Helping the Commonwealth deal with unseen and unchecked fraud.
Steve Zemek
A veteran crime journalist received about $2000 to help blackmail $5m from members of a $100m tax fraud syndicate, a court has heard.Details of a listening device planted by Australian Federal Police inside a lawyers’ office, which captured an alleged shakedown of the players in the Plutus Payroll scandal, are set to be aired in the NSW Supreme Court as Stephen Barrett stands trial.
Mr Barrett, 63, has denied being a part of a joint criminal enterprise that attempted to extort money from several members of the alleged tax rort cartel in 2017.
Crown prosecutor Patricia McDonald told the jury on the opening day of Mr Barrett’s trial on Thursday that they would be played police telephone intercepts and tapes that captured Mr Barrett and his co-accused.
She said that on February 1, 2017, Mr Barrett and Daniel Rostankovski met with several members of the Plutus group at the offices of Clamenz Lawyers at the MLC Centre in the Sydney CBD during which demands were made for $5m.
Mr Barrett has pleaded not guilty to making an unwarranted demand with menaces with intention to obtain a gain by accusation or threat.
He is alleged to have made threats towards alleged Plutus kingpin Adam Cranston, lawyer Dev Menon and Jason Onley, who were present at the meeting.