Associate of Tony Mokbel Files Lawsuit Against ATO

Tom Karas, an associate of Tony Mokbel who has allegedly used the identity of a distant Greek relative from Pylos to avoid tax, files a lawsuit against the ATO.

The action marks the latest round of a tax battle worth tens of millions of dollars between Melbourne financier Tom Karas 47, of Fitzroy, and the ATO. Karas has launched a Federal Court action to prevent the tax authorities getting $44 million.

Described in an affidavit to the Supreme Court earlier this year, the ATO described Karas as “a primary person of interest to the joint special project conducted between the serious non-compliance section of the ATO and Victoria Police’s Purana taskforce investigating those who may be involved in, or benefiting from, Melbourne’s organised crime scene”.

The ATO alleges Karas received millions of dollars in undisclosed funds, using a false identity – Christos Karaglanis from 2003 to 2010. Mr Karas claims Karaglanis exists, and that he should not be liable for income tax for Karaglanis.

In June, Victoria’s Supreme Court ordered Mr Karas’ assets be frozen after the tax office alleged he used a false identity from 2003 to 2010 to hide income. For the past decade the Purana taskforce has used the civil court system to systematically dismantle and seize assets bought from the alleged sale of drugs by large crime syndicates.

The ATO alleges Mr Karas used the name of Christos Karaglanis, who lives in Greece, to avoid more than $21 million in income tax.

The ATO is also claiming $23 million in interest and penalties. Karas claims the ATO has wrongly assessed cash he had ‘held’ on behalf of Mr Karaglanis and is seeking a declaration that the ATO’s tax assessments are unlawful. He is also pursuing an injunction stopping the ATO from pursuing the assessments. Mr Karas has attracted much attention from the police and ATO since 2006, when he began lending money to some of Victoria’s most notorious underworld figures.

(source: neoskosmos)