THE wives of three Lebanese alleged crime figures have been caught up in a $3 million crackdown by the tax department, The Sunday Telegraph can reveal.
The Australian Taxation Office and the police have served summonses on the wives of Ahmad “Rock” Ahmad and his brothers Walid “Wally” Ahmad and Mahmoud “Brownie” Ahmad, alleging they owe about $2.75 million in taxes.
The agencies are joining forces to target organised crime figures’ finances through family connections, business ventures and unpaid tax.
Last year, police and the ATO flagged a number of people and networks they would focus on to identify illegitimate businesses, unexplained wealth and acquisition of assets.
“This working relationship is especially important because it targets and impacts on the most important part of criminal activities — the money,” State Crime Command’s Detective Chief Superintendent Stuart Smith said.
After carefully scrutinising the Ahmad family’s interests, the ATO calculated an outstanding unpaid tax bill of about $2.75 million.
Rock’s wife Latifah Ahmad, 39, has the largest bill and was served last week with a summons for an outstanding debt of almost $1.5 million.
Her husband, the last brother in the influential family to be arrested, is currently in Goulburn jail after being charged over an international tobacco smuggling and drug ring last August.
He has also been named in court as a prime suspect in the alleged gangland murder of Hamad Assaad in late 2016.
Wally was a larger-than-life crime figure, known for his penchant for fast cars, cocaine and underworld mediation before being gunned down in April 2016.
His ex-wife — Nidal Hamze, 43 — was served a summons for a tax debt worth more than $230,000.
Wally’s brother Brownie spent almost a year hiding in Lebanon after a fatal shooting at a smash repair shop in Condell Park in April, 2016.
Safwan Charbaji was shot dead during the gun fight between two warring families.
The death sparked a string of reprisal attacks, culminating in the alleged murder of Rock’s best friend Kemel Barakat in March last year.
Days after the Condell Park shooting, Brownie skipped the country and turned up in the Middle East.
He returned last year and was charged with Charbaji’s murder.
Brownie’s wife Carmen Piscioneri, 32, was served with a summons on March 21 for a tax debt worth almost $1 million.
The three women have 28 days to settle their debts or risk the ATO seeking a court judgment that may leave them bankrupt.
* Follow Ava Benny-Morrison @avabmorrison