Mining tech entrepreneur Dr Bob Johnson charged with massive tax fraud spanning 15 years

Maptek founder Bob Johnson has been charged with a huge tax fraud, alleged to have spanned 15 years, worth tens of millions of dollars.

Maptek founder Dr Bob Johnson with an I-Site laser in 2006.

One of the nation’s leading mining technology entrepreneurs, Adelaide-based Bob Johnson, is scheduled to face court today charged with an alleged taxation fraud spanning 15 years and totalling more than $38.5m.

The Australian Federal Police allege Keith Robert “Bob” Johnson, 74, failed to disclose overseas trust accounts in his income tax returns and “therefore evaded income tax in Australia between 1999 and 2013’’.

Dr Johnson was a pioneer in the use of computer software for the modelling of underground resources deposits, and his company Maptek, founded in 1981, employs hundreds of people globally with offices in the US, Chile, South Africa and Russia.

He has also led a number of listed companies, including Adelaide-based Havilah Resources which two years ago fended off a $100m bid from Sanjeev Gupta’s GFG Alliance to take a majority stake in the iron ore and copper explorer.

He remains a substantial shareholder in Havilah.

A News Corp Australia investigation in 2019 detailed how Dr Johnson’s assets both here and internationally had been frozen as a result of an AFP investigation under the Proceeds of Crime Act.

The AFP at the time refused to confirm or deny it was investigating Dr Johnson, but Supreme Court documents obtained revealed that his assets had been the subject of a restraining order since late 2014.

The court documents listed 83 items associated with Dr Johnson including:

- A property in London, two in Byron Bay, other properties in NSW and one at Wallaroo on South Australia’s Yorke Peninsula.

- More than 10 bank accounts and a share portfolio related to Maptek.

- A large number of term deposits.

- Several share portfolios.

Among the companies named in the documents was Woolsthorpe Investments Limited, which is incorporated in the British Virgin Islands and was cited in the “Panama Papers”.

Dr Bob Johnson was chairman of uranium explorer Curnamona Energy.

The public was excluded from attending or even knowing about the case, with orders made that it not appear in court listings. It is believed that Dr Johnson has not been able to travel internationally since the investigation started.

It is also understood that Dr Johnson’s businesses and home were raided by federal authorities as part of the investigation.

The AFP on Thursday confirmed it had “obtained restraining orders in the Supreme Court of South Australia under the Proceeds of Crime Act over a significant amount of assets’’.

AFP Southern Command acting commander investigations Raegan Stewart said the charges

followed a complex investigation involving joint-agency co-operation and engagement with

overseas law enforcement bodies.

“The laying of charges against the alleged offender as well as the obtaining of restraining orders in this investigation serves as a clear warning that the Australian Federal Police will take action in relation to allegations of serious financial crime,” acting commander Stewart said.

The AFP said it undertook an investigation in conjunction with the Australian Taxation Office and the Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission as part of the Serious Financial Crime Taskforce.

“The investigation also involved international law-enforcement agencies from the Bailiwick of Jersey, the United States, the United Kingdom and the British Virgin Islands,’’ the AFP said.

“We are committed to continuing to work together, alongside our international law enforcement agency partners in investigations into this kind of offending, seek to remove the

benefits derived from crime, identify those responsible and put them before the court,” acting commander Stewart said.

Dr Johnson is facing 15 charges relating to “defraud the Commonwealth” and “obtain a financial advantage by deception”.

Each offence is punishable by 10 years’ imprisonment.

Dr Johnson made an application to revoke the restraining order over his assets in March 2015 while the AFP made an application for a forfeiture order at the same time.

The restraining order was varied in June 2015 to allow Dr Johnson to use money borrowed from his wife, Gaynor, but the application for it to be revoked was dismissed.

The SFCT is a multi-agency taskforce targeting the most serious and complex forms of financial crime in Australia, the AFP said.

Its current priorities include technology enabled crime (cybercrime), offshore tax

evasion, illegal phoenix activity and crimes impacting the ATO-administered COVID-19

stimulus measures.

Dr Johnson will face the Adelaide Magistrates Court on Friday afternoon.