Thursday, October 22, 2015

Unexplained Wealth



AUSTRAC has agreed with the Australian Tax Office and the Foreign Investment Review Board residential investment assessments are a mutual area of priority and we will continue to work together to address this issue.

Global inequality is growing, with half the world’s wealth now in the hands of just 1% of the population, according to a new report. Half of world's wealth now in hands of 1% of population – report
*Media release
*Report –
Global Wealth Report – Credit Suisse


Facebook recently faced criticism for how little it pays in tax in the UK. But it’s not the only company that does what it can to prevent having to pay out too much money. Just how much money do the world’s most powerful companies hide in tax havens?

As Four Corners reported on Monday, the number of Chinese investors buying Australian real estate is skyrocketing, surging more than 400% in the past five years. Chinese buyers are buying property, sight unseen, trusting in local agents to find them profitable investments. But why is Australian real estate so attractive to the Chinese? Where are they hearing about it? And don’t we have laws against letting foreign buyers purchase land here?
Tax Commissioner Chris Jordan told Four Corners that a 21-year-old student buying a $5 million waterfront house was a clear breach of the rules. “So the obvious question for us is, where did the $5 million come from to buy that property?”  

What A Beauty - Pink Bottlebrush level 2 Sep 2015
But why is Australian real estate so attractive to the Chinese? Where are they hearing about it? And don’t we have laws against letting foreign buyers purchase land here?
The answer to the last question is “yes, but they are for all practical purposes, completely unenforced”. The answer to the first question is directly related to the answer to the last.
There are stricter controls and ID requirements over having a punt with your Sportsbet account than there are over buying a house, and property exchanges are excluded from money-laundering laws.
by drsmithy on Oct 14, 2015 at 11:40 pm

Sheri Yan with Bob Hawke and Frank Lowy.
Sheri Yan with Bob Hawke and Frank Lowy

Generally, big thieves tend to hang the little thieves at diplomatic dinners. If little thive steal from DJ it is and offence. If a big thieve steals it tends to be treated as illness kleptomania  ...Underlining her deep ties to Australia, Ms Yan was once also paid to act as a lobbyist by the ABC in her native China when the public broadcaster made an ultimately futile effort to secure local broadcasting rights for its overseas television channel Australia Network.
Those connections, real and imagined, were parlayed into diplomatic and commercial opportunities for a range of politicians, officials and business people. Many of those connections were made at the Australian embassy, including at colourful parties hosted by former ambassador Geoff Raby, and Ms Yan has played an important role in facilitating relations before and since.
As well as building bridges, she was also known for breaking them, particularly with ambitious but naive Australians who had no way of verifying the connections she claimed to have lined up behind her...
The queen of the Australia-China social scene has been charged in New York with funnelling almost $1 million in bribes to the president of the United Nations General Assembly. Sheri Yan – who had deep connections in the Australian foreign policy establishment and shuttled regularly between luxurious apartments in Canberra, Beijing and New York – remains in a US prison ahead of a bail hearing on Friday.
She and her husband Roger Uren, a media executive and former Australian intelligence analyst who was once tipped to be Kevin Rudd's ambassador to Beijing, have long been a fixture at Australian embassy events in Beijing. The pair recently moved their family base from Beijing to the Canberra suburb of Kingston, where they keep a valuable collection of Chinese classic and erotic art. Australia - China social queen Sheri Yan arrested for exotic bribes

Another seven properties go under the hammer next month as the controversial sell-off of government-owned properties in Millers Point continues.

The family of convicted drug smuggler Schapelle Corby has been awarded almost $1 million in damages after a book claimed they were part of a drug syndicate, The Australian reportsFairfax media journalist Eamonn Duff wrote Sins of the Father which Allen & Unwin published but have since been forced to pulp. The book, published in 2012, claimed a fortnight before Schapelle’s arrest that Queensland police had received information that Mick Corby would be delivering drugs on a flight to Bali Explained Wealth ...

There are bad omens for Australia's record housing boom and, as one major bank raises its interest rates and others are tipped to follow, there's a warning that massive household debt means tough times ahead First signs the housing bubble is bursting and what that could mean for you

MPs to hold emergency debate over politicians’ communications being spied upon Western Daily Press