Tycoon’s family told: Pay £28m or he dies in jail
BY STUART MacDONALD AN EX-BOXER has been convicted of a £28million blackmail plot to cover up the murder of a Scots businessman in Australia.
Fortunato “Lucky” Gattellari organised the killing of Michael McGurk for millionaire property tycoon Ron Medich.
Dad-of-four Michael, 45, originally from Glasgow’s Gorbals, was killed by a single bullet to the head outside his Sydney home in September 2009.
Gattellari was arrested for his role in the murder but was left incensed when Medich refused to pay his legal fees in the case.
He agreed to be the prosecution’s star witness but later had an accomplice send a demand to Medich offering to change his evidence if he was paid £28.5million.
Medich, 70, was found guilty in April of arranging for Michael to be killed after their business relationship soured. He was sentenced to 30 years in jail.
Gattellari, 68, was sentenced to seven-and-ahalf years for his part in the murder but was later charged with trying to extort money from Medich.
At his trial, Gattellari said he became “bitter” towards Medich and “hated his guts”, adding that the money demands were a bid to trap him into accepting a bribe.
He said: “I never once intended to take one cent from Ron Medich. He screwed me enough as it was.”
A message sent to Medich’s family said unless he paid £28.5million by May 15, 2014, he’d “die in jail”, adding: “It’s the cost of being guilty.”
The jury at the New South Wales District Court did not believe Gattellari’s claim he was trying to “trap” Medich into accepting a bribe.
He was found guilty of conspiring in 2013 and 2014 to defraud Medich and will be sentenced in March.