Updated August 19, 2026 — 5:26pm,first published 11:56am
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A senior executive of Australian infrastructure giant BMD has been accused of secretly meeting violent members of a Melbourne bikie gang in a Brisbane sushi restaurant as part of a plot to threaten a CFMEU activist blamed for causing problems on an Albanese government-funded project.
The revelations have prompted the Labor-backed CFMEU administrator, Michael Crosby, to issue a fresh call for government action to combat the “complete failure of the regulatory system” and to call on companies with alleged links to bikie gangs and the underworld to clean up their backyards.
BMD manager Robert Pickard has also been accused in a Queensland inquiry of attempting to cover up the incident after the CFMEU crane driver complained that the leader of a three-man Melbourne bikie crew had threatened to burn down his house and murder his family during a subsequent confrontation on the $350 million Centenary Bridge project.
Counsel assisting the Queensland Commission of Inquiry into the CFMEU, Eddy Gisonda, KC, suggested on Wednesday afternoon that the terrifying standover incident occurred a short time after Pickard had met the bikie trio at a sushi shop a short stroll from the bridge redevelopment.
But while being questioned by Gisonda, Pickard repeatedly denied allegations that he knew of or witnessed the alleged Comanchero gang standover on June 5, 2024. He also dismissed suggestions he had met the bikies at the sushi shop or coordinated the alleged standover with the owner of BMD’s security subcontractor, Melbourne company Host.
Pickard’s denials came after Gisonda presented a detailed circumstantial case to back up his accusation that Pickard and BMD’s human resources chief, Steve Thomas, appeared to have played a key role in the suspected Comanchero standover of CFMEU-affiliated crane driver Cody Raymond, a man blamed for helping the construction union target BMD.
Evidence aired by Gisonda before Commissioner Stuart Wood included receipts showing that one of the three bikies had purchased sushi just minutes after Pickard and Thomas had placed orders at the sushi shop.
A short time after that, Pickard and Thomas can be seen on CCTV walking towards the Centenary Bridge project as they are trailed by three Comancheros and Melbourne businessman Gary Samuel, the BMD security subcontractor who was hired to counter an aggressive campaign by the CFMEU targeting BMD.
Pickard disagreed with Gisonda’s suggestion that he and Thomas had led the bikies to the work site at a distance to “to make sure the coast was clear” before Raymond was approached and threatened.
Phone data presented by Gisonda also revealed repeated contact or attempted contact between Samuel and both Pickard and Thomas around the time Samuel was picking up the three Melbourne bikies from Brisbane airport, as well as just after what the barrister alleged was a secret rendezvous at the sushi outlet.
During the hearing, Wood appeared to accept that Samuel had engineered the bikie standover in retaliation for the conduct of the CFMEU.
“It makes sense for Mr Samuel to do this,” Wood suggested, referring to the use of the three feared bikie identities.
“It might be quite unlawful … [but he had been] taking a knife to a gun fight and he wants to improve the tactics” in respect of BMD’s strategy, he said, to resist CFMEU pressure and in light of the indifference of state authorities to union conduct.