A key player who helped establish the Plutus Payroll tax fraud conspiracy, facilitate the scheme and continued to control the company has been sentenced in the NSW Supreme Court to seven years and six months years’ jail.
Simon Anquetil is the fifth person to plead guilty and be sentenced as part of the Serious Financial Crime Taskforce (SFCT) investigation into Operation Elbrus. Mr Anquetil was part of a highly organised crime syndicate alleged to have defrauded the Commonwealth of more than $105 million over three years.
Mr Anquetil was the founder, former director and previous shareholder of Plutus Payroll and used various entities to receive, conceal and divert stolen money derived from the conspiracy for his own benefit. He was charged for conspiring to defraud the Commonwealth and dealing with proceeds of crime of more than $1 million.
Four individuals have been previously convicted for their roles in the fraud.
Chief of the ATO-led Serious Financial Crime Taskforce (SFCT) Will Day said, ‘This is now the fifth successful sentencing as part of Operation Elbrus. These results show that the strength and tenacity of the SFCT will bring the most serious offenders of financial crime to account.’
‘Complex cases take time to go through the courts, especially when many individuals have been charged. But we have a shared goal, and we’re delivering on that,’ Mr Day said.
‘The continued successful outcomes of these cases demonstrate the SFCT’s ability to come together and deliver a whole-of-government response to targeting serious criminal activities. Serious financial crime is taken seriously, and we have the intelligence and the means to track down these criminals and hold them to account,’ Mr Day said.
‘We are firm and clear when it comes to people who are doing the wrong thing and evading taxes at the expense of the community – we will take legal action.’
You can learn more about Plutus Payroll from ATO Media Release or from Serious Financial Crime Task force.