$1m cash hidden in the wardrobe

Geesche Jacobsen

May 5, 2011 Source: Sydney Morning HeraldTHE man who allegedly conspired with the former Crime Commission assistant director Mark Standen to import pseudoephedrine kept $1 million in cash in his wardrobe, his wife told a court yesterday.

Dianne Jalalaty, a former federal police officer, said her husband, the food wholesaler Bakhos ''Bill'' Jalalaty, had told her a friend of Mr Standen's would give him a loan to start a business.

"He returned home with a bag,
a sports bag that had cash in it."
... Dianne Jalalaty. Photo: Nick Moir

Mrs Jalalaty told the Supreme Court yesterday she knew ''this friend was someone Mark [Standen] had helped'' in ''an immigration situation''. She came to know him by the nickname B52, which is allegedly the name Mr Standen and Mr Jalalaty used for the former drug dealer James Kinch.

Mrs Jalalaty said that in February 2006 her husband met someone about the loan. ''He returned home with a bag, a sports bag that had cash in it. He told me there was a million dollars in it.''

The bag contained bundles of ''fifties, hundreds and some twenties'', but, ''I didn't expect cash''.

The Crown Prosecutor, Tim Game, SC, asked: ''From time to time did you go to the bag and, at your husband's request, and take out say 20,000 or … 30,000 or whatever?''

''Yes, I did.''

''Did your husband … say to you anything concerning what the money was to be used for?''

''Yes, he made it very clear the money was to be used to buy product and not for lifestyle.'' Mrs Jalalaty said.

Mr Standen is accused of conspiring with Mr Jalalaty and Mr Kinch to import pseudoephedrine and pervert the course of justice, and of taking part in the supply of 300kgs of pseudoephedrine.

The jury has heard Mr Kinch was an informant who had charges against him dropped in 2004 after he forfeited $900,000 to the NSW Crime Commission.

Mrs Jalalaty, who also worked at the National Crime Authority, said Mr Standen and her husband never talked about business in her presence.

In December 2005 her husband said $50,000 would be deposited in their account for Mr Standen: ''The money was for Mark and he was going to have an operation on his eyes.''

Her evidence will continue today.