The ATO and the Australian Federal Police (AFP) have announced that as part of Project Wickenby, 3 men have been charged with tax and money laundering offences relating to the transfer of $30m into Australia. All 3 men were to appear before the Sydney Central Local Court on Wed 16.10.2013.
A 65-year-old Chatswood man and a 69-year-old Point Piper man were arrested at their places of residences after the execution of 9 search warrants in the Sydney suburbs of Chatswood and Point Piper, as well as in the Sydney and Melbourne CBD, and in Glenquarry, near Mittagong. Also, a 69-year-old Belgian National was arrested at Sydney International Airport.
The ATO and the AFP said it will be alleged in court that the men arrested established a complicated network of offshore companies which were used to conduct business in Australia, and that profits derived from this activity were retained offshore, untaxed. The ATO and the AFP said it will also be alleged the profits were then transferred back to Australian companies controlled by the offenders and disguised as loans, which fraudulently reduced the tax liabilities of those companies. According to the ATO and the AFP, the people arrested received a benefit of approximately $4.9m over a 5-year period.
Source: ATO and AFP joint media release, 16 October 2013
[The Australian and Australian Financial Review (AFR) on 17.10.13 reported that the 69-year-old Australian national was a Mr John Lever of Point Piper: a former chairman of the Sunland Group (property developers) and of the transport company: Finemore Holdings Limited. The 65-year-old Australian national of Chatswood was a Mr Vanda Gould of the accounting practice GouldRalph and chairman of market-listed investment company (or ‘venture capital’ company) CVC Limited – which is in no way related to the massive London based global equity giant CVC Capital Partners. These papers named the Belgian national as Mr John Borgas, who was on his way to Switzerland, where he was based. They said the men were charged with conspiracy to dishonestly cause loss to the Commonwealth, or risk of loss and conspiracy to deal with $30m, which would become an instrument of crime. The three men spent a night in jail and were expected to be released the next day after being set a collective id=”mce_marker”2m in bail ($5m for each of the Australian nationals and $2m for the Belgian national), being required to surrender their passports, credit cards and debit cards, and being ordered to report to police 3 times per week for the Australian nationals and every day for the Belgian national. The 3 men are expected to appear in Court again (the Downing Centre Court) on 28 January 2014.
[LTN 200, 16/10/13]