Four Corners reporter Mahmood Fazal has been sacked by the ABC, managing director Hugh Marks has told a Senate estimates hearing this week.
Fazal is a former member of the Mongols bikie group and a Walkley Award–winning journalist specialising in crime, imprisonment and terrorism.
He was the subject of an seven-month internal investigation into a 2025 appearance on podcast “Word of the Street” with self-proclaimed “media cowboy” Ryan Naumenko, The Australian reports.
The podcast ended after two episodes, with Naumenko claiming that Fazal wanted to be paid in cash for his appearances “so that he could hide the financial arrangement from his managers at the ABC.”
Marks said on Thursday: “I don’t think it’s inappropriate for me to go into the details of the investigation, but the outcome of the investigation is the findings have led to Mr Fazal no longer being paid by the ABC.”
The managing director added, “The investigation (was) specifically related to the external work request that Mr Fazal made at the time in relation to (the) podcast he intended to appear on, and it was very important, under our enterprise agreement, that we were very specific as to the scope of that investigation.”
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When questioned about Fazal’s hiring by the ABC, the broadcaster reported that Marks explained:
“He had left [the Mongols], he had gone to university and studied, he had become a journalist and when he was employed by the ABC, he had already had a journalistic background and a career in journalism.
“He was up front that his previous connections allowed him to help tell stories about what was going on in the criminal underworld, in a way that met our standards but was of interest and of public interest and that, at the time, those stories were important to tell.”
Mahmood Fazal responds to sacking by the ABC
In an Instagram post to his personal account on Thursday, Fazal responded to news of his termination by the ABC.
He reassured his followers that he’s “good”, but added:
“I’m disappointed by the outcome of the ABC investigation…I’m copping it on the chin and moving on.
“I’m very proud of the different stories and communities I was able to platform on the ABC.”
Fazal shared screenshots of the stories which he was most proud of, including one about drugs cartels and another on sex workers.
Top image: Mahmood Fazal. Image: ABC