Millionaire Sir Yii Ann Hii fights tax man’s bid to bankrupt him in PNG

A Brisbane businessman who owes $70 million to the Australian Taxation Office for tax evasion has launched an extraordinary lawsuit to block the Government and tax office from their latest actions.

Valene Hii with her father Yii Ann Hii

A Brisbane businessman who owes $69 million to the Australian Taxation Office for tax evasion, has launched an extraordinary lawsuit to block the Australian Government from bankrupting him in Papua New Guinea, and asking the court to block the ATO from chasing him.

Yii Ann Hii, 59, who lives in a $31 million house in ritzy Sentosa in Singapore, and who was knighted by the Queen in 2007 for his services to the timber industry in Papua New Guinea, launched his last-ditch suit in the Federal Court late last month and it is due for hearing on Thursday before Justice John Logan.

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Hii has exhausted all avenues to appeal his tax debt, but now wants the Federal Court to quash the ATO’s finding that he evaded tax between 2001 and 2004 and 2007 to 2009, court documents state.

He also wants an order which makes the ATO’s ruling that he was a resident of Australia for tax purposes of no legal effect and a writ of prohibition blocking any government official from trying to claw back his tax debt, court documents state.

A Lamborghini Murcielago two door coupe with the number plate BBOSS which was kept at Hii’s Hamilton home in the eight-car garage.

He also wants the court to force the government to drop any legal action in Papua New Guinea aimed at bankrupting him, court documents state.

Several Australian courts have upheld the ATO’s claim that Sir Yii was an Australian resident for tax purposes between 2001-09, and he avoided tax by evasion by falsely claiming he was not an Australian resident while living in Christopher Skase’s former Brisbane home.

The view of the Brisbane River at Yii Ann Hii’s former home at 36 Dickson Tce, Hamilton

The Chinese-Malay entrepreneur hails from a family who made its fortune by felling century-old forests in the Malaysian state of Sarawak, on the island of Borneo.

During the legal fight he claimed he owned fleet of Rolls Royces (including a gold one in Singapore), a Bentley, Lamborghini and a bulletproof Hummer.

Soo Hian Beh, the late wife of Yii Ann Hii, at their former Hamilton home. She died of head injuries last year in Beijing

He also told the court that when he visited his iron ore mine in the Philippines, he lived in a luxury apartment staffed by a trained masseuse and a personal driver.

Hii told the court that in PNG, where he had 138,000ha of timber concessions, he had a five-bedroom house in a secure compound with six staff, a Mercedes-Benz and a Rolls Royce.

The residence at 36 Dickson Tce, Hamilton, former home of Christopher Skase

In each house he kept a complete set of personal effects so he never needed luggage.

The palatial nine-bedroom residence Hii called home in Brisbane, which he shared with his late wife Soo Hian Beh, was sold to hotel baron Steven Shoobridge in December 2017 for $10 million, after the ATO secured an enforcement warrant to seize and sell Hii’s half-share.

From left, Valene Hii, Sherlyyn Hii, Isabell Hii and Samantha Hii, daughters of Yii Ann Hii. Picture: Facebook

Hii and Beh had not divorced when Beh died aged 57 on July 23 last year in Beijing from a craniocerebral injury, court documents said.

Following his wife’s sudden death Hii told the court they had separated in the early 2000s after 14 years of marriage and having six children, and had signed a binding financial agreement in 2016.

Derek Hii, son of Yii Ann Hii. Picture: Facebook

Hii previously launched a case against the Australian Government in Malaysia in a bid to have the Malaysian court declare the ATO’s decision invalid.

Hii enrolled in the Medicare system while living in Brisbane, a benefit only available to residents, and educated his six children at Queensland schools and universities.

His two daughters studied medicine, one is a radiologist, and his son Reimen is a barrister from West End, his youngest son studied at Brisbane Grammar School.

Reimen Hii, barrister son of Yii Ann Hii