An employee of logistics company Linfox has been arrested for allegedly extorting a sub-contractor for gifts and payments worth about $500,000 over a two-year period.
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The gifts that 38-year-old man Badih El Khatib, who is said to be a regional manager with Linfox, is alleged to have demanded included a motor vehicle.
Police allege that the sub-contractor, whose name has been suppressed by the courts, paid Khatib in gifts and money to maintain a transport contract.
They began investigating Khatib after Linfox contacted police to inform them that they believed he was receiving personal payments from the sub-contractor.
Police arrested Khatib in the Sydney suburb of Mount Druitt on Wednesday and charged him with extortion, corruption and dealing in the proceeds of crime. They also seized cash from his home in Colyton in western Sydney.
Khatib's profile on online networking sites shows he has previously worked as a transport manager for another large multinational company, DB Schenker, and online grocer Shopfast.
He successfully applied for bail when he appeared at Burwood Local Court in western Sydney on Thursday, on condition he reports to police daily and does not set foot within 100 metres of a Linfox premise. Khatib was also required to surrender his passport.
Khatib will re-appear in court in Penrith on June 12.
Linfox declined to comment because the matter was before the courts.