A man accused of orchestrating an alleged $105 million tax fraud told his alleged co-conspirator it would be "bigger than Ben Hur" if the scheme was uncovered, tapped phone calls played in court have revealed.
Key points:
- Five people have pleaded not guilty over an alleged $105 million tax fraud
- The jury was played a series of secretly recorded phone calls
- The trial is expected to run for six months
Adam Cranston, the son of former Australian Tax Office (ATO) deputy commissioner Michael Cranston, is one of five people on trial in the NSW Supreme Court for allegedly running a multi-million-dollar tax scam for about four years.
All five have pleaded not guilty.
The alleged scheme involved the accused parties ripping off the government by keeping more than $100 million in GST and Pay As You Go (PAYG) tax that was meant for the ATO.
The Crown alleges they did this by using a legitimate payroll company, Plutus Payroll, to collect gross wages from employers before siphoning off money owed to the ATO into 'second-tier' or 'bottom' companies with dummy directors.
Crown prosecutor Paul McGuire SC told the court many of these 'straw' directors were drug addicts who would accept money to open up bank accounts in their names, without knowing they were involved in alleged tax fraud.
The jury was played a series of secretly recorded phone calls between Mr Cranston and his co-accused - sister Lauren Cranston, Dev Menon, Jason Cornell Onley and Patrick John Willmott.
In one phone call from January 30, 2017, Mr Cranston was audibly stressed about authorities finding out about the alleged scheme.
