Police make arrests in Australian tax evasion scheme
SYDNEY, Australia—Police arrested an Australian man Monday on charges of running a money laundering scheme that helped clients avoid taxes by transferring $93 million through offshore bank accounts, an official said.
The 58-year-old suspect, Robert Agius, was charged with three fraud and money laundering offenses related to the scheme, which allegedly operated in Australia, New Zealand and the South Pacific nation of Vanuatu, police commander Warren Gray said. Agius has been living in Vanuatu.
Gray said more than 400 people may have paid money into the scheme, although the charges Monday related to only about 20 alleged customers and unpaid Australian taxes exceeding $12 million.
Gray said Australian Federal Police were contacting other customers and warning them that they might collectively owe millions of dollars more in unpaid taxes.
"We expect to make quite a few more arrests," Gray said.
Agius was arrested in the western Australian city of Perth, and appeared briefly in court where he was ordered to be returned to Sydney to face trial.
He did not enter a plea but told Magistrate Elizabeth Langdon the charges were "trumped up" and "nebulous." He could face a maximum penalty of 25 years in prison on one charge and 10 years on each of the other two charges.
Gray, a senior white-collar crime officer with the Australian Federal Police, said the scheme involved transferring money out of Australia disguised as consulting fees, then claiming a business expense before returning the funds to Australia as an interest-free loan.
"When you look at it, it is quite a simple scheme," Gray told reporters.
Agius is accused of collecting $1.3 million in commissions.
Police in New Zealand and Vanuatu also carried out raids, but no one was arrested in those places.
The scheme was exposed by Project Wickenby, a task force of police and officials from tax and business regulatory authorities established in 2006 to investigate tax evasion and large-scale money laundering.
