Jean-Claude Perrottet, brother of ex-NSW premier Dominic Perrottet, endured a tense two days of grilling at the Independent Commission Against Corruption.
In the last hour of Thursday's hearing before being released from the witness box, he was forced to explain the context to tapped phone calls with fugitive property developer Jean Nassif in 2021.
"I was thinking to give it to your brother for pre-selection ... can you give the $100(K) to your brother?" Nassif was heard saying without specifying which Perrottet would receive the funds.
Nassif fled to his ancestral homeland Lebanon in late 2022 with a NSW Police arrest warrant out for him for alleged fraud and his building empire Toplace collapsing owing billions to creditors.
It was the latest revelation in the second week of Operation Rosny which is investigating alleged illicit political donations and branch-stacking spearheaded by the Reformers.
They were a renegade conservative Christian faction among state Liberals formed around 2018 designed to influence policy-making.
Jean-Claude Perrottet earlier admitted he tried to recruit new Liberal members as part of his factional zeal while on a tax-payer funded salary.
He was working for former finance minister Damien Tudehope in 2019.
Mr Tudehope, a senior MP now in opposition, was also hauled before the probe.
He conceded he leaked a confidential draft report of the 2023 parliamentary inquiry, which Jean-Claude Perrottet dodged, to lobbyist Jeremy Greenwood.
Mr Greenwood has been called up as a witness and will face ICAC on Monday.
The younger Mr Perrottet moved through a series of jobs including at Medallion Financial, where he gave financial advice to Nassif, before ending up at Catholic Schools NSW.
The Catholic education body, which receives more than $3.5 billion in combined federal and state taxpayer funds, is also under scrutiny for its staffers engaging in explicit factional work.
Its former head Dallas McInterney, a Liberal Party powerbroker and factional ally of federal opposition leader Angus Taylor, will also face the inquiry on Wednesday.
He claimed the MP had agreed to make a series of payments to the breakaway conservative bloc.
"I want to shake down Angus for 10K," Mr McInerney wrote in a message shared at the inquiry.
Another WhatsApp message in a group chat among Reformers showed Mr McInerney claiming he had secured a $15,000 payment and monthly donations of $3000 from Mr Taylor.
The federal opposition leader has repeatedly denied any payments were made.
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