George Alex secures bail as business 'jigsaw puzzle' revealed
George Alex is not short of business connections.
Even as a declared bankrupt the construction boss has allegedly directed businesses, using a wide network of people to "run companies on his behalf ... from a paper perspective," a court heard on Friday.
It was these networks and more that allegedly made up the "jigsaw puzzle" of offending at the centre of a criminal syndicate linked to a $17.5 million tax fraud, crown prosecutor Raelene Sharp said.
Mr Alex stands charged as the alleged ringleader of the operation.
On Friday he was granted bail at Central Local Court, appearing via video from Silverwater jail, where he has been held since his arrest on the Gold Coast last month
The court heard concerns of flight risk and interference with witnesses as reasons to oppose bail, as well as concerns for Mr Alex's mental and physical health as reasons for his release.
Magistrate Margaret Quinn ultimately decided strict bail conditions in the form of effective house arrest could mitigate such risks, but added that "every person, every taxpayer," was a potential victim of the alleged syndicate.
She acknowledged almost two years of police surveillance made for a strong circumstantial case against Mr Alex, citing findings from the 2015 Trade Union Royal Commission that he has "used other persons as directors of companies ... and that he can exercise control over these businesses".
A Herald investigation can now reveal how Mr Alex, alongside crime figure Michael Ibrahim, allegedly secretly controlled one of the key companies linked to the syndicate, Permaform International.
One of the premises raided on that day was a warehouse in Moorebank, which is the headquarters of Permaform International.
On paper, the company is run by Robert Rech, who describes himself as an “energetic and seasoned professional with an entrepreneurial flair” on his LinkedIn profile.
Unfortunately for him, Mr Rech’s entrepreneurial talents have seen him inadvertently embroiled in not one, but two major tax fraud cases. Mr Rech has not been charged in relation to the alleged syndicate.
Permaform’s general manager is Adam Cranston, 31, who is facing his own lengthy legal battle following his arrest over the Plutus Payroll saga. In April this year a Sydney court heard that Permaform International had already contributed $128,000 towards Mr Cranston’s legal fees.
Adam Cranston and his father, then ATO deputy commissioner Michael Cranston, 61, were both arrested in May 2017. In February 2019 Cranston Snr was found not guilty of improperly using his position in the ATO to help his son.
A date is yet to be set for Adam Cranston, who has pleaded not guilty to conspiring to defrauding the ATO. The police are not alleging the Cranstons or Mr Rech were involved in Mr Alex’s alleged $17.5 million tax fraud, in which a series of payroll companies collapsed and avoided remitting tax and GST to the ATO.
Adam and Michael Cranston have not been charged with any offences in relation to Permaform.
In September 2019 Michael Cranston went into business with Mr Rech, establishing a company called Cospex
In an intercepted phone call made by George Alex on August 1, 2019, Mr Alex is heard advising Mr Kirschberg to lie to a journalist from the Australian Financial Review who was making inquiries about the group’s business interests. “Have no reference to me … I’m not involved … there is no lease in Clarke Street, it’s just someone saying they were working from there, they’re in Moorebank. Do you know what I mean?” Mr Alex was heard saying.
Days earlier Michael Cranston told the AFRthere were connections between the two businesses. Permaform supplied structural wall systems and Cospex could install them and supply concrete, he explained.
"The consultancy work had dried up before my court case and this gave me an opportunity to do something.
“I do not hold shares for Adam. This was my chance to get into business. My son, however, working as the general manager of Permaform did help make this happen," Mr Cranston said at the time.
Eighteen months prior to this, in February 2018, an Earlwood local was taken aback to see Adam Cranston having a business meeting at a neighbourhood cafe, the New York Patisserie. He quietly took a photo of Mr Cranston meeting with three men, including a heavily tattooed man in a white singlet. While the tattooed man remains a mystery, the other men were George Alex and Mr Kirschberg.
Mr Kirschberg, 61, through his company Redwood Smith, is a 50 per cent shareholder in Permaform International. Described in the 2015 trade union royal commission as a "financier" of Mr Alex's labour hire business, Mr Kirschberg was arrested at his Wollstonecraft home recently in connection with the alleged ATO fraud. He has been charged with attempting to defraud the Commonwealth and money laundering.
Police allege that throughout 2019 Mr Kirschberg’s company Adelphi Finance was used to transfer $1.3 million of alleged proceeds of crime into Permaform International. In one intercepted call, in May 2019, Mr Alex’s brother-in-law, fellow bankrupt Peter Kay, is heard saying "George and Mick have put nearly three million in the business".
Apart from Mr Kirschberg, another interesting shareholder in Permaform is one-time bikie enforcer and boxer, "Crazy Dave" Lima, also known as Sofe "Dave" Levi.
Lima, 41, who has a conviction for violence, was second-in-charge of a bikie gang known as Notorious. Police intelligence suggested that Michael Ibrahim was a high-ranking member and that Ibrahim’s brother Sam had formed the now-defunct gang.
Mr Lima’s wife Clair Arthur, Mr Rech’s wife Laura Fisher and Michael Cranston are all shareholders in Cospex, which lists its principal place of business at the Moorebank warehouse.
It is not suggested that any of the Cospex shareholders have been involved in Mr Alex’s alleged fraudulent activities.
Mr Lima’s other companies, Mother Clucker and Levi Wall, also list their headquarters at the Moorebank warehouse. Mr Lima’s partner in Levi Wall is bikie associate Shane Norman Zerafa, who was jailed for four and a half years for a vicious assault.
Zerafa, 40, is facing charges of unlawfully communicating via WhatsApp with Rebels bikie Jamie Saliba, who was in Silverwater Jail. The matter will return to court on August 10.
Meanwhile, in court documents, police listed a number of Mr Alex's associates who have links to outlaw motorcycle gangs, at least one of whom is in jail. Four of those listed have been on the Permaform payroll.
They include Lima’s former Notorious associate Ewing Filipo and brothers John and Herbert Laupepa.
Herbert, allegedly the sergeant-at-arms of the Comanchero bikie gang, was one of six men charged with conspiring to murder Hells Angel Peter Zervas in 2010, following a bikie brawl at Sydney Airport. He was subsequently cleared of the charge, pleading guilty to the lesser offence of participating in a criminal group.
Other colourful Permaform employees include Edward Nassr and Joseph Zammit. Mr Nassr is before the courts on multiple violent offences and is in custody at South Nowra jail, where he was recently charged with attempting to bring in contraband.
Mr Zammit, then-Sydney boss of the Nomads, was one of the first four people to be charged under NSW consorting laws after they were introduced in 2012, following a spike in gang-related drive-by shootings in Sydney.
At the time, he and his co-accused vowed to take their fight against the state government's laws to the High Court, saying they breached constitutional rights. He subsequently pleaded guilty to stalking or intimidating and was issued a good behaviour bond.
Mr Alex has had a long-association with bikie gang members who he has used in his labour hire companies. One of those arrested with Mr Alex recently was Hells Angels associate Radwan Zraika, now known as Adrian Metly. Mr Zraika survived being shot four times in the head outside a Chester Hill home in March 2017.
Plutus accused has link to George Alex
The Australian Financial Review can reveal that as early as February 2018 Mr Cranston was in business meetings with Mr Alex and Mr Alex’s financier Lindsay Kirschberg, both who were charged last week with allegedly operating a $17 million tax fraud.
Adam Cranston, centre, Lindsay Kirschberg, obscured at back, George Alex, left, and an unidentified man, right, at the February 2018 meeting in the Earlwood patisserie.
The three are pictured above at a meeting at the New York Patisserie in Earlwood, in Sydney's inner west, which is next door to a building owned by Mr Alex's family.
Mr Cranston also recruited his father, the former deputy commissioner of taxation Michael Cranston, as a director of another company linked to the business and which initially operated out of a building owned by Mr Alex’s family.
Adam Cranston told The Australian Financial Review he had “zero involvement” in the alleged offences involving Mr Alex.
Neither Adam nor Michael Cranston were among the dozen charged by Australian Federal Police last week and they are not accused of any wrongdoing.
The AFP allege Mr Alex and other syndicate members set up payroll companies for their labour hire entities to siphon Pay As You Go Tax and GST offshore before returning the money to Australia, with large sums received by Mr Ibrahim's partner.
One of the Australian companies that received at least $1.3 million was Permaform International, a business based in south-west Sydney which provides PVC framing for concrete walls and counts Mr Cranston as its general manager.
The company, set up by Canberra builder Robert Rech in 2015, is not alleged to be part of the money laundering or tax fraud.
However, the AFP have alleged that Mr Alex and Mr Ibrahim, who is in jail for conspiring to import 1.7 tonnes of MDMA, had “true control of the company”.
A few months before joining Permaform, Mr Cranston was photographed discussing investments with Mr Alex, Mr Kirschberg and an unidentified man with tattoos at the Earlwood cafe in February 2018.
The meeting was held less than a year after Mr Cranston was charged for his alleged key role in the $100 million-plus Plutus tax fraud and for which he has pleaded not guilty.
A few months later, in July 2018, Cheryl Rostron, would set up Permaform International Licensing and Stanton Oxford Funds Management, both based in Singapore.
Ms Rostron is the wife of Peter Loccisano, a close Alex associate who described himself as involved in “sales and marketing” for Permaform on a now deleted LinkedIn profile.
Police allege Mr Loccisano ensured the syndicate's day-to-day operation while Ms Rostron was"at least reckless" in laundering proceeds of crime.
Lindsay Kirschberg (wearing tie) at the Earlwood patisserie meeting in February 2018.
By September 2018, Mr Kirschberg, who was first exposed as the financier of Mr Alex's labour hire companies in the Trade Union Royal Commission in 2015, had taken a majority shareholding in Permaform International.
Around the same time Mr Cranston, now Permaform general manager, would recruit his father, Michael, to invest and act as a director of a small company supplying Permaform product known as Cospex, which had offices in a building owned by Mr Alex's sister.
Asked about his role in the company in July last year, Michael said his son introduced him to it and that he had helped set up the business.
"I never knew George Alex whilst in the ATO and he has no legal or indirect connection with Cospex," he said.
“I have no social or business association with George Alex. To suggest otherwise is clearly wrong and insulting.”
A month after the questions were raised Michael Cranston resigned from the Cospex board and reduced his shareholding.
The AFP have alleged the Alex syndicate transferred millions of dollars in tax money to the Singapore entities before funnelling some of it via Adelphi Finance, another alleged money laundering entity controlled by Kirschberg, into Permaform International.
George Alex arrives to be grilled at the royal commission into the building industry in 2015. Peter Rae
Police say that Adelphi transferred at least $1.3 million to Permaform International in 2019.
“These payments were disguised as investments, and the role of George Alex and Michael Ibrahim was concealed,” the AFP statement of facts alleges.
Police wiretaps from May 2019 recorded Mr Alex’s brother-in-law telling Mr Loccisano that “George and Mick have put nearly three million in the business”.
Quizzed about Permaform’s links to Mr Cranston and Mr Alex by The Australian Financial Review in July last year, a lawyer for the company said the original owners met Mr Cranston through “long term family friends”.
He denied the company was linked to Mr Alex or that Mr Kirschberg had received funds from or held assets on behalf of Mr Alex.
Adam Cranston has pleaded not guilty as part of the Plutus PAYG tax fraud. Ben Rushton
However, police wire taps at the time revealed that Mr Alex was advising how Mr Kirschberg should respond to the AFR inquiries, telling Mr Loccisano to remove parts of the reply, “have no reference to me” and that “I have nothing to do with them”.
In response to the latest arrests and claims, Mr Rech said “George Alex is not a shadow director to the extent of my knowledge” and that the Singapore-based Permaform International Licensing had “no relationship” to Permaform International.
“I was approached by investigators and fully cooperated and complied with their enquiries into Permaform International,” he said.
While police raided Permaform's Moorebank offices last week Mr Rech said the company “is not the subject of any allegations or charges and our doors remain open".
Mr Alex, Mr Loccisano and Mr Kirschberg have been charged with conspiracy to defraud and conspiring to deal with proceeds of crime worth $1 million or more.
Ms Rostron and Mr Ibrahim's partner, Caitlin Hall were each charged with recklessly dealing with proceeds of crime worth $1 million or more.
With Luke Housego
