December 13, 2025 — 2:00am
Entities linked to an embattled security firm with ties to a bikie gang, an alleged tax-evasion scheme and whose CEO quit after being outed as an accused serial sex harasser are still earning millions of taxpayer dollars via lucrative security deals in Canberra and on the tiny Pacific island of Nauru.
The Albanese government faces increasing pressure over the continuing engagement of entities linked to MA Services Group and its subcontractors by Commonwealth organisations, including Australia’s peak criminal intelligence agency.
MA Services Group founder Micky Ahuja has resigned as chief executive.Luis Enrique Ascui
An investigation by this masthead can also reveal MA Services Group personnel have repeatedly attempted to cover up its role in an ongoing ope…
December 13, 2025 — 2:00am
Entities linked to an embattled security firm with ties to a bikie gang, an alleged tax-evasion scheme and whose CEO quit after being outed as an accused serial sex harasser are still earning millions of taxpayer dollars via lucrative security deals in Canberra and on the tiny Pacific island of Nauru.
The Albanese government faces increasing pressure over the continuing engagement of entities linked to MA Services Group and its subcontractors by Commonwealth organisations, including Australia’s peak criminal intelligence agency.
MA Services Group founder Micky Ahuja has resigned as chief executive.Luis Enrique Ascui
An investigation by this masthead can also reveal MA Services Group personnel have repeatedly attempted to cover up its role in an ongoing operation involving a private security force sent to the Pacific island to guard exiled Australian immigration detainees.
On Friday, the Victorian government confirmed it was suspending the embattled firm from a list of preferred security suppliers.
“Every woman deserves to feel safe at work,” Government Services Minister Natalie Hutchins said. “The allegations against MA Services are deeply concerning, which is why we are suspending the firm from the government’s supplier panel.”
Also on Friday, Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke refused to answer questions about whether it was appropriate for MA Services Group to retain a multimillion-dollar contract to guard the offices of the Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission (ACIC), given Tax Office investigations into suspected tax evasion. The ATO is one of the ACIC’s law enforcement partners.
It has also been revealed that MA Services Group had a previous business relationship with a labour-hire firm owned by a bikie gang boss, who is also of deep interest to federal law enforcement agencies.
Burke also declined to comment on whether MA Services Group was an appropriate contractor, given its founder and owner, Micky Ahuja, is accused of sexually harassing female employees.
Ahuja stepped down as chief executive of MA Services Group on Thursday morning after this masthead uncovered allegations of sexual harassment, bullying and offering vulnerable women cash in exchange for sex. Since then, this masthead has received more reports alleging that Ahuja has a long history of sexually harassing women in the workplace.
Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke has declined to answer questions about Australia’s role in funding a private security force on Nauru.Alex Ellinghausen
In response to questions about why it was paying MA Services Group almost $4 million to secure its offices given the serious allegations, the ACIC said it had an “existing contract” with the firm and that its “security guards are licensed, hold a security clearance and are also subject to the ACIC’s Organisational Suitability Assessment”.
Burke also declined to answer questions about whether it was appropriate that Australia continued to pay for – via a funding deal with the Nauru government – a multimillion-dollar private security force on the island.
The security force was created by personnel at MA Services Group via subcontractors, and its job is to protect the Nauruan community from immigration deportees – known as the NZYQ cohort – deemed too dangerous to remain in Australia and who are being gradually deported to the Pacific by Labor.
Two sources with ties to the security arrangement confirmed that only days ago, a senior MA Services Group operative directed members of the private security force to keep secret the Australian security company’s continuing ties to the Nauru operation.
“In short, it’s definitely still run and managed by MA” figures, one source said of the security operation.
MA Services Group has previously sought to distance itself from the Nauru operation amid revelations of links to a bikie gang also involved in the security deal.
But the private security guards on Nauru were told by the MA Services Group operative they would be operating via a newly formed subcontractor, International Security Solutions, and would be given new uniforms.
The sources also revealed new details about how the security force was operating.
It consists of former Australian law enforcement and military personnel and other security guards who conduct covert and overt surveillance on the small number of NZYQ cohort members in Nauru. The security operatives are directed to call the Nauru Police Force if they fear a crime will be committed.
The sources said International Security Solutions would replace an earlier firm created by people associated with MA Services Group, Nauru Community Safety Pty Ltd.
Earlier this month, Ahuja sought to claim – via a public relations agent – that he had no connection to Nauru Community Safety. However, an MA Services Group insider this week leaked a document on official Nauru government letterhead that names Ahuja and an MA Services Group subsidiary, the MA International Group, as the registered shareholders of Nauru Community Safety.
While the Albanese government and the federal agencies and departments still paying MA Services for security guards have said nothing about the firm’s future as a government contractor, some of its corporate clients are moving to sever ties to the embattled firm.
Security industry sources said that Amazon and property giant CBRE were among the blue-chip companies seeking to replace MA Services Group after the revelation about the firm and Ahuja’s conduct, while Coles has launched a major internal investigation that might imperil a multimillion-dollar contract with the supermarket giant.
Ahuja has denied all allegations of wrongdoing and said this week that his decision to quit as CEO was because he wanted to focus on being a husband and father. But he will not escape scrutiny, with a parliamentary inquiry examining the Nauru security deal.
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