It is alleged the money ended up in New Zealand accounts at ANZ National and the Bank of New Zealand via a “round-robin” tax dodge scheme. The scheme originated in 2004 and was allegedly designed to evade millions of dollars of tax owed by the men to the Australian Tax Office.
Australian Federal Police allege former Murchison Metals director Phillip Grimaldi and Garry Bonaccorso, a seed capital investor in his company, used companies linked to accused money launderer Robert Agius, a partner of PKF Vanuatu, for their scheme.
On top of these cases, Agius faces a raft of claims over alleged tax evasion totaling A$100 million ($81 million) in the New South Wales High and Supreme courts and in the Federal Court of Australia.
Also targeted in the freezing orders are tens of millions of shares in mainly Australian resources companies held by the public trustee, pending separate but related court proceedings. These were traded by a company related to Agius, International Finance Trust Company Broking Services Ltd (IFTC Broking Services), allegedly on behalf of Grimaldi and Bonaccorso. IFTC has been served with a tax bill for A$3.5m ($2.8 million).
The New Zealand bank accounts are under the name of Agius’s International Finance Trust Company. So far, efforts to pin down actual ownership of that money to specific people has failed.
Bids by the men and IFTC to unfreeze the accounts have been argued in two courses of action in recent weeks. One brought by the ATO was dropped when the two men were reported to be arranging a settlement with the office. The other action was brought before the New South Wales Supreme Court of Appeal by the New South Wales Crime Commission. A decision on the latter action was reserved last Friday.
Grimaldi and Bonaccorso’s lawyer argued they were shown advice by PKF Vanuatu saying that an offshore tax scheme was legitimate based on information Agius said he got from Richard Edmonds, QC, now a Federal Court judge. ATO transcripts of interviews with Grimaldi and Bonaccorso presented to the NSW Supreme court indicated Agius used Edmond’s advice to back the schemes, it is reported.
Grimaldi was reported as saying in those transcripts that the purpose of the scheme was to avoid a 24-month escrow on his stake in Murchison Metals applying to directors of the company. He also wanted to protect his assets from litigation by putting them in a Vanuatu company that did not appear to be related to him. The litigation action relates to a mining dispute with another mining company over iron ore in Western Australia.
Judges hearing the different cases have not been able to get a clear picture of the links between the men nor evidence showing the Vanuatu companies held assets in trust for the businessmen.
Counsel for the Vanuatu companies has argued the cash and shares should not be frozen because the companies involved had to give 14 days notice to the ATO before they could disperse assets.
Agius, 59, was arrested last year and released on A$3.5m bail.
