Will Day: Top tax cop warns about organised crime recruiting professionals

 

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Top tax cop warns about organised crime recruiting professionals

Duncan HughesReporter

Jun 20, 2021

The nation’s top tax crime fighter has warned about the recruitment of lawyers, currency and tax professionals into sophisticated criminal networks to hide illegal gains and evade authorities.

Will Day, chief of the Serious Financial Crime Taskforce, said the “enablers” were typically only aware of their “piece of the puzzle” rather than the full extent of the crimes their employer was involved in.

“But they very rapidly find themselves over their head,” said Mr Day, a deputy commissioner at the Australian Taxation Office.

Will Day, deputy commissioner of integrated compliance at the Australian Taxation Office. 

Recruits often have big gambling debts and financial problems, or are attracted by the potential to make easy money and enjoy a flashy lifestyle.

“Their role includes how best to store, launder and remit illicitly obtained funds, and how to structure local and offshore entities to hold and move assets while hiding their ownership and value,” Mr Day said.

What we see in offshore tax evasion and associated money laundering is criminals brazenly moving money in an attempt to confuse the authorities and hide who is the actual owner or beneficiary.

“Money is moved through a series of fake entities that might be a corporation in one country and then go to a trust in another. In some cases we are even seeing these types of arrangements offered as package deals on the dark web.”

Mr Day added: “There’s always a chink in their armour we can trace it back to.

“There’s always a clue, whether that’s the money going offshore or the money coming back in or the way we work with other jurisdictions,” he said.

Professional recruits were being used for a range of activities, including:

• Lawyers setting up companies and tax structures to evade tax.
• Cryptocurrency specialists laundering money by transferring funds overseas and then back to Australia. This can also involve avoiding tax and laundering money by trading across currencies or in ways that make ownership anonymous.
• Accountants running two sets of books and providing illegal advice to help tax evasion.
• Liquidators working with a “phoenix operator” to repeatedly liquidate dodgy companies.
• Bankers helping with offshore payments or payments of false invoices.
• Service providers who generate false invoices or provide third party assurance that work was completed when it wasn’t.

• Mr Day said a current “mega-trend” was the proliferation of identity-related fraud and identity theft throughout the economy.

  According to the ATO, there has been a “sharp increase” in myGov text message phishing, which is a scam where criminals impersonate legitimate organisations to steal sensitive information.

  Prices charged for purchase of false documentation range from $6 for a bank or utility statement, $40 for a driver’s licence, $250 for a birth certificate and $5000 for an Australian passport, according to analysis by the Black Economy Task Force, a recent report into tax evasion and crime.

  

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  These items are purchased on the dark web, which is used like an eBay service for criminals.

  Other popular scams that are likely to increase around the end of the financial year are fake tax debt phone calls warning if a payment is not immediately made the victim will be arrested, Mr Day said.

  The Serious Financial Crime Taskforce, which was set up in 2015, includes the nation’s major regulatory and enforcement bodies, ranging from the Australian Taxation Office to the Australian Securities and Investments Commission and Australian Federal Police.

  It is also working with other governments and overseas’ enforcement organisations, including the Joint Chiefs of Global Tax Enforcement (J5) targeting transnational tax crime.

  Duncan Hughes is a Walkley award-winning personal finance reporter, based in our Melbourne newsroom. Connect with Duncan on Twitter. Email Duncan at duhughes@afr.com.au
  
  
  

HE’LL LAUGH AT THIS ALL THE WAY TO SUB-ORBIT AND BACK: Petitions to Stop Jeff Bezos From Returning to Earth After Space Trip Get Thousands of Signatures.

When you were here before
Couldn't look you in the eye
You're just like an angel
Your skin makes me cry
You float like a feather
In a beautiful world
I wish I was special
You're so fuckin' special

But I'm a creep
I'm a weirdo
What the hell am I doin' here?
I don't belong here

I don't care if it hurts
I wanna have control
I want a perfect body
I want a perfect soul
I want you to notice
When I'm not around
So fuckin' special
I wish I was special

But I'm a creep
I'm a weirdo
What the hell am I doin' here?
I don't belong here

She's running out the door…

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