OZschwitz slave pen: Philip de Figueiredo faces up to 10 years in jail for so called 'tax evasion'

AFTER six years and about $300 million spent on often fruitless investigations and lawsuits as part of Operation Wickenby, the Australian Crime Commission has brought to court one of the alleged masterminds of the nation's most high-profile tax avoidance schemes.

Philip de Figueiredo, 56, an accountant from the Channel Islands tax haven Jersey, appeared in Brisbane Magistrates Court yesterday after being charged with two counts of conspiracy to defraud the Commonwealth and one count of money laundering. He faces a possible jail term of up to 10 years.

Mr de Figueiredo, the first of the alleged promoters to face court in Australia, was granted bail after agreeing to pay a $100,000 surety and surrender his passport to the Crime Commission.
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Legal proceedings against Mr de Figueiredo are likely to draw a link between two so far unconnected strands of the Wickenby investigation: the jailing of two Gold Coast businessmen on fraud charges and the fall of the high-flying pop music entrepreneur Glenn Wheatley.

Mr de Figueiredo's counsel, Phil Dunn, QC, told the court that his client would vigorously defend the charges.

Mr Dunn said Mr de Figueiredo was only a paid employee of Strachans, a Swiss accounting company at the centre of Wickenby, had no convictions and had never been to Australia.

The charges laid yesterday relate to the two Gold Coast men but it is expected Mr de Figueiredo will face additional charges relating to the tax affairs of Mr Wheatley, who was jailed in 2007 after pleading guilty to fraud and bankruptcy offences.

Mr de Figueiredo had fought extradition to Australia for two years. He has been charged over a tax evasion scheme used by two former directors of Phone Directories Company, a Gold Coast business.

Adam John Hargraves and Daniel Aran Stoten were each sentenced to at least three years and nine months in jail for conspiring to dishonestly cause a loss to the Tax Office of $2.2 million.

The men had sent money to Swiss bank accounts to avoid tax and then withdrawn the cash in Australia using debit cards.

Mr Wheatley, Wickenby's first high-profile scalp, used a similar arrangement to evade more than $300,000 in tax payable on profits from business ventures.

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OZschwitz slave pen: Philip de Figueiredo faces up to 10 years in jail for so called 'tax evasion'

OZschwitz slave pen: Philip de Figueiredo faces up to 10 years in jail for so called 'tax evasion'

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