Associate of Sydney crime family jailed for firebombing journalist’s Bondi home

An associate of the Alameddine crime family has been sentenced to a maximum five-year term over what a judge described as a “professional attack on a journalist”.

Tufi Junior Tauese-Auelia, 39, pleaded guilty to his involvement in the targeted firebombing in November 2022 of the Bondi rental home of political commentator and YouTube satirist Jordan Shanks, known online as FriendlyJordies.

Tauese-Auelia also pleaded guilty to a vicious attack in July 2022. On that occasion, a man was severely beaten by Tauese-Auelia and others armed with baseball bats. The victim suffered a fractured eye socket, lacerations and a broken elbow.

“I would just like to apologise from the bottom of my heart,” Tauese-Auelia told the court. “I’m over this life. Your honour, I’ve wasted so many years in jail.”

Describing prison as a “jungle”, Tauese-Auelia, who came with his parents from Samoa as a child, told District Court Judge Michael McHugh that he would “rather die than come back to jail”.

“Nothing, nothing, nothing good comes from this place,” said Tauese-Auelia, who was giving evidence by an audio-visual link from Nowra jail.

His barrister, Alex Cassels, told the court that his client was “a little boy in a very large body” who suffered from a serious condition known as intermittent explosive disorder.

However, the judge noted Tauese-Auelia had a long history of violent offending and was already serving a three-year term for an assault.

McHugh said that Tauese-Auelia was being used as “muscle” for third parties who were not named. He noted that there had been a degree of planning before the firebombing of Shanks’ house.

This included surveillance, obtaining of accelerant and use of a stolen Mercedes, which had “cloned” number plates to avoid police detection.

The judge said no motive had been given but that the arson attack was directed at a journalist.

The Herald has previously reported that the firebombing occurred several months after the popular YouTuber examined Coronation Property’s hiring of former Deputy Premier John Barilaro as the developer company’s executive director.

Barilaro held the job from February until June 2022, when he resigned to take his controversial and later-abandoned job as a New York trade commissioner.

Coronation’s former company secretary Andy Nahas’ alleged links to high-profile Alameddine associates were examined in the August 2022 video.

Last month, a police exhibit tendered in a Supreme Court murder trial named Andy Nahas as a senior member of the Alameddine crime gang.

After receiving further threats over the video, Shanks took down the YouTube video in February 2024. “You win. We’re taking down the video ... Congratulations. You run this city,” said Shanks in a statement in which he referred to unnamed people who were “once again venting, threatening dire consequences if the video isn’t taken down”.

The Herald is not suggesting that Nahas or anyone else associated with Coronation Property was involved in the firebombing or issuing threats, and does not suggest that Tauese-Auelia has any connection to Coronation Property or its owners.

The judge said that “the commission of these offences was a continuing attitude of disobedience to the law”. He sentenced Tauese-Auelia to a maximum of five years’ imprisonment, but after taking into account his guilty plea, he will be eligible for parole in July 2027.

Last week, Andre Stepanyan, 39, had his charges relating to the FriendlyJordies’ firebombing dropped.

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