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Mickey the 'monster': Sinister allegations behind spectacular corporate unravelling · The Morning Edition

0:04
S1: Miki Ahuja catapulted his company, Emaar Services Group, from nothing
0:09
S1: to the big time to become the security provider of
0:12
S1: choice to the federal government. Retail giants like Coles and Bunnings,
0:17
S1: and a major sponsor of AFL clubs. But his empire
0:22
S1: was a house of cards. I'm Matt Dunkley, filling in
0:26
S1: for Samantha Salinger Morris, and you're listening to Morning Edition
0:30
S1: from The Age and the Sydney Morning Herald today. Nick
0:35
S1: McKenzie on one of the more spectacular and in some
0:38
S1: ways disturbing, corporate unravelling in recent memory. It's Monday, March 9th.
0:50
S1: All right, Nick, to start, obviously you've been reporting on
0:53
S1: Emaar Group for a long time along with Sam Houston,
0:55
S1: and it's come a long way from there where now
0:57
S1: we're looking at things like massive breaches of labor and
1:00
S1: tax laws. There are allegations of sexual crimes against the founder.
1:05
S1: But before we get to that, I think we would
1:07
S1: love to hear from you a bit about what does
1:09
S1: the company do? What is it that this organization is offering?
1:13
S2: I guarantee you, every person listening to this podcast will
1:16
S2: have walked past an May services security guard or cleaner
1:19
S2: outside a Coles, a Kmart, a Bunnings or the guards
1:23
S2: from May. Services were at Moomba. They were at universities
1:27
S2: in Sydney, grammar schools in Victoria. They work for the
1:30
S2: federal government, the Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission. May security guards were,
1:35
S2: in short, everywhere. One of the biggest security companies in Australia,
1:39
S2: one of the fastest growing. And as our investigation has revealed,
1:43
S2: now one of the most corrupt.
1:46
S1: Where the story started was in a public sense anyway,
1:49
S1: was on their links between bikies and government contracts. What
1:53
S1: did you find? What lit the fuse on this story
1:55
S1: and why did that matter?
1:57
S2: I mean, the start of the story is a bit nuts,
2:00
S2: which I think for me, uh, really highlights just how
2:03
S2: crazy the whole Ma scandal is. So how did it start?
2:07
S2: We find out that the things a bikie gang. So
2:10
S2: an outlaw motorcycle gang is somehow through a subcontract providing
2:14
S2: security guards in a big offshore security deal ultimately funded
2:18
S2: by the Albanese government. How the hell are bikies doing this?
2:23
S2: Turns out the company that won that security deal was,
2:26
S2: in fact, despite all these layers of corporate obfuscation, was
2:31
S2: in fact Ma services run by Miki Ahuja. So unpacking
2:34
S2: that Ma services, big security player in the private security industry,
2:39
S2: uses its contacts to convince the Nauru government to hire
2:43
S2: it to secure provide security for Australian immigration services on Nauru,
2:48
S2: funded by the Albanese government, and then Ma services to
2:51
S2: carry out this task works with a company controlled by
2:55
S2: none other than the global head of the Finks outlaw
2:58
S2: motorcycle gang, a fearsome criminal called Ali Bilal. What that
3:03
S2: gave us an insight into is, well, Emaar Services on
3:06
S2: the surface, looks like this incredibly professional rising star of
3:11
S2: the business world. Mickey Ahuja was an entrepreneur of the year.
3:15
S2: I think on a couple of occasions he was rubbing
3:18
S2: shoulders with corporate titans. He was sponsoring AFL clubs. He'd
3:23
S2: struck a deal to have the Emaar Services logo plastered
3:26
S2: on the jumper of the Melbourne Football Club, the demons,
3:28
S2: this very season. They would have been running out this
3:31
S2: week with Emaar Services plastered on their on their jumper.
3:35
S2: But beneath that glistening facade was a company that actually
3:39
S2: operated allegedly with a vast amount of criminality. So not
3:43
S2: just working with bikie linked companies, but exploiting its workers,
3:48
S2: not paying them properly, mostly foreign workers. These are thousands
3:52
S2: of security guards who were routinely ripped off, underpaid the award,
3:56
S2: not paid superannuation or very little. Not paid annual leave
4:00
S2: or overtime. The reason why Ma was booming as a
4:04
S2: security company. The reason why Coles, Kmart, Bunnings was lining
4:08
S2: up to do business with Ma services was because they
4:11
S2: were cheaper. Now, of course, the more we pull that thread,
4:14
S2: the more we find out about the CEO. He's not
4:17
S2: just ripping off his own workers. He's not just living
4:20
S2: the high life. He's not just not paying his taxes
4:23
S2: to the tune of tens of millions of dollars. He's
4:25
S2: also harassing, bullying, and most seriously, allegedly raping female employees.
4:32
S1: And that's where this weekend's reporting really kicked in. But
4:36
S1: I would like to just come back, bring you back
4:38
S1: to the reporting through the second half of last year,
4:41
S1: because you did manage to lay out quite a few
4:43
S1: of those things and start to really pull that company
4:47
S1: at its edges until it went down just before Christmas.
4:51
S1: What was the response, do you think, from government and
4:54
S1: from its corporate clients and those kinds of people who
4:57
S1: were paying the bills here, who had lifted this company up?
5:01
S1: How did they respond when you started doing that reporting?
5:05
S2: Initially, I think the response was probably behind the scenes
5:08
S2: panic and then very careful corporate and government spinning. So
5:12
S2: almost to a person, those companies said and the government agencies,
5:18
S2: the federal Department of Parliamentary Services, there was the Australian
5:22
S2: Criminal Intelligence Commission, there was even the National Anti-Corruption Commission.
5:26
S2: We had Coles, Kmart, Bunnings, Amazon, uh, AFL, AFL, clubs,
5:31
S2: the list goes on. Uh, he was uh Ahuja and
5:35
S2: Ma services supplying security to the Melbourne Cup, the spring carnival.
5:38
S2: He'd won the contract to secure this weekend's Formula one
5:42
S2: Grand Prix. And on it goes. So all these companies
5:46
S2: react with panic and initially saying we, of course, as
5:51
S2: you would expect them to say, support the lawful treatment
5:53
S2: of workers, the proper payment of tax. And we want
5:57
S2: our subcontractors beat May or anybody else to not be
6:00
S2: breaking the law and exploiting workers. That was the holding
6:04
S2: position of of most of the customers. Then we start
6:06
S2: asking the question, well, how is it if we can
6:08
S2: figure it out that you can't? Now Coles, with all
6:12
S2: its many billions of resources, somehow could not figure out
6:16
S2: what in some respects was glaringly obvious. It was an
6:19
S2: open secret in the private security industry that Miki Ahuja
6:22
S2: and Ma services was involved in the systemic exploitation of workers.
6:27
S2: It was known that he ran a network of companies
6:31
S2: linked to what looked like very suspect phoenixing, which is
6:36
S2: potentially criminal behaviour. These are companies that are collapsing as
6:39
S2: soon as their tax or worker debts arise, and they
6:42
S2: re-emerge in a as a fresh entity. This sort of
6:45
S2: stuff was pretty well known in the private security industry.
6:49
S2: We found it out. Why didn't Coles and really, why
6:52
S2: didn't the Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission, which was also paying
6:55
S2: Ma services, big bucks to secure its premises?
6:58
S1: So let's talk about Miki's response when you started laying
7:01
S1: out all these allegations, started going to all of his
7:04
S1: big customers, started making these very damaging claims and reporting
7:07
S1: out some of the details that clearly would not like
7:10
S1: to be public about the involvement of bikies and all
7:12
S1: this other stuff. What was his response to us?
7:16
S2: I might start with his most recent response through his spokesperson.
7:19
S2: He's fled the Guptas in Dubai. He's, uh, he's offshore.
7:23
S2: I've put fresh questions to him. And the response yesterday was,
7:28
S2: May you fear God. Now, I'm not quite sure what
7:30
S2: that means, but his general tactic has been deny, dismiss, delay.
7:37
S2: You know, the great tactic of any corporate spinner working
7:41
S2: for a crook. Miki Ahuja we've caught him lying a
7:45
S2: number of times. So, for instance, he really tried to
7:47
S2: deny he was involved in this deal with the Finks
7:50
S2: outlaw bikie gang to supply security guards paid for by ultimately,
7:53
S2: the Aussie taxpayer offshore. Then we find the paperwork which
7:57
S2: lays bears his lies, and so suddenly he pivots and
8:00
S2: tries a new lie he's denied and attacked. Sometimes behind
8:05
S2: the scenes, those women who've been brave enough to call
8:08
S2: him out for sexual harassment or even alleged rape. So
8:12
S2: another PR tactic then, which is to go on the
8:14
S2: attack at all times. He's been spinning, obfuscating and hoping
8:19
S2: he could sit this one out. Late last year, as
8:22
S2: the revelations continued to mount, he stood aside as the
8:27
S2: CEO of Ma services, a tactic clearly designed to hope
8:32
S2: the scandal would move on and we'd lose interest. Of course,
8:35
S2: that did not happen because it's not just the investigative
8:38
S2: team of The Age and Sydney Morning Herald and 60
8:40
S2: minutes on his case. It's the tax office. It's the
8:43
S2: Labour high authority. It's potentially other agencies. In fact, we've
8:47
S2: revealed that a multi-agency operation, Operation Hermes, is now hot
8:51
S2: on the tail of Miki Ahuja. Now, ultimately, his company
8:55
S2: was placed into administration at the end of last year,
8:59
S2: Christmas Eve. The company effectively collapses. Overnight, 1700 workers are
9:04
S2: out of work, many of them loyal Ma security guards,
9:07
S2: many of them underpaid. Many of them still to this
9:09
S2: day owed many thousands of dollars in superannuation and pay.
9:13
S1: Can we talk about those workers for a second? Because
9:15
S1: you have spoken to a lot of them. And in
9:17
S1: many ways, this story boils down to his treatment of
9:21
S1: them and mistreatment of them. What do they tell you
9:24
S1: about what it was like to work for Ma?
9:26
S2: Well, as Mickey was betting in the high roller room
9:29
S2: of Crown Casino, sometimes with chips worth $100,000 each, as
9:33
S2: he was flying around the world flying first class as
9:36
S2: he was driving his his, uh, many luxury vehicles, including
9:40
S2: a Lamborghini. These workers, his workers were sometimes barely struggling
9:47
S2: to survive living below the poverty line. They were getting
9:49
S2: paid by a regulator's estimation at $10 below the award
9:54
S2: on a standard day. That would be up to $60
9:57
S2: below the award on, say, a Sunday or a public holiday.
10:00
S2: They weren't paid superannuation. A worker I met, a tremendously
10:04
S2: brave Pakistani had told me it was embarrassing for him
10:08
S2: to talk to his kids because he didn't know whether
10:10
S2: he could put food on their table. These are Australians
10:14
S2: providing a critical service. Yes, of course they're migrant workers,
10:17
S2: but they're Australian migrant workers providing a critical service, keeping
10:21
S2: us all safe. Outside a Coles store, when we go
10:25
S2: to a major sporting event, when we go to the
10:27
S2: Melbourne Cup, when we attend our university, and to put
10:31
S2: it bluntly, they were being treated like not just second
10:34
S2: class citizens. They were being treated like dirt. Now who
10:37
S2: was pocketing the money that should have gone into their pockets?
10:39
S2: Of course it was those that are part of what's
10:42
S2: now known by law enforcement as the Ma syndicate. Miki
10:45
S2: Ahuja and his other lieutenants. They were getting filthy rich.
10:49
S2: While some of the poorest and most vulnerable workers in
10:52
S2: this country were struggling to make it day by day.
10:59
S1: After the break.
11:01
S2: Is at the heart of this mega scandal is many
11:04
S2: brave women who were bullied, who were sexually harassed by
11:09
S2: Mickey Ahuja. And it was the bravery of these women which,
11:14
S2: more than any other aspect of this scandal, blew this
11:17
S2: scandal up.
11:25
S1: One of the best parts of the investigation on the
11:28
S1: weekend was a very rare interview with the Labour hire
11:31
S1: authority boss, who said that the situation you've just described
11:35
S1: is the conditions that those workers were working in at
11:38
S1: some of our biggest events and companies. He gave very
11:42
S1: short shrift to the idea that the companies who were
11:45
S1: doing the paying didn't know, didn't he?
11:48
S2: It's an extraordinary intervention by Steve Dargavel. He is the
11:51
S2: labour hire licensing commissioner and he heads the regulator in Victoria,
11:55
S2: the labour hire authority. Basically, he's responsible for making sure
11:59
S2: that any business that supplies workers to major infrastructure projects,
12:03
S2: to supermarkets, security workers, cleaners, agriculture workers out on fruit farms,
12:08
S2: whatever it might be that those workers aren't subjected to exploitation,
12:12
S2: especially mass exploitation. He's there at its height to stop
12:16
S2: human slavery. He very rarely speaks out. In fact, I
12:20
S2: don't know any television interviews or major newspaper interviews he's
12:23
S2: ever done, but he went public for us. And why?
12:26
S2: It's his contention not only that, Ma services has utterly
12:30
S2: and systematically and disgracefully rorted many thousands of Australian workers,
12:35
S2: but that its major clients, or some of them led
12:39
S2: by Coles, but including Kmart and Bunnings, that these companies
12:44
S2: must have known about this rort. Now, what Dargavel says
12:49
S2: is that the contracts that say Coles signed with Emaar,
12:53
S2: when you do the maths on those contracts, when you
12:55
S2: look at what was being paid for those security guards,
12:59
S2: it had to be that those guards were getting paid
13:01
S2: under the award. Steve Dargavel the agency has estimated or
13:04
S2: calculated that underpayment at least $10 under the award. That's
13:08
S2: a huge rort when you think about the number or
13:10
S2: the many thousands of guards that were working for Ma
13:14
S2: at coal stores across a long period of time, these
13:17
S2: are contracts worth $50 million a year in revenue to Ma.
13:21
S2: So at the heart of the scandal is not just
13:22
S2: the underpayment of many of our most vulnerable workers in Australia.
13:27
S2: It's the connivance of Coles. And to put it in
13:30
S2: Steve Dargavel words, he says corporates like Coles, the way
13:34
S2: they handled these contracts, they have the morals of an
13:38
S2: alley cat.
13:39
S1: What did you make of Coles response? It seemed to
13:42
S1: me that they were just arguing that they had asked
13:44
S1: the question, that the company had come back and said, no, no,
13:47
S1: we're playing the right rate, we're doing the right thing.
13:50
S1: And that seemed to be good enough for Coles. What
13:52
S1: do you think of that?
13:53
S2: Coles has vociferously denied that it knew that this large
13:57
S2: scale rorting was going on. It's now turned its attack
14:00
S2: onto Ma services, saying it was duped. Ma the crooks.
14:04
S2: Its scheme, in Cole's words, was misleading and sophisticated. That
14:07
S2: is the scheme by which it underpaid its security guards
14:10
S2: at Coles stores, and Coles did not have the ability
14:13
S2: to find that out. That does not really pass the
14:16
S2: stress test. If we as journalists can find it out
14:19
S2: and we're not actually employing these guards, how earth could
14:22
S2: Coles not have? Let me give you one example. A
14:24
S2: basic ASIC search, a corporate search, very easily done of
14:27
S2: Miki Ahuja, the supplier of these guards to Coles would
14:31
S2: have revealed that, for instance, in 2013, he started a
14:33
S2: company which he directed for a number of years to
14:36
S2: supply sex workers escorts across Melbourne. Its name Sin City Escorts.
14:44
S2: A red flag that maybe Mickey Ahuja wasn't the corporate
14:46
S2: partner that Coles would wish to do business with. There
14:51
S2: are many other red flags. There were many court cases,
14:54
S2: easily accessible publicly where Ma services guards had been ripped off,
15:00
S2: not properly paid, or judges or tribunals made very stern
15:03
S2: or damning comments about Ma services operations. There were regulator
15:08
S2: findings that were posted online, raising very grave concerns about
15:12
S2: Ma services and its conduct. There was the general knowledge
15:15
S2: in the private security industry that Ma services had grown
15:18
S2: so quickly because it was rorting, exploiting some of the
15:23
S2: lowest paid workers in the country. And then, of course,
15:26
S2: the devil's in the detail in these contracts that Coles
15:28
S2: and other corporates were signing with Ma in those contracts.
15:30
S2: It should have been clear. According to those in officialdom,
15:34
S2: the regulators that have looked at these contracts, it should
15:36
S2: have been clear that there was a rort going on.
15:39
S2: Added to that, other corporates had sacked Ma services from
15:43
S2: their companies years ago because they said it was obvious
15:47
S2: that Ma services was up to no good. Ma services
15:49
S2: had been named openly in state parliament as potentially crooked company.
15:54
S2: So how could Coles not have known?
15:57
S1: If I could turn now to the very troubling thread
16:01
S1: in this story, I think, which is more about Mickey,
16:04
S1: who does treatment of women, senior women who worked for him.
16:09
S1: It's very tough watching the interviews with those very brave women.
16:14
S1: Could you talk to me a bit about how that
16:17
S1: thread of the story came into being and what that's
16:19
S1: been like, just trying to report it?
16:21
S2: I think the reason this story is so significant is
16:24
S2: not just a story about mass worker exploitation on a
16:28
S2: stunning scale. It's not just a story about corporate greed,
16:31
S2: not that which extends beyond Ma to allegedly to big
16:35
S2: corporates like Kohl's. It's not just a story about tax
16:39
S2: evasion and government agencies not doing their due diligence. It's
16:43
S2: not just a story about how bad our private security
16:46
S2: industry is in Australia, because Ma is just one of
16:50
S2: a number of companies doing the wrong thing. It's also
16:54
S2: a me too story because at the heart of this
16:57
S2: mega scandal is many brave women who were bullied, who
17:02
S2: were sexually harassed by Miki Ahuja. And it was the
17:07
S2: bravery of these women which, more than any other aspect
17:10
S2: of this scandal, blew this scandal up. When one of
17:14
S2: the first victims came forward to me and revealed how
17:17
S2: Miki Ahuja had demanded sex for money in a very
17:20
S2: sexually harassing and and frankly disgusting manner, how that had
17:24
S2: made her feel like a piece of meat, his demands
17:27
S2: that she sleep with him in return for money, which
17:29
S2: he did not do when she had the bravery to
17:32
S2: reveal those approaches, those repeated approaches by him publicly. Suddenly,
17:36
S2: the corporate world, the government agencies that were working with
17:39
S2: my services, could no longer delay their response, and many
17:43
S2: of them almost immediately began to cut ties to sack
17:46
S2: my services. But now we know many more stories from women,
17:50
S2: including one very brave woman who's gone public with The age,
17:54
S2: the Sydney Morning Herald in 60 minutes. We're calling her Sara.
17:58
S2: She worked at Mar services. She's on camera. And her
18:01
S2: description of confronting not only this, the just awful treatment
18:05
S2: of workers by Emma. Some of those workers she was
18:08
S2: ferrying around milk and nappies to. These are poor security
18:11
S2: guards who were getting utterly ripped off. But her own
18:14
S2: treatment at the hands of Mickey Ahuja. Her experience of suffering, allegedly,
18:18
S2: in her words, a rape, being assaulted awfully by Mickey Ahuja.
18:24
S2: And it must be said she is not alone. And
18:27
S2: there are other allegations that are really graphic and really
18:30
S2: terrible involving other cases, perhaps not of rape, but certainly
18:34
S2: of egregious sexual misconduct or sexual harassment that have also
18:38
S2: been passed to us, which we are now investigating. But
18:40
S2: it's those brave women that broke. I think this scandal
18:43
S2: truly open. And as those brave women who should be
18:47
S2: utterly commended.
18:48
S1: What do you think happens next for them? What do
18:50
S1: they want out of this process? Out of out of
18:52
S1: talking to us, out of, out of telling their story,
18:56
S1: which I can't fathom how difficult that was. But what
18:59
S1: do they want to come out of this?
19:01
S2: Like all the victims of Ma services of the Ma
19:04
S2: Syndicate of Mickey Ahuja, be they victims of alleged rape,
19:08
S2: victims of alleged sexual harassment, be they many of the
19:11
S2: thousands of guards that were underpaid or not paid superannuation,
19:15
S2: not given sick leave or annual leave as required under
19:19
S2: the law. Like all these victims, they want justice. And
19:23
S2: what is that? That's accountability. That is Mickey Ahuja facing
19:26
S2: the music now. He scurried off to Dubai as his
19:29
S2: company was collapsing. There is an administrator hot on his tail.
19:34
S2: It's traced many millions of dollars into his personal accounts
19:36
S2: or those of related party companies. So there is a
19:40
S2: process there, but that only goes so far. We do
19:44
S2: know that law enforcement Operation Hermes is also pursuing Mickey Ahuja.
19:50
S2: But ultimately, I think justice looks like Mickey Ahuja in
19:54
S2: one way or another, actually facing his accusers through some
19:58
S2: sort of process of accountability, facing the music and allowing
20:02
S2: them properly to have their day, allowing those workers who've
20:05
S2: been ripped off to be repaid and allowing those victims,
20:08
S2: if they want to pursue Mickey Ahuja through the civil
20:10
S2: or criminal justice systems, if they want to sue him,
20:13
S2: whatever it may be, allowing they to have their moment
20:17
S2: of justice and to help them bring a very awful
20:21
S2: chapter in their lives to some sort of close.
20:23
S1: It's an incredible story. When you think back over all
20:26
S1: of the things that you've just told us about about
20:28
S1: where it started with bikies, with Nauru, with massive corporates,
20:32
S1: with huge underpayment, with a company collapsing now with this
20:36
S1: pretty terrible allegations against the founder. When you look back
20:40
S1: over all that, where do you think this fits? Where
20:43
S1: does Ma sit and why does its conduct matter so much?
20:48
S1: What should this say to Australians and our policy makers?
20:51
S2: This is a really tremendous and awful reminder ultimately for governments,
20:57
S2: but for private industry, for the corporate world, for all
21:01
S2: our listeners and for the general public that we still
21:04
S2: have in Australia, a system of corporate oversight that doesn't
21:08
S2: really work, that corporate greed trumps all else, that you
21:12
S2: can still get away many years after major scandals, major
21:16
S2: underpayment scandals, that you can still get away with underpaying
21:19
S2: thousands of very vulnerable migrant workers in this country with
21:24
S2: almost relative impunity.
21:26
S1: And in plain sight. Right. Like he's not like he
21:28
S1: was a low profile guy. His Instagram is full of ostentation.
21:32
S1: He's sitting there in a Collingwood team photo. He's putting
21:35
S1: himself right out there in the public eye. Wasn't trying
21:38
S1: to fly low at all.
21:40
S2: That's right. You can do the wrong thing as a
21:42
S2: corporate player, a big corporate player like Ma services, the
21:46
S2: rest of the corporate world will turn a blind eye.
21:48
S2: Law enforcement are regulators. There are some terrific characters out
21:52
S2: there doing their best. The labor high authority of Victoria
21:54
S2: is certainly one of them, but largely across the board. Regulators,
21:59
S2: law enforcement act too slowly, if at all. Money trumps all.
22:03
S2: Corporate power is what matters, and you do the wrong thing.
22:06
S2: You'll get away with it. That seems to be, unfortunately,
22:09
S2: the moral of this story. But we wait and we watch.
22:13
S2: Maybe Mickey Ahuja will move from a case study in
22:16
S2: impunity to a case study in accountability. And I think
22:20
S2: that's what all these victims are hoping for.
22:25
S1: I certainly hope that's right. Thanks very much for joining us, Nick.
22:29
S2: Great to be with you.
22:41
S1: Today's episode was produced by Josh towers. Our executive producer
22:45
S1: is Tammy Mills, and our podcasts are overseen by Lisa
22:48
S1: Muxworthy and Tom McKendrick. If you like our show, follow
22:52
S1: the Morning Edition and leave a review for us on
22:55
S1: Apple or Spotify. Thanks for listening.