Former 60 Minutes reporter accused of blackmail manipulated, court told

A veteran journalist accused of helping to extort $5m from an alleged tax fraud syndicate was ‘manipulated’ by the blackmailers, a court has been told.

A veteran journalist accused of being embroiled in a scheme to rip off $5m from an alleged $100m tax fraud syndicate was “manipulated” by members of a blackmail cartel, a court has been told.

Former 60 Minutes and Channel 7 journalist Stephen Barrett is standing trial in the NSW Supreme Court where he has denied helping to stand over three key players in the Plutus Payroll scandal.

The crown prosecution has accused Mr Barrett of being part of a joint criminal enterprise, along with Daniel Rostankovski and Daniel Hausman, which demanded $5m from the group.

He is alleged to have used his journalistic credentials to “menace” alleged Plutus kingpin Adam Cranston, lawyer Dev Menon and Jason Onley, and threatened to expose them.

Mr Barrett has pleaded not guilty to making an unwarranted demand with menaces with intention to obtain a gain by accusation or threat.

Seven News journalist Steve Barrett testifies at the NSW Police bugging inquiry.

According to an admissions document signed by Mr Barrett and tendered to the Supreme Court, the AFP began tapping Mr Hausman and Mr Rostankovski’s phones in October 2016.

The court was told the demand for $5m was made by Mr Rostankovski at a meeting with alleged Plutus cartel members on February 1, 2017.

The meeting inside a law firm’s Sydney CBD office was bugged by Australian Federal Police.

Crown prosecutor Patricia McDonald had previously told the court Mr Barrett was present at the meeting, during which he stated he had been made aware of allegations against the Plutus group and was interested in running a story.

However, the court was told that he left the room before the demands for money were made by Mr Rostankovski.

A recording of the meeting was played to the court on Friday during which Mr Barrett could be heard saying that he had been a journalist for “39 years in this town”.

He further said he had been told allegations against the Plutus players was “a very serious story” and “I want to investigate”.

Defence barrister Clive Steirn told the jury on Friday that Mr Barrett was an unwitting cog in the blackmail syndicate’s attempt to extort money.

“When Mr Barrett came into the matter he was a professional journalist, and Mr Hausman intended to use and manipulate him for his own end,” Mr Steirn said.

“It’s important to note that the first blackmail charge was in the sum of $5m, and that was not shared with Mr Barrett but 50/50 between Mr Hausman and Mr Rostankovski.”

Stephen Barrett has pleaded not guilty of attempting to blackmail alleged members of the Plutus Payroll cartel. Picture: Twitter.

The court was told that Mr Hausman made a second demand of the Plutus group for a further $20m on February 15.

However, Mr Barrett was not involved in that alleged blackmail attempt and has not been charged.

According to documents tendered to the court, over a two-week period in 2017, $4.82m was paid into a trust fund of Mr Hausman’s lawyer.

After the second blackmail attempt was made, over a three-month period from February to May, another $19.42m was paid into the same trust account

The court has heard the Plutus Payroll group diverted $105m worth of pay-as-you-go tax, which should have been remitted to the Australian Taxation Office, using a group of second-tier companies and “straw directors”.

The court was previously told Mr Barrett in January 2017 approached A Current Affair national executive producer Grant Williams, pitching a story about a “major scandal” involving Mr Cranston, whose father is Michael Cranston - at the time the ATO’s deputy commissioner of taxation.

In May 2017, Mr Barrett again contacted Mr Williams and helped another journalist put together a story about the Plutus scandal.

When Australian Federal Police executed a search warrant at the Channel 9 offices, they found an invoice from Mr Barrett’s company for $3000.

Alleged Plutus Payroll kingpin Adam Cranston. Picture: NCA NewsWire/Christian Gilles.

The crown has claimed that during a May 2017 meeting at a cafe in Sydney’s The Domain, Mr Hausman paid Mr Barrett $2000.

Mr Steirn told the court that Mr Hausman, who is scheduled to give evidence at Mr Barrett’s trial, could not be trusted because he had negotiated a discount on his sentence in return for giving evidence against other alleged members of the blackmail syndicate.

“He has a perfect motive to lie, nothing is more important than a man’s freedom,” Mr Steirn said.

Mr Cranston had pleaded not guilty to conspiring to dishonestly cause a loss to the commonwealth and dealing with the proceeds of crime.

Mr Menon and Mr Onley have pleaded not guilty to being involved in the alleged tax fraud scam and will stand trial next year.

The trial before Justice Peter Johnson continues.