iscover Director found in contempt of court after clash with deputy taxation commissioner
TaxThe sole director of three development companies has been found in contempt of court after he ignored freezing orders connected to a dispute with the deputy commissioner of taxation.
On 8 April 2026, the Supreme Court of NSW found developer Nahi Gazal to be guilty of contempt of court after he ignored a series of court-mandated freezing orders.
The freezing orders were applied in December 2020 to restrain Gazal’s companies – Belfield Development, NNG Holdings and NG Sydney Corporation – from taking any steps to pay, transfer, dispose of or otherwise diminish their assets.
The orders were imposed after the Deputy Commissioner of Taxation (DCT) found that Gazal’s companies had not been registered for GST. While these orders had several exceptions, the DCT contended that Gazal had dishonestly relied upon these to withdraw large sums of money.
“The DCT contended that the relevant companies and Mr Gazal relied on one of those exceptions (the ordinary course of business exception) dishonestly to withdraw very large sums of money in repeated contraventions of the orders,” court documents read.
The contempt case centred around three key charges. First, the court found that Gazal caused the Belfield account to be diminished by $1,304,963 in February to July 2021 by dishonestly paying business expenses that were not permitted under the freezing orders, bona fide or properly incurred.
Second, he caused the NNG account to be diminished by $2,852,820 from January to July 2021, also in breach of the freezing orders. Lastly, he reduced the NG Sydney account by $1,573,770 from February to April 2023.
In coming to its conclusion, the Supreme Court of NSW found that Gazal had been “plainly aware” of the freezing orders, and had a duty to take reasonable steps to ensure the orders were obeyed.
“I have found the large majority of the invoices supporting withdrawals from the accounts that were the subject of freezing orders to be false and I have found the other elements of contempt on the part of Mr Gazal are established to the requisite standard,” the judge noted.
Court documents also said that the breaches of the freezing orders had caused “immense prejudice” to the DCT.
“It no longer has recourse to the more than $6 million in previously frozen funds now unavailable and, because it has been forced to prove every element of falsity, has spent an enormous amount on legal costs,” court documents read.
The Supreme Court of NSW ordered that Gazal be committed to a correctional centre until the contempt charges were purged, if the charges were not purged within 21 days following the 8 April order.
Gazal and each of his companies were also ordered to pay the DCT’s costs.
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Emma Partis
Emma Partis is a journalist at Accountants Daily and Accounting Times, the leading sources of news, insight, and educational content for professionals in the accounting sector. Previously, Emma worked as a News Intern with Bloomberg News' economics and government team in Sydney. She studied econometrics and psychology at UNSW.
