A Sydney property developer has been ordered to repay more than £11 million after helping launder money for a blackmailer who threatened to expose a massive tax fraud scheme. The ruling comes from the New South Wales Supreme Court, where Justice Scott Nixon found that Michael Teplitsky and his companies, Tepcorp Holdings and Tepcorp Investments, assisted Daniel Rostankovski in laundering funds extracted from Plutus Payroll.
Plutus Payroll and its directors stole £105 million from the Australian Taxation Office by skimming off GST and transferring it elsewhere. Fifteen people have been sentenced over the scheme, including Adam Cranston, son of former deputy tax commissioner Michael Cranston, who received a 15-year prison sentence. Rostankovski, a Plutus employee, was convicted for blackmailing the directors by threatening to expose their illegal activities.
Between February and April 2017, more than £24 million was transferred from the account of Lands Legal, held on behalf of Plutus by convicted solicitor Sevag Chalabian, as a result of the blackmail. Liquidators Timothy Norman and Salvatore Algeri pursued Teplitsky and his firms in a civil case, arguing they had knowledge of Rostankovski's plans.
Justice Nixon found that intercepted phone calls revealed Teplitsky was willing to 'wash' money for a fee and create paperwork to avoid detection. He facilitated two loans—£4.6 million and £7 million—from Rostankovski's firm, Luminous Investment Holdings. The judge ruled that Teplitsky was 'wilfully blind' to the dishonest conduct and ordered him to repay £11.152 million to the liquidators, with his companies jointly liable for £6.852 million plus interest.
The court also ordered Teplitsky and his firms to repay any benefits gained from aiding the money laundering. The Commonwealth of Australia is the largest creditor of Plutus, claiming 98% of the funds allegedly owed.
