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Australians caught in Panama tax whirlpool

ABC

ABC

Three Australians, one of whom took part in the country’s best-known racing scams in the 1980s, are listed in the cache of 11.5 million leaked documents known as the Panama Papers.

The information belonging to Panama-based law firm Mossack Fonseca, allegedly reveals the tax havens used by many of the most rich and famous people in the world, including a number of national leaders.

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The US-based International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) published analysis of the data on Monday, with a pledge to release the full list in coming weeks.

The ABC revealed the names of four Australians caught up in the leaked information.

Fine Cotton fraudster, John Patrick Gillespie

John Patrick Gillespie was convicted over his role in one of Australian racing’s most infamous scandals. In 1984 in Brisbane he was part of a plot that saw the horse Bold Personality painted and substituted for the long-priced Fine Cotton in a race it won at Eagle Farm.

Warren Black

Warren Black.

In 1992, Mr Gillespie became a founding director of two companies, International Millionaire’s Club and International Horseowner’s Club. Both were incorporated in the British Virgin Islands and the Bahamas by Mossack Fonseca. The companies were deregistered in 1995.

Mr Gillespie has a long criminal history and was investigated for other scams allegedly involving race horses, anti-wrinkle cream and a multi-million-dollar collection of famous artworks.

Former ATO employee, Warren Black

Warren Black, a Perth-based accountant and former ATO employee who runs a company called Wealth Safe, also appears in ICIJ data as a director and shareholder of a Mossack Fonseca-managed company called Wealth Grow International Limited, which was incorporated in the Seychelles in March 2015.

Mr Black’s website states his “life passion” is legally “getting people out of paying tax” and that he is known for his “ability to create out-of-the-box solutions to minimise tax” and wants to make “the complex tax and asset protection secrets of the rich easily understood by the average person”.

On the day the company was incorporated, Mr Black’s signature appears on a document declaring accounting records and registers are up to date and available to Seychelles authorities on request. There is no suggestion of any illegal behaviour or wrongdoing by Mr Black.

Former opal miner, Maxwell John Reid

Only weeks after completing a prison sentence for 66 fraud-related charges, Maxwell Reid emailed Mossack Fonseca requesting an escrow account to move $100 million.

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Maxwell John Reid’s passport.

Escrow services are a type of pass-through account in which a customer deposits money into Mossack Fonseca’s account before the law firm sends that money on as if it were its own money.

In an application form, the former Coober Pedy opal miner said the millions he wanted to transfer were earned from investors and mining operations and described his role as a “paymaster” who received a “percentage” for his services, which appeared to be investing money for clients.

ASIC-banned stock trader, Murray Priestley

Former Queensland-based Lifestyle Trader chief executive Murray Priestley relocated to Singapore after the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) found he engaged in “deceptive conduct” and offered clients “misleading advice”.

In June 2013, ASIC banned Mr Priestley from providing financial services for three years. At the time, he was a director of a company registered by Mossack Fonseca. After the law firm became aware of Mr Priestley’s ban, it sought additional due diligence information but it appears requests went unanswered.

Despite the ban, Mr Priestley and his company Alpha Holdings Management remain active, according to the leaked documents.

ABC

The motel has been at the centre of multiple violent disturbances. Photo: ABC

Warwick Farm Grandstand Motel

While there are hundreds of Australians named in the database, documents also reveal there are 77 Australian intermediaries or clients of Mossack Fonseca that help the law firm incorporate companies in tax havens.

The Australian clients include accountants and law firms as well as an obscure motel in the west of Sydney. The rundown Warwick Farm Grandstand Motel charges by the half day, and has been the centre of multiple violent disturbances.

-with ABC

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