Australia - John Ibrahim's motley mates

OFF THE WIRE
BY: Dylan Welch
Source: smh.com.au
FROM the club owners and licensees to the most dangerous of the dozens of outlaw motorcycle clubs that roam the 500 metres of Darlinghurst Road at the weekend - John Ibrahim knows them all.
The Tunnel (until recently called Dragonfly) is where Mr Ibrahim's long and mysterious nightclub career began, back in 1990 when he bought into the 12-month-old bar.
Its owner and licensee, David Robert Auld, is one of Mr Ibrahim's good friends and the club is a hangout for Mr Ibrahim's less salubrious friends. Mr Auld also has a stake in the newish strip joint The Bank. His more well-to-do mates will be found at the Piano Room and The Club, near the southern end of the Darlo strip.
Advertisement: Story continues below They are also owned by figures with close connections to Mr Ibrahim: at Piano, they are Poata Okeroa, Mimmo Salvato and radio jock and wannabe nightclub mogul Kyle Dalton Sandilands; Erik Jury, the Hardin family and two other business partners are at The Club.
The real estate agent and former publican who owns the freehold for the Piano Room, Greg Magree, is a good friend.
There is Lady Lux - owned by Mr Ibrahim's close friends and one-time business partners, the sons of Sydney criminal identity George Freeman, David George and Adam Sonny.
Even Porky's is managed by ''Ashtray Frank'' Amante, one of Mr Ibrahim's most enduring associates. And it is not only the business that Mr Ibrahim has inextricable ties to. Notorious, the outlaw bikie club whose members don't actually ride bikes, was created by Mr Ibrahim's youngest brother, Michael, and still has close associations with the Ibrahim family.
The Nomads Motorcycle Club also has a history with the Ibrahim clan. John's older brother, Hassan ''Sam'' Ibrahim, was one of the first Lebanese-Australian men to be allowed to join a local outlaw club, and he rose through the ranks to become president of the Nomads' powerful Granville chapter.
Any police officer who knows the area will confirm that John Houssam Ibrahim is an essential element of Kings Cross. Yet his name appears nowhere in the documents obtained by The Sun-Herald detailing bikie-related violence in Kings Cross nightclubs. Unless, of course, he is one of the identities named in the police intelligence reports that remain hidden, courtesy of a police black marker.
Dylan Welch has written a book about the Ibrahim family, The House of Ibrahim, to be published by Allen & Unwin early next year.