The Swindle: Adam Cranston’s dummy director almost stole $800k from his $105m tax fraud operation

Adam Cranston always thought he was the smartest man in the room and that his $105m tax fraud operation was too complicated to fail. But one of his minions proved just how wrong he was with a bold scam of her own.

For one of the first times in his life, Adam Cranston realised he was not the smartest person in the room.

He had just been outwitted by a woman he considered to be a worthless junkie who was close to executing a plan to steal almost $1 million from him.

It was early 2017 and the woman was loose on the streets of Sydney with $30,000 of Cranston’s ill-gotten money after she had withdrawn it from one of his business accounts.

Things were about to get worse too.

Cranston would soon discover the woman had pressed go on an internet banking transfer to shift a further $800,000 from the account to her own personal bank account.

The transaction was on hold and waiting to go through.

Adam Cranston faces 25 years in jail for his role in Australia’s biggest ever tax fraud case. Picture: AAP Image/Craig Golding

For a man who was smart enough to have been what the Crown told the jury was a “leading conspirator” on a $105 million tax fraud – that began while he was aged in his 20s – Cranston failed to consider a major flaw in his plan.

Cranston had installed the woman as a straw director of one of a number of companies that were supposed to hide his involvement in the $105 million tax fraud scheme.

The directors of the straw companies were meant to be weak-willed zombies who got paid about $1000 a week to have their names as the directors of the companies used to steal the tax money – and take the fall if the business got put into liquidation.

Their ranks included drug addicts, public housing residents, the unemployed, disgraced former businessmen and ex-convicts, Cranston’s trial was told.

But this woman realised she could get even more money by double crossing Cranston.

Cranston’s legitimate company, Plutus Payroll, was supposed to transfer millions of dollars worth of PAYG tax and GST obligations to the ATO on behalf of its clients, which included government departments and IT companies.

Adam Cranston would spend money from the scheme on cars.

The company had no trouble attracting clients given that it charged no fee to its clients for the payroll service.

But Cranston instead used Plutus to siphon the funds to a large number of second tier companies, including the one the woman was a director of. The companies then kept up to 40 per cent of the funds and transferred the rest to the ATO.

The money they kept was transferred to Cranston, and ex sports presenter and pro snowboarder Jay Onley via fake invoices and transfers via other business accounts.

On Tuesday, a NSW Supreme Court jury this week found Cranston, Onley and tax lawyer Dev Menon guilty of defrauding the ATO.

The trio now face a maximum 25 years jail after being convicted of conspiring to cause a loss to the Commonwealth and dealing with the proceeds of crime. They will be sentenced at a later date.

Cranston was arrested in 2017. Picture: Supplied

The clients and the rest of Plutus’ staff had no idea the company was at the centre of one of the biggest white collar crimes in Australia’s history.

Despite thinking the fraud was too complicated to fail, Cranston never considered that the dummy director was cunning enough to realise she was in charge of the company’s bank account and could transfer the money to herself before it made its way to Cranston.

The woman changed the passwords on the company’s account, locking Cranston and others out, before she withdrew $30,000 cash and hit the Sydney streets.

After withdrawing the cash she then attempted to steal the remainder of the $1 million that was in the company’s account by executing a bank transfer.

The first Cranston heard of it was when he received a panicked phone call alerting him to the $800,000 transfer that had been actioned to go straight into the woman‘s personal bank account.

Cranston was almost fooled out of $800k by one of his dummy directors. Picture: Dylan Robinson

“I’ll be there in three seconds,” Adam replied as he ran towards his Porsche 911 GT3, according to a recording that was aired during his trial.

Eventually, the $800,000 transfer was cancelled.

Cranston also didn’t realise that the Australian Federal Police had installed a secret listening device in the boardroom of Menon’s law firm in the Sydney CBD that captured him talking about the woman’s attempted theft.

Between January and March in 2017 the listening devices captured recordings, which were played during Cranston’s trial, featuring him discussing the impending doom of the operation with his accomplices and how they were going to cover it up

The recordings also captured Cranston complaining about the impact the woman’s attempted heist could have had on Plutus’ operations.

“ … We’re not robbing banks here mate … We’re not selling drugs,” Cranston said. “These are real businesses, mate. These have real clients and real needs.”

“That’s going to cause us tax problems mate. The client is not going to be happy about that …

“ … a lot of these f--kwits (involved in Cranston’s tax fraud syndicate) don’t get that these are real businesses, that have real clients and real money,” Cranston told the group.

Cranston’s comment was a reference to the fact that Plutus had to keep up the facade that they were actually performing a legitimate payroll service for their clients. This needed to continue if they were to continue raking in the money that was supposed to go to the ATO.

After the woman attempted to steal the $800,000, Cranston said on the recording that he made the judgment call to transfer all the money to the ATO.

This was to prevent the woman getting her hands on it. Also, there was a risk the ATO would get suspicious and launch legal action to seize the money.

Cranston grumbled that the money should have been transferred out of the company‘s account earlier

AUDIO: Listen to Adam Cranston’s conversation with his father in the interactive player below

“‘Make sure there’s no money sitting there for super’,” Cranston recalled saying on the recording. “‘Make sure there’s no money sitting there for tax, make sure there’s no money sitting there for wages, because there’s always a chance that this could possibly happen’.”

The recordings also captured Cranston relaying what the woman did after withdrawing the money.

“She was floating around the city with thirty grand cash,” Cranston said. “No one could find her. She was going to Broadway and she was staying in some hotel somewhere.

Cranston reinforced in the recording that the money actually belonged to a legitimate client of Plutus.

“If we lose $940,000, the client will leave mate,” Cranston said. “It’s a f--king lot of money.”

“So we got up, reset the passwords, and the only thing we could do, (was) make a payment to … the ATO, so I said ‘Just pay it. Just pay the whole lot’,” Cranston said. “She had (it) lined up … it was sitting in a pending thing to transfer eight hundred.”

Cranston remarked that the woman would have taken the money to a “crackhouse”.

“I don’t think she would’ve been smart and (used the money to) buy a house..,”Cranston said. “ … Like that’s something we’d do …”

The trial heard that Cranston used his proceeds to purchase properties at Burraneer Bay, Miranda and the Hunter Valley, plus a collection of luxury cars.

Onley shelled out a property in Vaucluse, the trial was told.

Refuting a comment that the woman wasn’t intelligent, Onley was recorded reminding Cranston that she was “smart enough to know that the (transfer) limit” on the account was $800,000.

The recording captured the group discussing that this was the second time a dummy director had stolen money from the operation.

Another woman stole “$60-70 grand”, Cranston said.

Onley remarked: “This is a major f--k up mate. It’s not even a little f--k up.”

What they didn’t know was that the police were already listening in and that in four months, things would become infinitely worse when they got arrested.