Journalist and lawyer on tax fraud charges

Veteran Sydney crime journalist Steve Barrett has been charged over an alleged $165m tax fraud at Plutus Payroll.

Veteran journalist Steve Barrett.

Veteran Sydney crime journalist Steve Barrett and former Obeid family lawyer Sevag Chalabian are among four men facing new charges over an alleged $165 million tax fraud at Plutus Payroll.

Barrett will face a blackmail charge and Mr Chalabian a tax fraud charge when they appear before the Downing Street Local Court in Sydney on July 31.

The cases of others previously charged as part of the Australian Federal Police’s Operation Elbrus into the alleged fraud, including Sydney lawyer Dev Menon and former Plutus Payroll boss Simon Anquetil, are also set for mention at the same time.

Mr Menon and Mr Anquetil were among 10 arrested by the AFP in May last year following raids on properties across Sydney allegedly linked to the complex tax scam.

Also charged were the alleged mastermind of the tax fraud ring, Adam Cranston, and his sister Lauren.

Their father, deputy Taxation Office commissioner Michael Cranston, was charged with two counts of abuse of public office for allegedly obtaining information and exercising his influence to benefit his son.

Police accuse Barrett, 60, of Frenchs Forest, of being involved in an extortion attempt by members of the tax fraud syndicate and allege Mr Chalabian, of Rose Bay, conspired to cause a loss to the commonwealth.

Barrett has worked at the Seven Network and Nine’s 60 Minutes.

His newspaper work ­included a stint at The Australian in the early 2000s.

Mr Chalabian, formerly of Lands Legal, gave evidence about the Obeid family’s secret stake in mining company Cascade Coal to the NSW Independent Commission against Corruption in 2012.