Arnold Vitocco: Billionaire property developer charged over alleged Sydney asbestos mulch scandal

A billionaire property developer, his company, and two others are facing a raft of charges over the asbestos in mulch crisis that shut down dozens of Sydney parks, schools and hospitals earlier this year.

The NSW Environment Protection Authority (EPA) has uncovered 102 alleged offences in relation to the discovery of bonded asbestos in mulch at 26 sites, including the state government’s long-awaited Rozelle Parklands project.

Arnold Vitocco, the sole director of VE Resource Recovery, is the only individual charged by the NSW EPA with an executive liability offence linked to his company’s alleged breach of its environmental protection licence.

The Nightly understands Mr Vitocco will defend the charge against him.

Two other entities trading as Greenlife Recovery Facility — Freescale Trading Pty Ltd and Runkorp Pty Ltd — face 50 additional charges each for allegedly reusing asbestos waste, breaching a Resource Recover Order and carrying out scheduled activities without an EPA licence.

The director of Freescale is Mr Vitocco’s son Domenic and Runcorp’s director is businessman Adrian Runko. They have not been charged.

The EPA will bring the 102 charges against Mr Vitocco and the three companies to the NSW Land and Environment Court in February.

“The prosecutions follow the largest investigation in the EPA’s history which was launched after bonded asbestos was discovered in mulch at Rozelle Parklands,” the EPA said in a statement.

“During the investigation over 300 sites were inspected, with 79 sites identified as having used contaminated mulch. All 79 sites have now been cleaned up by owners.”

The offences relate to 26 of those 79 contaminated sites, including Rozelle Parklands.

Most of the contaminated mulch detected across Sydney in January and February this year was traced back to the Greenlife Resource Recovery Facility in Bringelly, in Sydney’s south-west.

Mr Vitocco’s VE Resources Recovery — which faces one charge in relation to allegedly failing to carry out resource recovery activities competently — holds the licence for the Greenlife Resource Recovery Facility (GRRF).

Mr Vitocco is a prominent Australian businessman and rich lister credited with building Narellan Town Centre with Tony Perich.

He is reportedly a major landholder in Bringelly and, according to the Sydney Morning Herald, plans to build a 7000-home development in the area.

Vitocco Enterprises also reportedly bought the Australian arm of the Max Brenner chocolatier chain in 2019.

The Vitocco family’s charitable foundation also invested $5 million into the Powerhouse Parramatta precinct to “establish innovative and engaging programs centred on food” with the Vitocco Family Kitchen and Vitocco Legacy Project.

In a statement released after the charges were revealed, a spokesman for GRRF said the company maintains its innocence and would “strongly defend” the allegations.

“The media has been informed of the details before the company has been served with the file documents,” the statement reads.

“GRRF maintains that no asbestos contamination has been discovered by the EPA now, or during any previous testing at the Bringelly site.

“GRRF takes its environmental obligations very seriously, does not accept demolition waste and has strict protocols to ensure its products are not contaminated before they leave the site.

“The supply chain is complex and there are several ways asbestos can contaminate materials. One scenario involves delivering clean materials to a remediated site, where they are mixed with the existing materials onsite.”