ASIC cancels financial services licence of accountant Vanda Gould, named in developer Jim Raptis tax evasion allegations

The jailed former accountant of developer Jim Raptis has been stripped of his financial licence for two unexpected reasons after assisting in a $383m tax dodge.

Jim Raptis Photo: David Clark

PAPERWORK oversights, not a criminal conviction, have seen a jailed accountant finally stripped of his financial service licence.

Vanda Russell Gould, a former chairman of investment company CVC, is serving a six-year sentence after being found guilty in 2019 of attempting to pervert the course of justice over a $383m tax evasion scheme.

He will be eligible for parole in November 2023.

The corporate regulator this week said it had cancelled his licence for failing to maintain external dispute resolution membership with the Australian Financial Complaints Authority.

Sydney-based Gould also failed to lodge profit-and-loss statements for two years.

Jailed accountant Vanda Gould in a 2013 photo.

He made headlines last week after his name figured prominently in Federal Court documents for the Australian Taxation Office’s case against veteran Gold Coast developer Jim Raptis.

The ATO is chasing $109.7m in alleged unpaid tax, penalties and interest from Mr Raptis, members of his family and companies he is associated with.

Court documents said “Mr Raptis has maintained a long association with Mr Vanda Gould as his accountant”.

They said Mr Raptis, along with his wife and children, shared beneficial ownership of a company, Educational Gold Trust, with Gould and his wife and children.

Raptis Group creditors meeting at the corporate centre at Bundall in 2009. Jim Raptis asking photographers to stop taking photographs as he leaves the office.

The Federal Court has frozen more than $80m in assets linked to Jim Raptis, wife Helen and son Evan, including the veteran developer’s $20m Paradise Waters mansion and 2018 Lexus.

Under the orders, Mr Raptis is allowed to spend $10,000 a week on living expenses and can stay in the palatial waterfront mansion.

Court documents said ATO investigations had revealed apparent “tax avoidance arrangements” by Mr Raptis, members of his immediate family and companies.

The documents said the ATO probe found “significant amounts of undisclosed income and evasion by Mr Raptis”.

Mr Raptis said he intended to “work cooperatively with the ATO (and if necessary, lodge objections) to resolve these historical matters”.

“Although we are disappointed with aspects of the orders, we note that business as usual is part of the orders, and all our current projects are progressing as planned,” he said via a representative.

According to the court documents, “significant sums of money had been transferred out of Australia by Raptis group entities to offshore entities in which Mr Raptis had admitted a beneficial interest or which were associated with Mr Gould”.

Gould had held a financial services licence since December 2003.

Follow @Kathleenskene

Originally published as ASIC cancels financial services licence of accountant Vanda Gould, named in developer Jim Raptis tax evasion allegations