The Australian Tax Commissioner, Michael Carmody, received an Order of Australia (AO) medal in the Queen’s Birthday honours list. In addition he is highly respected by his international peers and the ATO is recognised as one of the world’s best tax administrations. It was only a few months ago he was rated number six of the most influential members of the tax industry globally, in the UK magazine Tax Business: Gong for Michael Coup de Commish
Swoops by the Australian Crime Commission and the Tax Office on a clutch of law and accountancy firms, plus numerous others of "interest" around town, have given rise to much indignity, not to mention indignation. This is the first phase in a bold operation by these agencies to track down the players in various offshore schemes and to recover up to $300 million that should have been paid in tax, but wasn't At last, the Tax Office is on the front foot
Michael Carmody has been Commissioner of Taxation since January 1993, his seven-year appointment having been renewed in January 2000 Raids tip of the iceberg: tax chief doing his bit for Australia
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Fellow-author Karl May - who'd earlier been imprisoned for impersonating German secret service agents and policemen - gained fame for 'wild west' genre novellas, presented as autobiographical although he didn't venture west to the English Channel. Adoption of a false persona didn't inhibit sales, which were above 50 million copies after 1912.
'Louis de Rougemont' (1847-1921), aka Louis Grin, gained fame for journalism about his travels - which apparently did not extend much beyond the Reading Room of the British Museum. He was exposed after enthusing over the marvellous "flight of the wombat", implausible given that wombats are burrowing creatures with the aerodynamic qualities of a bag of cement. He was more successful than Jean Christoph de Lancourt de Brenil, supposed companion of Jack London, master of 25 languages, war hero, equestrian, aviator and long distance walker.
Across the Atlantic 'Yellow Kid' Weill successfully posed as a major investor from Chicago, borrowing executive offices in several banks. His victims were then invited to the bank to meet that institution's CEO, duly being impressed by the surroundings and handing over large amounts of cash.
Perhaps more sadly, is the story of Jean-Claude Romand, who murdered his family when he could no longer maintain the fiction - as he had assiduously done for most of his adult life - that he was a senior World Health Organization bureaucrat.
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