George Alex (right) with Bilal Fatrouni (middle) and Mike Tyson.
Mike Tyson is considered one of the world's toughest men. And last November while in Sydney he met one of Sydney's toughest crews - in the construction game.
- Know more? Email Ilya Gridneff
George Alex, a well-known labour hire contractor through his company Active Force, relished an opportunity to gather with some of his closest mates at a $3000-a-head private event with the former boxing champ. Mr Alex, 42, is a fixer of sorts, someone who can get men on a work site quickly.
In the photo with Mr Alex are ex-Comanchero bikies Sam Hamden and Bilal Fatrouni. Another significant face is convicted terrorist Khaled Sharrouf. All three are sporting beards demonstrating their Wahhabi faith, the fundamentalist form of Islam.
Fatrouni is no stranger to the law, after being released from jail in 2006, then 29, having been convicted in 2005 for steroid and gun charges. Mr Sharrouf was arrested in October 2005 and in October 2008 convicted for stealing clocks planned for a terror group's jihad plot to blow up the Lucas Heights nuclear reactor. Having served time, he was released in 2009.
Mr Alex's connections spread far and wide. Another bikie link is his former business partner Peter Sidirourgos - a convicted amphetamine manufacturer who has a Hells Angels tattoo on his neck.
As a sign of their enduring links to the construction industry the pair ran the deregistered Northern Star concrete company between 2009 and 2011. The company happened to use the registered address of the CAP accounting office, a firm run by Sam Cassaniti, an accountant convicted for defrauding the Tax Office and released in July 2009.
Another of Mr Alex's associates, Melbourne's Mick Gatto, who runs a crane company and does mediation in Victoria, denies rumours the two men have fallen out. ''George's always been a gentleman to me and I treat people how they treat me. I have no problem with him, neither should you,'' Mr Gatto said.
Mr Alex's influence is also witnessed in a connection to the Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union NSW. Active Force has an enterprise bargaining agreement with the union, which allows him access to the country's top companies who require strict guidelines when hiring manpower including the imprimatur of a deal with the union.
Mr Alex also provided freelance muscle to boost numbers at a CFMEU picket line in October 2011 targeting Nahas Construction, which subsequently went broke, last November, owing $25 million to hundreds of Sydney sub-contractors. Police were called during the picket due to tensions between the parties.
CFMEU NSW secretary Brian Parker said Mr Alex has always acted ''in a professional manner'' and pays his workers on time and the necessary penalties.
''George comes across as extremely professional. George is a person who gets involved in all sorts of things. I found him relatively decent to deal with. He sticks to his word''.
Mr Parker said Mr Alex had bulked up the picket line's numbers because he was a contractor on the site, but he was not asked to by the CFMEU. ''To whom he may associate with and surround himself with I don't know that. Have I seen one or two blokes that look a bit hard? Yes I do. Other than that I don't know,'' he said.
But despite the connections and apparent flow of work, Mr Alex has a string of now deregistered companies, including the ZL Group that went bust in February 2010.
Mr Alex declined to be interviewed.
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