-offender known as AF.

They pleaded guilty to bribery offences covering three of the six payments, totalling $15,000, but the other payments were taken into account during sentencing.

Flannery sentenced Greenfield snr to maximum prison terms of 18 months, starting on Friday, and 24 months, starting in May next year, for two separate offences. The latter term expires in May 2028.

However, Flannery ordered that he be released after serving 10 months behind bars, conditional on paying a $500 bond and remaining of good behaviour for the balance of the sentence.

Michael Greenfield was sentenced to a maximum of 18 months’ jail for one bribery offence.

Greenfield jnr was sentenced to a maximum of 18 months’ jail for one bribery offence, to be released after six months on the same conditions.

Michael also pleaded guilty to signing a false statutory declaration in a bid to avoid demerit points for running a red light. Flannery imposed a two-year community corrections order for that offence.

‘Moment of weakness’

Flannery accepted that Darren Greenfield, now 60, “didn’t go looking for the money” but took it, as his lawyer had submitted, in “a moment of weakness, at least on the first occasion”.

‘No penalty other than imprisonment is appropriate.’

District Court Judge Leonie Flannery

The offences were “far from sophisticated” and occurred “relatively randomly”, Flannery said.

As to Michael Greenfield, now aged 40, Flannery said she was not satisfied taking the money was entrenched behaviour or premeditated. However, she said signing the false statutory declaration was planned.

Flannery accepted that Greenfield snr was contrite and remorseful, and that his son, who had taken longer to arrive at this point, felt likewise.

Australian Council of Trade Unions secretary Sally McManus said on Friday: “You can’t call yourself a unionist if you’re on the take. Those who use their position for personal gain aren’t unionists — they’re imposters.

“The ACTU supports the brave and principled unionists who are stepping up to do the hard work to return to building workers the clean and strong union they deserve.”

Duo charged in 2021

The Greenfields were charged with corruption offences in September 2021. An extensive investigation by this masthead in 2024 brought renewed attention to the case by revealing allegations of corruption and that the CFMEU had been infiltrated by organised crime.

Darren Greenfield pleaded guilty to two charges related to receiving corrupting benefits. The maximum penalty for those offences under the Fair Work Act is 10 years’ imprisonment, a fine of more than $1 million, or both.

The court was also asked to take into account in sentencing Greenfield snr two additional offences related to receiving cash payments on two days in late 2018.

“Between 3 November 2018, and 19 June 2020, on four separate occasions, Darren Greenfield received cash payments totalling $20,000,” prosecutor Sophie Callan, SC, told the court earlier this month. “At the time, he was the state secretary of the CFMEU.”

Callan told the court that Darren Greenfield suggested to AF that he could “shut down building sites and influence the award of construction jobs”.

The court heard AF’s company did renovation works on Darren Greenfield’s home before paying the bribes. The cost, estimated at up to $7000, was covered by AF.

In addition, AF helped Michael Greenfield find a foreign worker in October 2018 to take the rap for the traffic infringement.

“It was motivated by personal gain, that is, avoiding loss of demerit points,” Callan told the court.

Michael Greenfield pleaded guilty to one offence under the NSW Oaths Act for signing the false statutory declaration.

He also pleaded guilty to one charge of receiving a corrupting benefit, and the court was asked to take into account an additional offence of receiving a cash payment.

“On two separate occasions, in January 2019 and May 2019, [Michael Greenfield received] ... cash payments totalling $10,000,” Callan said.

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