Corporate regulator evaluated grounds for targeting ex-PwC boss Luke Sayers amid tax scandal
The corporate regulator and parliament examined whether they had grounds to target figures involved in the PwC scandal including the firm’s former boss, Luke Sayers.
The corporate regulator and parliament examined whether they had grounds to target figures involved in the PwC scandal including the firm’s former boss, Luke Sayers, after a parliamentary committee in 2024 found his testimony implausible
Documents released under Freedom of Information laws to The Australian reveal the Australian Securities and Investments Commission met with two senior Australian Taxation Office figures in a bid to understand how they might approach Mr Sayers.
ASIC met with ATO second commissioner Jeremy Hirschhorn on May 2 last year alongside assistant commissioner Nick Shizas, the ATO’s former general counsel, to discuss PwC Australia.
This came in the wake of ASIC’s ban of PwC former head of international tax Peter Collins on October 20, 2023, sidelining the senior partner for eight years from the financial services industry, after he leaked confidential government information. ASIC found Mr Collins was not a fit and proper person and considered whether such a finding could be made against Mr Sayers.
The regulator had limited opportunities to engage on the PwC scandal, given professional partnerships sit beyond the laws enforced by ASIC.
Notes prepared documenting the meeting between the ATO and ASIC enforcement and compliance senior executive leader Melissa Smith reveal the two regulators were keenly interested in the evidence provided by Mr Sayers to parliamentary inquiries into the PwC scandal.
Mr Sayers, president of the Carlton Football Club until January, appeared before the Senate’s Finance and Public Administration Committee as well as the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Corporations and Financial Services, both of which scrutinised PwC’s tax leaks. The Senate committee concluded Mr Sayers’ evidence was “implausible”.
The report noted his assertions that he did not recall and had no knowledge of evidence from the ATO that issues around PwC’s tax practice had been raised with him in a 2019 meeting were highly doubtful.
Mr Sayers told parliament he did not review documents Mr Hirschhorn directed him to look at after their 2019 meeting. He also told parliament he could not recall being told Mr Collins had breached confidentiality or that the ATO was keenly interested in the issue of confidentiality.
This is despite PwC former general counsel Meredith Beattie telling parliament the firm knew all too well it was in the ATO’s firing line over confidentiality breaches tied to tax schemes marketed by Mr Collins and other partners.
Ms Beattie told parliament former PwC CEO Tom Seymour, then head of its tax practice, had been alerted to the ATO’s interest in confidentiality issues. Mr Seymour has denied this.
Ms Beattie provided a detailed email – written after a phone call with Mr Sayers – to parliament as evidence seemingly contradicting his statements to the committee.
Records revealed under FOI show ASIC was directed by the ATO to look at questions on notice published by the Senate for proof of alleged discrepancies in Mr Sayers’ evidence.
“Sayers’ testimony is very carefully expressed. He says (and is accurate) about his recollection of a conversation about the use of LPP (legal professional privilege) and promoter behaviour,” Ms Smith wrote in her notes. “However, his testimony is less reliable on other aspects of the meeting, eg, the discussion of the commercialisation of MAAL (multinational anti-avoidance laws).”
Ms Smith also said Mr Hirschhorn told ASIC if it were to commence action against Mr Sayers or another member of PwC, to demand copies of board minutes and performance reviews of staff.
She said Mr Hirschhorn told ASIC these documents were “interesting too”.
The ATO didn’t review the performance reviews, but Mr Hirschhorn, a former KPMG partner, was familiar with what they contained.
The Senate hearings have heard how some members of PwC took credit for the aggressive tax strategies enabled by Mr Collins’s confidentiality breaches.
A spokesman for ASIC said the regulator had the power to investigate and take action against companies governed by the Corporations Act, not state-based partnership laws.
He refused to comment on whether ASIC would have taken action if a parliamentary committee had made findings against Mr Sayers.
“ASIC has the power to seek the banning of a person from carrying on a financial services business, including if ASIC does not consider them to be a ‘fit and proper person’ as defined by the Corporations Act,” he said.
“Subject to hearing from the individual, one factor ASIC would take into account in exercising that power is if the individual in question has had a serious finding made against them, such as by a court or parliament.”
The Australian understands politicians considered referring Mr Sayers to the Privileges Committee, including taking legal advice on the option.
Labor senator Deb O’Neill said parliament could see there were “irreconcilable differences between the evidence of former CEOs Luke Sayers and Tom Seymour, and other key witnesses”.
“The Parliamentary Joint Committee on Corporations and Financial Services highlighted its concerns surrounding Mr Sayers’ evidence in its final report, indicating that his version of events seemed incomplete, unlikely, and incompatible with the evidence of multiple other witnesses,” Senator O’Neill said.
As previously revealed in The Australian’s Margin Call column, Mr Sayers was prepared for his parliamentary grilling by Arnold Bloch Leibler senior partner Leon Zwier and former Victorian Labor media adviser Sharon McCrohan.
Mr Sayers did not respond to questions from The Australian, however Mr Zwier later contacted the publication but refused to provide any official response.
CCTV footage shows former PwC associate David Rayan assaulting 18 women at Prahran nightclub Revolver Upstairs
A PwC associate who preyed on 18 women at a Prahran nightclub brazenly chose to target women as they embraced other men, even putting his hand under one of their tops, a court has heard.
Laura Placella@lauraplacella
April 7, 2025
David Rayan, 34, preyed on 18 women across three nights in 2023 at Revolver Upstairs in Prahran while he worked as an IT risk analyst for embattled firm PwC – despite believing sexual contact with anyone but his wife would send him “to hell”.
The disturbing CCTV footage was played in the County Court on Monday as the Cranbourne man reluctantly admitted to his offending, with Judge Peter Rozen remarking he was lucky not to have copped a “slap” to the face by the women or their partners.
Prosecutor Nicholas Donaghy told the court the sexual assaults on September 23, October 14 and October 21 took place all over the Chapel St venue, including the bar, the couches, the dance floor and even the stairs.
One snippet of CCTV footage from October 21 shows Rayan standing extremely close to a couple as they kiss on the dance floor.
As the couple embrace, he touches and rubs the woman’s body and kisses her arm, seemingly hoping she will not notice him.
But he was spotted by venue management and booted from the bar.
In another snippet from September 23, Rayan approaches two couples at the bar, lingering behind the women to touch their buttocks and even put his hand under one of their tops.
After a couple of minutes, one husband catches Rayan and pushes him away.
In another shocking snippet, the sex pest trails a woman as she walks up the stairs, bending down and attempting to shove his “puckered lips” under her skirt.
One woman told police she felt so uncomfortable by Rayan’s behaviour she asked a stranger to pretend to be her boyfriend, but he touched her buttocks regardless.
Mr Donaghy said Rayan, who was separated from his wife, was first interviewed by police over two of the incidents and claimed he may have “accidentally” touched the women.
But police reviewed hours of CCTV footage and discovered he had 16 further victims.
“He insisted that flirting with or having sexual contact with anybody other than his wife was against his Christian religion,” Mr Donaghy said.
“He maintained he would not even think about sexual contact with anyone other than his wife because: ‘If I think in that way, I will be going to hell’.”
Judge Rozen described the offending as not only brazen, but “most unusual”.
“The women concerned were so obviously with their boyfriends / husbands,” he said.
Outside court, one of the women said she did not believe Rayan was remorseful, after she bravely came face-to-face with him in the courtroom.
“It seemed to me it was very premeditated … I don’t think a community corrections order is going to be enough to stop him from reoffending,” the 25-year-old said.
“I think he not only deserves, but needs, imprisonment.”
Another woman said the assault had “shattered” her sense of security.
“The idea of going out to nightclubs and bars … now feels me with dread,” she wrote in her victim impact statement.
“This crime has changed me, altered the way I see the world.”
Rayan pleaded guilty to 17 counts of sexual assault and one count attempted sexual assault, but the hearing was delayed due to his reluctance to enter a guilty plea.
“There was no intention,” he could be heard whispering from the dock.
His defence barrister Alexander Patton told the court his client lost his job in November 2023 and now works as a delivery driver.
He said he was “craving social interaction” when he attended the nightclub in the wake of his marriage breakdown and no longer sees his three-year-old daughter.
When asked whether there was an explanation for the offending, Mr Patton said there was none, suggesting sexual gratification may have played a part.
“To put it bluntly, he’s very lucky he didn’t get a smack on the mouth from someone along the way,” Judge Rozen replied.
Mr Patton argued his client should be spared jail and sentenced to a community corrections order given his lack of prior convictions, with Mr Donaghy conceding a CCO was within range.
But the permanent resident, who was born in India, faces the prospect of his visa being cancelled after he serves his sentence.
Wearing dark sunglasses and a face mask, he refused to answer any questions when leaving court, running into the nearby magistrates’ court to escape the cameras.
He will be sentenced on May 5.
