The ATO advised on Tue 15.5.2012, that 3 company directors had been sentenced to a total of 9 years jail for tax fraud following joint investigations by the Australian Federal Police and the ATO under Project Wickenby.
According to the Tax Office, one of the directors was convicted and sentenced to 4 years jail with a non-parole period of 2 years for defrauding the Commonwealth. His wife was sentenced to 3 years imprisonment with a non-parole period of 15 months. Their business partner received the equivalent of a 2 year suspended sentence, the ATO said. As co-directors of an air conditioning company, the ATO said the trio used illegal “round-robin” schemes, where money labelled as “company expenses” was transferred to a Vanuatu account and returned “tax-free” to the taxpayers’ personal accounts.
Source: ATO media release No 2012/13, 15 May 2012
[LTN 92, 15/5]