Carlyon - Lawyer X : A Criminal Barrister Turns Police Informer Risking Everything (2020)

To Les Carlyon,

who was the kindest of teachers,

and the wisest of thinkers,

but most of all just a great dad.

Contents

THE PLAYERS

Mick Gatto: A former heavyweight boxer who becomes a member of the Carlton Crew. Gattos links to the underworld begin in the fruit and vegetable markets and illegal gambling venues in and around Lygon Street. He is now a mediator who resolves business disputes. He becomes a household name after the shooting of Gangland hitman Andrew Benji Veniamin in an Italian restaurant in 2004, and is later acquitted of murder on the grounds of self-defence.

Horty Mokbel: The second-eldest Mokbel brother, mistrustful of Gobbo.

Kabalan Mokbel: The Mokbel brother least involved in crime. Regardless, he goes to jail for drug trafficking.

Milad Mokbel: A one-time butcher and the youngest of five Mokbel children, Milad follows older brothers Tony and Horty into a life of crime. Gobbo gets one of his underlings to sting him.

Tony Mokbel: Born in Kuwait to Lebanese parents, the oddly charismatic Tony is the third of five children. After owning a milk bar and a pizza shop, he becomes a Melbourne drug lord. His prolific drug-supplying is emboldened by the demise of other Mr Bigs. Tony Mokbel is one of Gobbos key clients and she, in turn, becomes part of his criminal network.

Faruk Orman: As a working-class kid growing up near Andrew Benji Veniamin, Orman eventually comes under the wing of Mick Gatto. He is targeted by the Purana Task Force and faces two murder raps. In 2009, a jury finds him guilty of murdering underworld heavy Victor Peirce, seven years after the killing. Ten years later, Ormans conviction is overturned because his lawyer, Gobbo, was a prolific informer against him.

Andrew Benji Veniamin: A hitman who dies violently in 2004 before he can be convicted of up to six Gangland murders. A gun for hire, he keeps switching allegiances and everyone fears his drug-fuelled unpredictability.

Carl Williams: A drug trafficker shot in a suburban park by half-brothers Mark and Jason Moran in 1999. It sets off the Gangland War, with Williams-ordered bullets killing Mark, Jason and eventually their father, Lewis. Williamss life expectancy is shortened the moment he cooperates with police regarding the murder of police informers Terry and Christine Hodson.

George Williams: Carls father makes millions of dollars from drugs with his son and then loses the lot. To his dying day, he fights police over the death of his son in prison and the tax office over a tax bill imposed on his ill-gotten gains.

Roberta Williams: A street kid attracted to abusive criminals. As the wife of Carl, Roberta becomes infamous. She sticks by him, even after Carl shoots at her one Christmas Day.

THE DRUG BARONS

Pasquale Muscles Barbaro: The son of a Calabrian mafia boss, Barbaro is convicted as the head of a drug-trafficking syndicate that imports 15 million ecstasy pills into Melbourne. Gobbo, who is responsible for stinging the syndicate, joins his defence team to get him bail. He is sentenced to thirty years jail.

John Higgs: A veteran drug trafficker credited with being the founder of the Black Uhlans bikie gang. Higgs meets Gobbo through his lawyer, her boss Levi Diamond. Higgs is convicted over his role in the drug importation headed by Pasquale Muscles Barbaro and is sentenced to eighteen years.

Rob Karam: A docks expert who imports tonnes of drugs for the likes of Tony Mokbel and the Calabrian mafia. He meets Gobbo through Mokbel and they strike up a close friendship. His audacious drug trafficking unravels when he gives Gobbo a shipping document, which she copies and delivers to Victoria Police. As a result, the worlds biggest ecstasy importation is seized weeks later, hidden inside more than 3000 tomato tins.

THE LAWYERS

Joe Pino Acquaro: A lawyer who primarily serves Italian clients, some involved with the Calabrian mafia. The suave Italian uses Gobbo as a barrister for some of his key clients. His life concludes at the wrong end of a gun in 2016, outside his Italian restaurant.

Levi Diamond: A colourful solicitor who hires Gobbo as the young star of his criminal practice. Their working relationship lasts little more than a year before she leaves to become a barrister. He suspects Gobbo is too close to cops and criminals, but treats her like a daughter. She becomes a police informer for the second time and tries (unsuccessfully) to convict him as a money launderer, a charge he has always denied.

Zarah Garde-Wilson: Garde-Wilson arrives in Melbourne as a young solicitor just when the Gangland War explodes. She becomes the de facto partner of crime figure Lewis Caine, but loses him in the war. She doesnt trust Gobbo from the start.

Nicola Gobbo: A University of Melbourne Law graduate and a spectacularly good liar who craves attention from both crooks and cops. Gobbo is first registered as an informer in 1995 while still a student. She is registered twice more, in 1999 and again in 2005 when she assumed her Informer 3838 designation. Her willingness to inform on her colleagues, criminal associates and clients makes her an intelligence gold mine, which ends the Gangland War, puts away drug barons and murderers, and leads to a royal commission into the scandalous use of a defence barrister as a police informer.

Fin McRae: Victoria Polices chief legal officer from 2007 and an award-winning lawyer, he is lumbered with the Gobbo secret when its too late.

Robert Richter: An eminent barrister who defends the hardest cases, including Mick Gattos and Faruk Ormans murder trials. Gobbo sometimes acts as his junior, and, like many, he is blindsided by her duplicity.

THE DETECTIVES

Stuart Bateson: A member of the Purana Task Force who primarily targets Carl Williams. Gobbo tells Bateson about her colleagues and her clients. She helps Purana and Bateson to secure convictions against Gangland hitmen, who score reduced sentences by implicating, or rolling on, Williams and others.