The estranged wife of fugitive property developer Jean Nassif has revealed the humiliating moment her iconic yellow Lamborghini was seized while she shopped at Coles.
Nisserine Mattar became a viral sensation in 2019 when Nassif gifted her the yellow Lamborghini Urus SUV in an infamous TikTok video that quickly became a meme.
But 55-year-old Toplace tycoon Nassif fled to Lebanon in late 2022 after his property empire collapsed with debts of more than $420 million, leaving his family behind in Sydney.
He is wanted by police for alleged financial fraud and his daughter Ashlyn, 28, is accused of forging contracts for a $150 million loan to finance Toplace developments.
Thousands of homeowners are also pursuing him over defects in apartments built by his company, including the Vicinity tower block in Canterbury, whose 400 residents face a repair bill of up to $100 million.
The owners of the 900 apartments in the five towers of Toplace’s Skyview development on Castle Hill were not even allowed to move in after building inspectors discovered dangerous cracks in 2021, leading to the company’s collapse.
Now the trolls who mocked the couple’s extravagant display of wealth – which also included clips of fur coats and lavish diamond jewelry – have had the last laugh.
Nassif’s wife has admitted that she and her three children were stranded in a suburban shopping center when the infamous $480,000 Lamborghini was repossessed.
Nissy Mattar, the estranged wife of fugitive property developer Jean Nassif, has revealed the humiliating moment her iconic yellow Lamborghini (pictured) was seized while she shopped at Coles
Nisserine Mattar and Jean Nassif (pictured) became a viral sensation in 2019 when he gifted her the yellow Lamborghini Urus SUV in an infamous TikTok video that quickly became a meme
It was seized from the car park of the Rhodes shopping center in Sydney’s west as administrators tried to recoup the fortune owed to Nassif’s crashed property company.
“I was in Coles, in the Rhodes shopping center… we go back to where I parked it and it’s gone,” she told the Daily telegram.
‘The children were crying and trying to help me find it. “I called security and they checked the cameras (in the parking lot) and saw someone was taking the camera.”
Toplace administrators dVT have admitted seizing the vehicle and since selling it in the latest phase of their crackdown on Nassif’s assets.
Ms Mattar, 36 – who has reverted to her maiden name in the wake of the scandal – still uses Nassif’s Range Rover, but it is also in the sights of administrators.
They offered to exchange it for a cheaper vehicle, but administrators told creditors that Ms. Mattar had rejected the compromise.
The administrators also focus on the Mercedes-Benz company car of Ashlyn Nassif, his daughter from a previous relationship.
The luxury cars are among the few assets administrators can still cash in after an audit found millions of the company’s funds had been shifted abroad before the collapse.
Administrators discovered that the company had been trading insolvent since 2020 and used the Bank of Beirut to transfer cash to Lebanon.
Jean Nassif (circled) was seen eating at a food court in a Lebanese shopping center after fleeing abroad in the aftermath of the massive crash of his development company Toplace
The 400 residents of Canterbury’s Vicinity tower block (pictured left) are facing a repair bill of up to $100 million. The owners of the 900 apartments in the five towers of Toplace’s Castle Hill’s SkyView project (pictured right) were not even allowed to move in after building inspectors discovered dangerous cracks in 2021, leading to the company’s collapse
Nassif sent $7 million abroad for Lebanese land deals and another $10 million was sent to Nassif’s Lebanon-based brother Bakhos Khazen Nassif.
A mysterious $1.28 million was also sent to a Nigerian warehouse company partly owned by Nassif.
The company’s crash has left unsecured creditors out of pocket $400 million, while another $20 million is owed to legal creditors.
The company’s assets are estimated at just $3.94 million. A company-owned Ford Mustang also sold for $55,000 and a Land Rover will soon be sold.
The Nassifs became internet famous when the real estate boss posted the infamous Lamborghini meme on TikTok for Valentine’s Day, which was quickly lampooned.
Nassif was heard asking, “Do you like it?” to his wife – dressed in ripped designer jeans, a Gucci belt and a matching yellow Basque – in front of the supercar in their driveway.
As he filmed the car being delivered and his wife posing in front of it and exchanging kisses, Nassif said from behind the camera: “And the beast arrives.
“Congratulations to my new wife, it’s finally in our garage. Congratulations Mrs. Nassif? Do you like it?…Do you like it?’
The footage led to a series of parody videos mocking the couple, with clips of bananas, yellow rubber gloves and trash cans with yellow lids above a creepy drawl: “Do you like it?…Do you like it?”
Nissy Mattar (right) has since accused Jean Nassif (left) of being a “highly controlling and abusive” narcissist and challenged him to come back to Australia to face the music.
Nissy Mattar, mother of Nassif’s three youngest children, later said there was a more sinister reason hidden behind her beaming smile in the Lamborghini music video
Ms Mattar, mother of Nassif’s three youngest children, later said there was a more sinister reason hidden behind her beaming smile in the Lamborghini music video.
“There’s a story to be told about that car, but not yet,” she said last year. “There comes a good time, and what you saw on social media was nothing like the real story.”
She has since accused Nassif of being a “very controlling and abusive” narcissist and challenged him to come back to Australia to face the music.
She says the failed developer has abandoned his family, cut off all contact with their children and refused to pay their school fees and medical expenses.
She said she was living on loans and feared she would be evicted from the family home in the leafy harbor town of Chiswick in Sydney’s west.
“He wants to see me and the kids living in a tent on the road,” she added.
There is no evidence that Ms Mattar was in any way involved in the Toplace developments or its subsequent collapse.
