Mr Tian was extradited on Saturday to Queensland. It was a far cry from the luxury Sydney pad or the $2.6 million, five-bathroom home complete with sauna, home theatre, gym, billiard room and "creek-side sporting field" where he was living in a swanky inner-west Brisbane suburb before allegedly fleeing the state last year. Wearing watchhouse browns on Monday morning, he was led into the Brisbane Magistrates Court's see-through prison dock at 9.25am. Enter another of the major players in the convoluted story that has emerged since Mr Pisasale resigned earlier this month: Brisbane barrister Sam Di Carlo. As it emerged that Australia's one-time most-popular politician had been stopped by the AFP with the cash in Melbourne and raided by Crime and Corruption Commission officers the day before his retirement, Mr Di Carlo had stepped forward to offer an explanation.

Former Ipswich mayor Paul Pisasale. Credit:Tammy Law He said the cash was being carried as a favour for him, before later revealing it was intended for Mr Tian, given to him by his father to pay an aunt to conclude a Supreme Court civil action. On Monday morning, Mr Di Carlo, a barrister of 26 years more accustomed to the state's higher courts and higher profiles, made his way into Brisbane's less-glamourous arrest court on Roma Street. He and magistrate Suzette Coates shared a brief joke at the expense of his instructing firm, A Ace Solicitors, before what turned out to be a relatively brief hearing. "I think they were desperate to get to the front of the phone record," he said.

"Desperate might be the expression," the magistrate replied, to a hearty chuckle. His client stood accused of a raft of fraud and forgery offences allegedly committed in 2015, including swindling his own father-in-law out of almost $1 million. Police allege he forged a Power of Attorney for the man in May 2015, using it to make out a $900,000 bank cheque to the Treasury Casino, before gambling it away in two days. According to documents lodged by the Director of Public Prosecutions opposing Mr Tian's application for bail in October 2015, Mr Tian told police he had $5 million in gambling debts and he took the money to try to win more. A check of records at Echo Entertainment Group showed he had lost $2 million at Brisbane's Treasury Casino and Jupiter's Casino on the Gold Coast, police claimed.

Mr Tian was released on bail in May 2015 but was back behind bars by September, accused of impersonating a neighbour on exclusive Tristania Road, Chapel Hill, and using his home to take out a $1 million loan. He was again granted bail in the Supreme Court in October 2015 even after a judge heard Director of Public Prosecutions concerns he would defraud someone else. On Monday, the magistrate was dealing with the 32-year-old's alleged failure to appear in court and another four breaches of bail. The fraud and forgery offences, more than a dozen in total, had already been committed to the District Court. Mr Tian did not apply for bail on Monday morning and was remanded in custody.

He had given an enforceable promise to stop gambling in order to be released from the Arthur Gorrie Correctional Centre in 2015 but allegedly went back on that promise three times, his player history at Brisbane's Treasury Casino giving him away. As part of his conditions, Mr Tian was later forced to self-ban himself from Echo Entertainment Group's Brisbane and Gold Coast operations, but not the venue in Sydney, the city where he was picked up on Thursday. Mr Di Carlo told the court he could not show cause for why his client had allegedly failed to appear and breached bail conditions by gambling and heading interstate. Outside court, he said he would need to check with his client again but Mr Tian had always intended to plead guilty to the offences. Mr Di Carlo said although he asked Mr Pisasale to carry the bag holding $50,000 in order to settle a Supreme Court civil suit involving his client, there were no "links" between the accused fraudster and the former mayor.

Mr Pisasale, who cited ill-health as he resigned, has been charged with extortion not believed to be related to the $50,000 and pledged to fight the charge.