TV newsman Seb Costello has been spotted with a colourful Married At First Sight personality just hours after being accused of assaulting an inner-city loan manager.
Nine is formally reviewing allegations the A Current Affair star attacked the finance executive during a wild on-camera chase that ended in a women’s lavatory this week, but has already indicated he retains the network’s full support.
It comes as private lending firm Oak Capital launched legal proceedings in the Supreme Court of Victoria on Thursday and effectively had all vision of the incident suppressed.
Although Costello has been stood down by Nine pending the outcome of the probe, he appeared unfazed by the furore when he was seen out and about for dinner with MAFS’ fan favourite Tim Smith on Melbourne’s Chapel St on Thursday evening.
The alleged clash unfolded when Costello took property developer Peter Aquino to Oak Capital’s headquarters in Melbourne’s exclusive Rialto tower on Monday.
They were there to confront the executives Mr Aquino blames for the collapse of his business as part of Costello’s long-running investigation into the firm.
Mr Aquino claims he was forced to shutter his Construct Homes company after he was unable to meet exorbitant 18 per cent interest rates allegedly steeped on his 2022 loan.
He has also accused the finance firm of trying to intimidate him by sending men who looked like bikies to the home he shares with his partner and children after he missed a payment last year.
But when Costello and Mr Aquino spotted Oak Capital case manager Mo Ahmed in the foyer of the opulent office block, the finance boss was not taking questions.
Instead, he ran off along the city’s bustling Collins St and into the nearby Intercontinental Hotel, where he tried to hide from Costello and A Current Affair’s cameras in the women’s lavatory.
Costello and his crew allegedly followed Mr Ahmed into the toilets and continued to pepper him with queries about his company’s lending practices.
Oak Capital has since levelled serious allegations against both Nine and Costello, accusing the high-profile reporter of assaulting Mr Ahmed after following him into the toilet.
Ronayne Ownes Lawyers confirmed they had been retained to handle the proceedings on Oak Capital’s behalf – but declined to provide any specific details of the alleged assault.
‘The proceedings include allegations by Oak Capital, amongst other matters, of assault by a Nine Network reporter,’ director Luke Owens told Daily Mail Australia.
‘As the matter remains before the Court, Oak will not provide any further comment on these matters.’
He also warned against publishing any vision of the altercation, saying it would be in breach of Nine’s undertaking to the court that it would ‘not publish or cause to be published…any material that was filmed by them’ relating to Oak Capital.
A Nine spokesman confirmed Costello and his crew had been stood down but indicated they retained the full backing of the network.
‘While we are aware of a range of allegations made against Nine by an individual representing a company facing legal proceedings commenced by ASIC, we believe the legal claim has no basis,’ the spokesman said.
It is understood the confrontation was the culmination of a month-long investigation into Oak Capital by Costello and A Current Affair, which also includes an extensive interview with the Australian Securities and Investments Commission deputy chair Sarah Court.
The corporate regulator has also been busy investigating Oak Capital, and is currently pursuing the private credit firm in the federal court for ‘unconscionable conduct’.
ASIC has accused the private credit firm of making 47 loans that avoided credit rules and deprived its clients ‘of important consumer protections, including responsible lending obligations, the right to make a hardship application and protection from being charged excessive fees and interest’.
The regulator claims that borrowers were often in financial distress and that when they defaulted on loans, Oak Capital immediately moved to repossess their homes.
Oak Capital has denied any wrongdoing and indicated it would fight the allegations in court.
‘All our loans comply with relevant laws and industry standards, including the 47 illustrative examples relied upon by ASIC,’ the company said in a statement online.
‘In regards to recent media coverage, Oak Capital refutes all allegations of predatory lending practices. We have always complied with the law and best practices.’
Nine insiders said the entire A Current Affair newsroom had rallied around Costello and his team in the wake of the allegations.
‘It probably tells you more about the (alleged) character of the bloke running and hiding in the women’s loos because they’re too afraid to answer simple questions than anything else,’ one told Daily Mail Australia.
‘That’s a very strange thing to do.’
Costello has also retained the support of Mr Aquino, who witnessed the entire encounter, and has also taken legal action against the company.
‘I can’t thank ACA enough and thank Seb Costello enough,’ he said. ‘Losing my business was like losing my child.’
Costello declined to comment when approached by Daily Mail Australia.
The reporter recently made national headlines after obtaining a recording of former Victorian premier Dan Andrews’ triple-0 call in the moments after a traffic accident he was in left a 15-year-old cyclist with life-threatening injuries.
Mr Andrews was state opposition leader when the SUV – carrying him, his wife and their three children – was in an accident with teenage cyclist Ryan Meuleman near Blairgowrie, on Victoria’s Mornington Peninsula, on January 7, 2013.
He has always maintained his wife, Catherine, was driving and came to a complete stop when Mr Meuleman, then 15, T-boned their Ford Territory.
In the call, Mr Andrews tells a triple zero operator that ‘a kid’s come flying through on the bike path and we’ve hit him’.
MAFS star Smith is no stranger to controversy either.
A fan favourite, who was known was known as ‘Tin Man’, due to a tattoo of the Wizard of Oz character who told everyone he did not have a heart, has previously told Daily Mail Australia he once lived a secret life as an international drug trafficker back in 2006.
Smith summed up his drug-running days, which ended with a prison sentence and devastating family tragedy, by describing what he was like as a 33-year-old in 2006.
‘I had big b***s and no brains,’ he said.
Recently divorced, Queensland-raised Smith had been living in Canada and working in construction while doing bartending shifts three nights a week at the time when a regular customer offered to pay for him to take helicopter lessons.
It turned out Smith was a natural – he was up in the air on his own after just ten hours’ training – and his friend from the nightclub soon put him in control of a $700,000 Bell 206 JetRanger.
A month or so after first stepping into the JetRanger, Smith was running hundreds of kilograms of cannabis from Canada over the US border into Washington state, two or three times a week.
When he realised the purpose of the flying lessons he was offered, he didn’t think much of about the risk.
‘Weed was no big thing,’ Smith said. ‘If you got caught it was no big thing. There was no talk of jail, just a slap on the wrist. Looking back, I was a f***ing idiot.’
Having exposed his drug-running past, Smith insisted it did not define his life but knew he would always have to live with its consequences.
‘It’s just something I did for three months,’ he said. ‘But I did it and that’s part of paying the price.
‘I know what it is like to have nothing. I know what it’s like to feel like nothing and be nothing.’
Smith rejected any suggestion he got off lightly, serving just one year in prison.
‘I’ve said my sentence started the day I got out,’ he said. ‘I’ve paid a heavy price. I got life. It wasn’t a 12-month sentence.’