David Marin-GuzmanWorkplace correspondent
Apr 9, 2025
A Sydney accountant linked to some of the country’s most notorious tax fraudsters has avoided millions of dollars in tax debt and unpaid loans by declaring herself bankrupt.
Filomina Kyriacou, one of the co-founders of accountancy firm Wentworth Williams, went bankrupt last week as Commonwealth Bank pursued her for $900,000 and the Australian Taxation Office secured a $3.7 million default judgment against her for unpaid income taxes.
Sydney accountant Filomina Kyriacou was previously banned as a tax agent for the maximum five years.
Kyriacou was linked to key players in the $100 million Plutus tax fraud, including its architect Adam Cranston, who went to work for her firm after his arrest. She was also connected to organised crime figure George Alex, who was found guilty last year of defrauding the tax office of more than $10 million through labour-hire firms not paying PAYG tax.
Kyriacou was not charged or accused of involvement in the frauds. However, in 2020, she was banned as a tax agent for the maximum five years due to her involvement in companies that breached their tax obligations. The ATO also found that 26 Wentworth Williams clients owed $18 million in taxes.
CBA had taken Kyriacou to the Federal Circuit Court to force her into bankruptcy over an unpaid loan. However, on Tuesday the bank withdrew its petition after Kyriacou went into bankruptcy herself on April 3.
Insolvency industry sources told The Australian Financial Review that Filomina’s son George Kyriacou had been searching for a bankruptcy trustee for his mother in recent weeks. George Kyriacou is a former police officer who left the force after a texting scandal. He later became an accountant at Wentworth Williams and had a short marriage to Coco Stedman – a reality TV star from Married At First Sight.
Filomina Kyriacou settled on trustees Alan Ma and Antonio Bagala of dVT Group.
Lucrative job
DVT Group is well-versed in bankruptcy, given its co-founder Riad Tayeh – now senior consultant for the firm – is an undischarged bankrupt due to KordaMentha chasing him over $5 million in debts in 2022.
The insolvency firm also won the lucrative administrator job for fugitive developer Jean Nassif’s property empire, which collapsed owing more than $2 billion in 2023.
Under bankruptcy rules, Kyriacou must report her wages every year for three years and pay half of her after-tax earnings above $72,000 to the trustee. She is also placed on an airport watch to monitor whether she tries to leave the country.
At the height of her career, Kyriacou spent millions of dollars on overseas family holidays, $2500-a-night stays at five-star hotels, luxury cars, $30,000 Rolexes, and a marble staircase for her beachside home in south Sydney.
The trustees have the option to seek funding from the ATO to conduct examinations of Kyriacou to unearth any hidden assets.
DVT Group and Kyriacou have been contacted for comment.
Despite Kyriacou going bankrupt a week ago, ASIC records show she is still the director of tax consulting group Lux Advisory Pty Ltd.
Under the Corporations Act, bankrupts are disqualified from managing corporations or being directors. Penalties for breaching these rules include fines of up to $8500 and up to one year’s imprisonment.
The Financial Review revealed this year that Lux had been advising a popular pizza chain on the Gold Coast, known as Gemelli Italian, and a prominent Sydney hair salon franchise Edwards and Co – the latter parting ways with the accountancy firm earlier this year.
The two chains used a labour-hire firm, Reddy Advisory Services, whose director is an Indian visa worker, to pay their staff. ATO records lodged with ASIC in February show the firm has failed to pay $2.5 million in PAYG tax.
Kyriacou has denied any knowledge of the labour-hire firm and said all she did for Lux Advisory was bookkeeping services.
Rear WindowHannah WoottonTax Practitioners Board and former PwC CEO can’t get on the same page
Hannah Wootton Columnist
Apr 9, 2025
Last time PwC came a cropper with the Tax Practitioners Board, it resulted in a slew of partner and executive departures, a senate inquiry, the sell-off of part of its consulting division, and a ban on it doing any work for the federal government.
It was, of course, the tax leaks scandal, brought on by the TPB banning former PwC partner Peter Collins for integrity breaches. The fallout isn’t over either. The tax professionals watchdog and the federal police are still investigating many of the individuals involved. We hear they are edging closer to taking
One might think if anyone was keen to stay on the right side of the TPB’s various rules, it would be Tom Seymour. He was CEO of PwC before he was forced to quit over his involvement in the scandal.
But it seems that, despite his best efforts, Seymour still can’t get on the right side of the ledger as the tax board. According to its own rules, the TPB requires that practitioners update their contact details within 30 days of any change.
According to Seymour’s registration (and yes, he is still a registered tax agent), he is still working at PwC’s Brisbane office.
Seymour tells us he’s notified the TPB of the change. They just appear to have not updated their website since he finally fell on his own sword in 2023 as the scandal worsened.
Having run the gauntlet of the TPB (for a while, at least) with the PwC tax team as it ran a scheme to help multinational clients work around tax laws it was also helping the government design, it seems he finally, genuinely, tried to do the right thing and comply with its more administrative rules. Only for the TPB to let him down on the detail.
The box-ticking bean counters it oversees would be aghast!
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