British Tabloid Discovers Our John !



John Ibrahim & pals



The web newspaper that garners more hits than any other on the planet-over 30 million a month has run a long piece on Kings Cross identity John Ibrahim who regularly graces what passes for 'social' pages in the colonies.



The Mail Online has delved into Ibrahim's connections to Australia's Got Talent judge and  former member of Irish boy band Westlife, Brian McFadden who is engaged to pop princess Delta Goodrem.

It's all very reminiscent of the Kray Twins and their show-biz connections in London in the 1960s.

 Regular Shuttle readers will be well acquainted with the ever so charming head of the large Ibrahim family who we encounter at all manner of smart parties and product launches. He is an honoured guest at the private pool bar at John Hemmes Ivy nightclub complex and Ibrahim  himself owns shares in around 20 nightclubs in Kings Cross and the Golden Mile, gay Oxford Street. Much in the same way the late Abe Saffron seemed to own a piece of the action in every nite spot in town.



Brian McFadden & Delta Goodrem

 To consolidate business affairs, John also provides an army of security personnel to guard the premises, bouncers and so on although  his girlfriend actually has the much coveted security license necessary to operate.

John's business affairs seem to be rather complicated but they have brought him great riches including a huge mansion in Dover Heights that overlooks the Pacific Ocean and Bondi Beach. In his early 40s his contact list is extensive and he regularly travels to  Dubai and Las Vegas often meeting with party girl Paris Hilton.

 It's recently been disclosed that he made an $150K payment to the NSW Crime Commission although Ibrahim claims it was a "tax debt". Apparently the original sum was $800K and John's lawyers managed to 'negotiate' it down to the smaller amount. The Crime Commission is accomodating like that.

The payment happened in 2005 when Ibrahim was facing court for threatening a witness and perverting the course of justice although all charges were eventually dismissed. 



Fadi Ibrahim

Not that John hasn't had his problems. Younger brother Fadi Ibrahim and his girlfriend were almost assassinated in 2009 by a hail of bullets as they sat in their Lamborghini outside Fadi's mansion. Poor Fadi had part of his stomach removed in hospital and it wasn't his gorgeous fiancee's first appointment with drama either.

Her former fiance Faouzi Abou-Jibal was gunned down in a park in 2009 and thus avoided a pending trial for the stabbing of the Fat Pizza TV series actor George Nassour and his brother, Robin.

Now Fadi's girlfriend Shayda Bastani, has been charged with conspiracy to murder a man alleged to have been the hooded man who shot at the pair in their Lamborghini.

Matters just get more complicated from hereon. John & Fadi's sister has been charged with "recklessly dealing with proceeds of crime" after police found she had, as one does, over $3 million in $50 & $100 notes concealed in the ceiling of her suburban house.. Perhaps a former tenant left it behind.

Older brother Sam Ibrahim is the president of the Nomads Motorcycle Club which the coppers reckon is an organised criminal gang. Sam has been charged with 2 kneecappings and running a cocaine distribution service. Even John's young son Daniel from a previous liaison was charged with affray after an incident on the Gold Coast outside a nightclub.

John featured in the top hit TV series Underbelly in 2009 when it concentrated on crime and police corruption in Kings Cross. He was portrayed as a bodyguard for crime baron George Freeman although people say he was really just a driver for Freeman who ran illegal casinos all over town.

 Freeman's 33 Club in Oxford Street was a favourite haunt of then NSW Premier Robin Askin, who like police chief Louis Renault (Claude Rains) in Rick's Bar in Casablanca said he was "shocked, absolutely shocked" when the Opposition claimed in Parliament that Sydney was awash with illegal gambling dens. Like Renault, Askin regularly pocketed his winnings at the 33 Club craps table.

The Shuttle must confess it  has form here. As shown in Underbelly, John & Fadi first got their break when they managed to take a controlling share of the Tunnel Nightclub. At a party there for the launch of a new perfume it was  the Shuttle that first propelled the 2 brothers on the road to society page stardom when we snapped the two enterprising youngsters with some sexy girls and published the pic in a Sunday newspaper. They've never looked back really !

A very famous blow job

It's becoming the most famous blow job since actor Hugh Grant got busted on the Sunset Strip just as Devine Brown was about to dive into his crutch.

Emma Booth as Hollingsworth

Kim Hollingsworth's hilarious blow-job scene in the hugely popular Underbelly The Golden Mile which is drawing audiences on Sunday nights of up to 3 million viewers.

A facebook group has started, The underbelly blow job which has over 55,000 members.

It's dedicated to the scene from the premiere last Sunday week when prospective hooker, the real life Kim Hollingsworth, played by Emma Booth began working as a prostitute in Kings Cross and  entertained her first client in a motel. 

When the client says 'I just want a blow job" Hollingsworth bends down, unzips the punter's fly, takes out his penis and starts gently blowing on it. Well she was a Convent girl. Hollingsworth worked as a prostitute for a few years before joining appropriately, the NSW police where she was posted back to-yes-Kings Cross.

Holingsworth was eventually drummed out of the force when her hooker past was revealed and the fact she had had an affair with Kings Cross identity John Ibrahim whilst still in uniform. Hollingsworth sued for unfair dismissal and initially lost but then made a small fortune modelling for men's magazines and Playboy.

Kim Hollingsworth

Last night she gave an interview on '60 Minutes' in which she described how she had had sex with "thousands of men' before being successful in her application to join the police force. Whilst training at the academy she was recognised by a detective who asked her to work in a brothel he was opening. When she complained to the powers that be, she was asked to return to the Cross and work as an undercover cop in the disguise of a prostitute. When she appealed her dismissal  from the force the police were ordered to re-instate her. Holingsworth eventually left the force after persistent harassment and is now an animal rights activist.

Peter O'Brien as Freeman

     Just how close is the new Underbelly series to the real thing ?. There is much muttering from those who were around at the time the series is set in-the 80's and 90's about inaccuracies. The 'overlord' of the Cross is depicted as the 'colorful racing identity'  George Freeman played by Miranda Otto's husband Peter O'Brien who appears as a mentor to the young John Ibrahim who at  age 40 now  controls Kings Cross nightlife. But Ibrahim would have been in shorts and still at school in the early 1980's when Freeman reigned supreme running protection rackets and several illegal gambling casinos. Freeman was dead by 1990 when he had largely been out of Kings Cross activities for a few years and Ibrahim just 20.

And so far there hasn't been a single mention of the true crime boss of Kings Cross-Abe Saffron, or Mr Sin as he was dubbed, who died in 2006  and who from the late 1940's either controlled all strip joints , gambling casinos, prostitution and anything that made an illegal buck or had a share in these illegal activities and a army of stand over men who exercised control. 
In his 2008 book, "Gentle Satan: My Father, Abe Saffron" Alan Saffron described how as a schoolboy, every afternoon he would go to his father's motel where his headquarters were located and went to a special room to count bundles of money into colour coded paper bags with each colour representing different bribes-to police  magistrates and even the state premier Sir Robert Askin. Perhaps Abe will pop up as the series progresses.

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Accidents Happen is the gorgeous Geena Davis's latest film and it had it's world premier at the Cremorne Orpheum last Thursday night.

Geena and her co-stars (c)tSS

Geena & husband Reza Jarharry (c)tSS

 Descibed as a 'black comedy' it's about a family beset by a series of accidents and how they cope with them.

Filmed in downtown St Ives on the North Shore of Sydney 2 years ago, the all Australian cast speak with American accidents.
The film is set in Connecticut.