ATO launches legal action over music mogul Mark Spillane’s company’s alleged $1.8m tax bill

A company run by twice-bankrupt Aussie entertainment entrepreneur Mark Spillane is facing legal action from the ATO over an alleged $1.8 million tax bill.

Twice-bankrupt entertainment entrepreneur Mark Spillane’s Upsense Media Capital allegedly owes the taxman more than $1.8m, court documents reveal. Picture: Supplied

Twice-bankrupt entertainment entrepreneur Mark Spillane’s Upsense Media Capital allegedly owes the taxman more than $1.8m, court documents reveal.

The Australian Tax Office last week launched legal action asking the Federal Court to wind the company up over the debt.

As this masthead revealed last week, Oscar-winning director Steven Spielberg is suing another company where Mr Spillane was a director, Audient Capital, in the US Federal Court system.

In a case filed earlier this month, Mr Spielberg’s production company, Amblin Entertainment, alleges the Cayman Islands-based company promised $US$15.5m ($A23.5m) towards horror flop The Last Voyage of the Demeter, but failed to deliver.

US director Steven Spielberg’s company is suing Audient Capital, a company where Mark Spillane was a director. Picture: AFP

Australian court documents show the ATO served Upsense Media Capital with a notice demanding payment of the money on January 12.

Mr Spillane was the company’s sole director until September last year, when he declared himself bankrupt for a second time.

Bankrupts are automatically banned from being company directors until their bankruptcy ends.

Mr Spillane owed more than $10.4m and had just $36 in the bank when he declared himself bankrupt. His previous bankruptcy was in 2002.

He has been dogged by allegations that companies he is connected to have failed to follow through on offers to invest millions of dollars in ventures including films and music festivals.

This week, the director of British company Think Wine Group, which sells low-calorie and low-sugar wines, said she had been strung along for months by Mr Spillane and his New York-based business partner RJ Bucaria.

She said Audient Capital considered an investment of £250,000 ($A480,000) in Think Wine in early 2022 but never delivered and she gave up after a year of trying to get the cash injection.

Katherine Jones said she mostly dealt with Mr Bucaria but “Mark was always looped in on correspondence”.

Katherine Jones, director of Think Wine Group. Picture: Supplied

Reasons for delays in reaching an agreement with Audient included quibbling over terms in the investment contract, she said.

The ordeal was a major setback for her company but it has since recovered, she said.

“We’re growing, slowly but steadily, month on month. And obviously I don’t have cashflow problems right this minute,” Ms Jones said.

Mr Spillane said he was unable to comment on Upsense Media Capital’s tax stoush “as I am no longer a director of the company”.

He said questions about Think Wine Group were “a matter for Audient Capital and I understand it will respond”.

An Audient spokesperson said the fund considered many potential investments and “naturally, when potential targets do not meet our criteria, some founders become disappointed.”

Upsense Media Capital is also being sued in an LA court for over $US2.5m ($A3.8m) it allegedly took from a US company to invest in Sam Mendes war flick 1917.

In a case filed with the LA Superior Court in 2021 that remains on foot, New York-based company Hudson Private Corp alleges Upsense never paid profits it was promised and kept it “completely in the dark” about the financial performance of the hit film.

Upsense Media Capital is also being sued in an LA court for over $US2.5m it allegedly took from a US company to invest in Sam Mendes war flick 1917. Picture: AP

Hudson accuses Mr Bucaria, who is also named as a defendant in the proceedings, of stringing it along between June and October 2020, promising in emails sent over the months that financial reports would arrive “this week”, by the “beginning of next week” and “before the end of the week”.

And it claims Mr Bucaria used Upsense “to operate a fraudulent scheme similar to a Ponzi scheme” where money from investors was used “for improper purposes, including for his personal benefit”.

Upsense has not filed a defence but in a declaration filed with the court Mr Bucaria said the allegations against him were false and “misinformation”.

Mr Spillane is not a defendant in the case and no allegations are made against him by Hudson.

Originally published as ATO launches legal action over music mogul Mark Spillane’s company’s alleged $1.8m tax bill