ATO chief son’s former secret lover tells of how she was showered with luxury gifts, trips
EXCLUSIVE: THE former lover of an accused mastermind behind an alleged $165 million tax scam has told how he lavished her with luxury gifts and overseas trips.
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THE former lover of an accused mastermind behind an alleged $165 million tax scam has told how he lavished her with luxury gifts and overseas trips.
Adam Cranston’s former flame Toni Brady said money was no problem for the 30-year-old son of Australian Taxation Office deputy commissioner Michael Cranston.
She told News Corp Australia Adam Cranston — charged over one of the biggest white-collar crimes in Australia’s history — had swept the 24-year-old off her feet.
“He said he wanted to help me,’’ she said.
“It felt like a Pretty Woman situation.”
Ms Brady said she had now been pulled into the scandal.
She said her bank accounts had been frozen and cleaned out by the ATO, which hit her with a massive bill — with Michael Cranston’s name typed at the bottom.
Ms Brady, who grew up in Sydney’s east, agreed to speak to News Corp Australia.
She said her relationship with the deputy commissioner’ son ended some time before his wedding last year.
She said her former lover used his riches to buy her watches, shoes, jewellery, pay her rent — virtually anything she wanted — even “liposculpture” on her bottom.
She said she had no idea he was allegedly involved in an elaborate fraud syndicate.
Adam Cranston was on Thursday released from a Sydney court on $300,000 bail after being charged with conspiracy to defraud the Commonwealth.
$300K BAIL FOR ATO CHIEF’S SON
His father has been charged with abusing his position as a public official.
Ms Brady said she met the younger Cranston early in 2015 through a mutual friend at a “casual work drinks night”.
“We hit it off. We were talking and I was looking for a job at the time, and he happily said he would hire me,’ she said.
He said he was a company director and she could be his assistant.
Almost immediately, they started a physical relationship.
She only worked for about a month for a company that no longer exists, at offices in Double Bay.
“He got me a Jeep Grand Cherokee. It was in my name,” she said.
Together they visited Dubai and Paris.
“He made me the happiest I’ve ever been. He was the only guy that really showed that he cared about me and loved me,’’ Ms Brady said.
“Being with him made me feel like I was at home.”
In Dubai, they stayed at the luxurious Al Qasr resort.
“He got his-and-hers Omega watches for us,” she said.
They would shop for his clothes together in Ralph Lauren and Hugo Boss stores.
He had a nice Porsche, a late model Mercedes, and a light plane which he took her and her friend out in, Ms Brady said.
“He bought me jewellery. Diamond earrings, Hermes bracelets, handbags. My favourite are Dolce and Gabbana,” she said.
“He paid for my mum and I to go to the Maldives, and my girlfriend and I to go to Japan. I did solo trips too.
“I went pretty much everywhere around Europe,” she said.
It was the high-life, and at one point Ms Brady said Adam Cranston gave her his Black Amex card.
“I thought it was amazing, like a fairy tale. And it wasn’t just about the money.
“He was my first love and he broke my heart. He told me there was a future. He met my family. He even took my mum overseas.”
Their relationship ended when he chose his fiancee, whom Ms Brady knew about, over her.
“I moved out, because I was heartbroken. I didn’t want to be there any more. I went overseas for a while. He paid for that.
“I was still getting money from him, and when I didn’t have enough, I would get it reimbursed,” she said.
Since then, she’d been looking for work and trying to figure out who she was.
“When he stopped paying me, I had to find my own way. Before I met him, I had nothing.”
When they broke up, she had some money in the bank, now that had been seized and she had just $170 to her name.
It was a big shock to find her bank accounts emptied on Wednesday.
“I’m surprised I’ve not been questioned. I don’t know if I will. I think it’s pretty unfair, that the money has been taken out of my account without asking me anything.”
She said a letter from the ATO named small companies that had paid her wages, and it listed all the “reimbursements”.
She said she had not received any end-of-year earnings statements from the companies and had thought her tax had been taken care of.
“There are big figures in there. Basically it says I owe a big arse amount.”
Ms Brady said she had been told she needed to pay $128,000 plus fines and penalties.
The official ATO letter, explaining what she owed, had Michael Cranston’s name printed at the bottom.
“How ironic is that?” Ms Brady said.
“I’m 24, I can’t be bankrupt. That’s not fair. The companies didn’t send me any letters telling me to do my tax,” she said.
Despite the heartache and her own financial woes, she said she wished her former boyfriend the best and hoped he would be OK.
“I got quite sad when I saw in the news that he had been arrested. I hope he doesn’t go to jail.”
She now had a “weird hope” that everything would be okay, although she did not know how.
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