Nobody will admit they’re behind Mick Gatto’s famous phone call, but he seems sure

When Victorian businessman Christian Munn was first confronted with allegations that underworld identities were claiming to represent his building company to help extract a disputed payment from a developer, his response was incandescent.

“I’ve done f---ing nothing except to get raped by a crook,” Munn seethed of the developer in question, while also denying his firm Cobolt had ever dealt with gangland identities Mick Gatto and John Khoury.

Munn is a wealthy businessman, director of Cobolt and president of the Victorian Ski Club. With his wife, Angela Brown – a winery owner and member of the famed Brown Brothers wine family company – he owns half of Cobolt. Despite his initial fury in a phone interview in late 2023 aimed at the developer he had fallen out with, Munn has been unwilling ever since to be interviewed about unresolved questions in what has become a rolling saga.

If Cobolt did indeed engage Gatto or Khoury, who at the company requested the pair be hired and on what basis?

Munn’s absence of knowledge about the pair in his one and only interview with this masthead in late 2023 seemed odd, not least because Gatto had repeatedly claimed Cobolt was his client.

For instance, when Gatto appeared on a podcast to respond to the intense scrutiny he was, and remains, under given his role as a gangland-linked fixer, he said he had been “engaged” by Cobolt to deal with developer and architect Joe Toscano.

Asked to identify the firm, Gatto said: “It’s Cobolt.”

And yet when Munn was initially quizzed by this masthead about why Gatto and Khoury claimed to be fronting for his firm if they weren’t, Munn offered not only denials but some strong advice.

“If you’re going to do an investigation, get to the bottom of it and actually realise it’s all bullshit,” Munn said. “It’s just a narrative made up... It’s f---ing upsetting. I’ve had enough.”

Not content with his denials, Munn proffered his own opinion as to why this masthead was asking him about his firm’s purported dealings with Gatto and Khoury.

Munn pointed out that the developer he was battling, Toscano, had a son who worked as a journalist at The Age, which he claimed would lead to unfair coverage.

It is true that the reporter works as a mining reporter for the masthead. But this journalist has had no involvement in The Age investigative unit’s long-running series, together with The Sydney Morning Herald, Australian Financial Review and 60 Minutes, probing the underworld infiltration of the building industry and unions.

Most recently, this masthead has also uncovered significant new information: a money and document trail that appears to connect Cobolt to Gatto and Khoury via a middleman. It is not suggested Munn or Brown are involved in these financial links or dealings (Brown is not a director of Cobolt).

But someone involved with Cobolt (there are several other key players at the firm this masthead is not naming for legal reasons) likely knows much more about these newly discovered middleman payments and, for the time being at least, the firm isn’t willing to share any detail about them.

While the Building Bad series initially focused on the CFMEU, and its gangland and bikie ties, forcing the Albanese government to place it under administration, the reporting has more recently shifted to the role of companies in fuelling entrenched industry practices.

Those scrutinised to date have included other firms who pay gangland figures such as Gatto or Khoury to handle their union and industry dealings, including state government project subcontractors LTE and Range Resources.

Questions of corporate accountability have loomed even larger this week amid fresh building industry revelations that marked a turning point in a still-growing scandal.

For the first time since it took over, the CFMEU administration is on the front foot, credibly accusing companies of avoiding accountability for their role fuelling industry misconduct.

Administrator Mark Irving, KC, is also calling on Labor governments to do more to clean up the sector.

This masthead can also reveal that the administration has turned its attention to Cobolt’s dispute with Toscano because of suggestions a now ex-union official may have joined Gatto and Khoury in applying pressure on Toscano’s business.

Cobolt is one of several Victorian building firms that, according to financial records seen by The Age, have made payments to one of two front companies set up by Khoury’s accountant, Charlie Pellegrino.

The federal police are actively investigating these payments and raided Pellegrino’s office in March.

According to building industry insiders quizzed by federal agents, and who asked not to be identified to relay confidential information, police want to know why these payments have been made to Pellegrino and whether they were linked to Gatto and Khoury.

For weeks now, this masthead has also sought to get answers from Munn about why Cobolt paid a Pellegrino firm.

Munn and most recently Munn’s lawyer, Grant Walker of Macpherson Kelly, have declined to respond to specific questions.

Without an explanation, it is unclear why Gatto and Khoury have both not only claimed to have worked for Cobolt but were agitating the very claims the company has long made against Toscano.

For his part, Khoury visited the Collingwood building site at the heart of the dispute claiming to be there on behalf of Cobolt, demanding the return of equipment and materials Cobolt said belonged to the firm. Khoury left his card with a security guard, who duly photographed it and filed a report.

Gatto made several calls to Munn’s nemesis, Joe Toscano, who not only tape-recorded the calls but provided the recordings to the Victorian police because he was fearful of Gatto’s reputation as an underworld enforcer.

During one call, the details of which have not before been fully revealed, Gatto told Toscano that he was “ringing on behalf of Cobolt” and provided detailed knowledge of the legal claim Cobolt had threatened to bring against Toscano while he scrambled to complete his Collingwood building project, having earlier sacked Cobolt over hotly disputed claims of poor performance.

“We’re trying to rectify these issues before they get stretched out along the way. So why don’t we just have the roundtable and bring Cobolt to the meeting,” Gatto offered Toscano.

When Toscano asked Gatto to clarify what Cobolt wanted, Gatto provided extensive details.

“Well, they’re [Cobolt] talking about their $400,000 [bank] guarantees. They’re talking about the car park stacker that they paid for and different things they’ve paid for. One million dollars I think they’re talking about.”

During the call, Gatto also issued words reported last year and which have since become infamous, in that they point to the gangland figure’s power in the building industry to shut down sites with the help of compliant CFMEU officials.

“I can stop anyone doing it, mate. And I say that respectfully. I don’t wanna be a smarty,” the gangland figure said with quiet menace. “We can cause you grief. I know you’ve got enough grief in your life already.”

The multimillion-dollar legal dispute between Toscano and Cobolt is now headed for a trial before a Victorian court, with the developer and Munn both denying the claims each man is making about eachother.

As part of that wrangling, Cobolt was awarded about $156,000 through the County Court in 2024, but Toscano’s company subsequently made offsetting claims which the Supreme Court accepted could have a basis.

Last month, Cobolt’s lawyer Grant Walker, doubled down on Munn’s denials of having any dealings with gangland figures.

Asked to explain the links between Cobolt and Pellegrino, Gatto and Khoury, Walker said Munn’s denials were unchanged.

“At the outset, Cobolt has previously responded to and denied allegations that it ‘hired’ or ‘engaged’ ‘gangland figures’ to ‘recover moneys owing’ to Cobolt or ‘to deal with the dispute linked to Joe Toscano’s development’,” Walker said.

In contrast to Munn, Toscano hasn’t stopped talking about his dealings with Gatto, Khoury and Cobolt.

He’s now assisting the federal police and CFMEU administration chief investigator Geoffrey Watson, SC, get to the bottom of the issues surrounding his project.

“The industry needs proper reform and the only way to achieve this is to keep shining a light,” he told this masthead recently.

Toscano’s Collingwood project is finally finished. It’s well over time, and he’s probably made a loss, but Toscano is proud of what he built.

The legacy of the Collingwood project, though, may not be the building itself but, rather, Toscano’s role in fighting to rid gangland fixers from building sites.

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