New Zealand businessman Mark Bryers has been sentenced to eight and a half years in jail by an Australian court.
The A$10 million fraud’s main beneficiary, George Alex, will spend more than six years behind bars for what was described as the “monetary form of rape and pillage”.
The 53-year-old was sentenced on December 6 along with co-conspirators Bryers, 67, Pasquale “Peter” Loccisano, 55, Lindsay John Kirschberg, 66, and Gordon McAndrew, 62.
Justice Desmond Fagan said Alex’s motivation was to maximise and accelerate the extraction of money from his labour-hire firms.
“His approach to the business was a monetary form of rape and pillage,” he said.
After a mammoth six-month trial, the men were found guilty by a NSW Supreme Court jury in September.
They were convicted of conspiring to dishonestly cause a loss to the Commonwealth and conspiring to deal with proceeds of crime worth more than A$1 million.
Alex caused a sensation after the verdict when he failed to turn up to his own post-verdict bail hearing, triggering the issuance of an arrest warrant before he appeared unannounced at court holding a packet of cigarettes and a yellow Gatorade.
On Friday, December 6, Justice Fagan noted the “crude” scheme took just over A$10 million in pay-as-you-go tax owed to the Australian Tax Office and sent it onto the conspirators for their own personal uses.
The “lion’s share” of the money, which was taken by withholding tax payable by workers employed through a series of labour-hire companies, went to Alex who sent it on to his family and associates.
The other four co-offenders were paid wages, fees and other entitlements using the stolen funds.
Justice Fagan questioned why the Australian Tax Office, despite becoming aware of the fraud in January 2019, allowed it to continue for a further 18 months.
During this time, Australian Federal Police tapped the phones of the five fraudsters, compiling an enormous amount of recorded calls, 110 hours of which was played to the jury.
The authorities could have stopped the fraud in early 2019 when A$3 million had been stolen but instead allowed a further A$7 million to be lost, the judge noted.
Only A$500,000 to A$600,000 has been recovered by the Australian Tax Office.
The fraudsters used a number of second-tier “shield” companies, withholding about A$100,000 in tax each week between 2018 and 2020.
Alex was bankrupt at the time of the scheme but oversaw it despite holding no official role in the companies, Justice Fagan said.
He did not have an email and used the phone sparingly to avoid setting off alarm bells with his bankruptcy trustee.
Alex was sentenced to nine years and six months behind bars with a six-year-and-two-month parole period expiring in October 2030.
Kirschberg and McAndrew were directors of the companies and were sentenced to a maximum eight years, with parole periods of five years and six months to end in February 2030.
Bryers was brought on as a consultant from April 2019 while Loccisano acted as the communication channel between Alex and the two directors. They were jailed for a maximum of eight years and six months with parole periods of six years to expire in mid-2030.
A sixth conspirator, 51-year-old Lucas James Connell, was jailed for one year and six months after pleading guilty as an accessory helping Bryers conduct the fraud.
He will be released in August 2025.
Five believed to be planning an appeal
The five fraudsters, who appeared on audio-video links from separate rooms at Parklea and Silverwater prisons, discussed an impending appeal together while un-muted prior to the sentencing.
They gave thumbs-up signs, fist pumps and other hand gestures to each other afterwards.
Bryers formerly headed the NZX-listed property company, Blue Chip, which collapsed in 2008 owing investors $84m. He was personally bankrupt in 2009 with debts of $230m.
He pleaded guilty to 34 financial reporting charges in 2010 and was fined $37,500, ordered to do 75 hours of community work, and banned from owning or managing a company within New Zealand.
