Roy Medich had a falling out with his brother but they have since made up. Credit:Ben Rushton Mr Shum is the majority shareholder of property developing company Boyuan Holdings which, since listing on the Australian Securities Exchange last year, has been buying up properties in the Hunter Valley and Marsden Park in Sydney's north-west. The sale to the Chinese investors includes the Medich brothers' 344-hectare site at Elizabeth Drive, Badgerys Creek, and their nearby 73ha holding in Bringelly. "Unfortunately, we have signed confidentiality agreements so I can't make any comment," said Roy Medich of the sale of the two sites. The title deeds show that caveats were registered on the respective Medich properties on July 14. The purchasing entities are through Cyan Stone companies, which are subsidiaries of Boyuan Holdings.

Tin Ching Shum, executive director for Boyuan Holdings Limited. Credit:BHL website The Cyan Stone purchasing companies were set up on July 13 and the sole director is Chaohui Zhu, whose husband Caden Wan is Boyuan's chief executive officer. The proposed purchase, via put and call options, was not included in Boyuan's half-yearly notice to the ASX, which was filed last week. Graham Richardson acts as a lobbyist for the Medich brothers. Credit:Graham Tidy A spokesman for Boyuan declined to comment on the sale, adding that the company was "in compliance with its ASX obligations".

The Badgerys Creek site has been the subject of unwelcome attention since the September 2009 murder of Ron Medich's former business partner Michael McGurk. The lobbyist for the brothers, controversial former politician Graham Richardson, revealed shortly after Mr McGurk's murder that Mr McGurk had used a secret recording in an attempt to blackmail Ron Medich by claiming the recording contained evidence of corrupt politicians approving land deals. A subsequent corruption inquiry found no evidence of any planning decisions that benefited the Mediches. However, Ron Medich's ongoing notoriety made it impossible to do anything with the site, his brother Roy told the Supreme Court in 2014.

The publicity about his brother, who was charged with Mr McGurk's murder in 2010, "has compromised my ability to deal with the Department of Planning, particularly in relation to the Badgerys Creek property," said Roy Medich in affidavit filed in the court. At that time the brothers were at loggerheads over Badgerys Creek. Roy wanted to sell the site but Ron, in the middle of a messy divorce, wanted his part of the land to be separated off rather than sold. Since then the pair appear to have made up with Roy attending his brother's murder trial earlier this year. The jury was unable to reach a verdict so Ron Medich faces a new trial starting in January next year. The Medich brothers purchased the Badgerys Creek site in 1996 from the CSIRO, which was offloading its redundant McMaster Farm, just across the road from proposed airport site at Badgerys Creek. At the time of the sale the CSIRO was chaired by former NSW premier Neville Wran, who was later to become Ron Medich's partner in a gourmet pizza business.

There was no auction and the Medich family company, Becklon Pty Ltd, was the only tenderer for the CSIRO farm. It was a whirlwind deal. The Mediches registered the shelf company, Becklon Pty Ltd, on October 22, became directors on November 4 and exchanged contracts for the Badgerys Creek land two weeks later. Zoned agricultural, the Mediches picked up the farm for $3.5 million, or about $10,000 a hectare. Local real estate agents said at the time that the Mediches had got a bargain. Two years later the federal government paid 50 times that price – $500,000 a hectare – to acquire land for the proposed airport. At that time Roy Medich was a member of the Greater Western Sydney Economic Development Board, an organisation lobbying to get the Badgerys Creek airport up at running. Roy Medich denied his new land holding would cause a conflict of interest. "If things fall into place I may make some money, but I don't intend to use my position on the board to influence any rezoning of the land," he told a local newspaper.