Regulator, Taxman At Odds Over Richo Case
Sydney Morning Herald
Thursday March 13, 2008
THE corporate regulator has intervened in the 18-month dispute between Graham Richardson and the Australian Taxation Office over the contents of a Swiss bank account.
Yesterday the Australian Securities and Investments Commission briefed the barrister Peter Brereton to attend a procedural hearing in the Federal Court.Mr Brereton told the court he was there because "the issue of public interest immunity arises". A claim for this immunity commonly involves asking a court not to order the production of a document because its disclosure would harm the public interest.Mr Richardson's barrister, Frank Carnovale, said ASIC was claiming privilege over documents the ATO had included on a list of material it planned to produce for the case.An ASIC spokeswoman said the documents involved related to "a current investigation".The Federal Court case, which is expected to come to trial in October, involves challenges by Mr Richardson to the ATO's view that he should have declared in his tax returns $1.4 million deposited in the name of Laira Investment Company in the Bank Leumi le-Israel in Zurich in 1997. According to documents filed in 2006, the Tax Office audited Mr Richardson in December 2003, five weeks after The Australian Financial Review reported that Mr Richardson, the late stockbroker Rene Rivkin and businessman Trevor Kennedy had hidden the proceeds of selling shares in Offset Alpine in Swiss bank accounts.A document filed in court by Mr Richardson's lawyers admitted that he obtained money from Bank Leumi, but said the sums were gifts from Mr Rivkin "in appreciation of the close friendship that existed between them and in recognition of the personal qualities of [Mr Richardson]".He had never owned the account, had never deposited funds into it and the gifts amounted to "less than one fifth" of the $1.4 million claimed by the Tax Office, his statement said.ASIC began an investigation into the ownership of Offset Alpine shares in October 2003.The investigation was to focus on "the veracity of information previously provided" under oath, ASIC said at the time. Mr Richardson has never been named by ASIC as a target of its investigation.
© 2008 Sydney Morning Herald