Key witness to alleged tax fraud syndicate blackmail case ‘had motive to lie’, defence claims
The key witness in a blackmail case against veteran TV reporter Steve Barrett, is a “liar” and serial “manipulator”, the defence has claimed.
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The key witness in a blackmail case against veteran television journalist Steve Barrett, is a “liar” and serial “manipulator” who is desperate not to be slapped with extra jail time on the prison sentence he is already serving, a court has been told.
Barrister for Mr Barrett, Clive Steirn SC, told the jury in the NSW Supreme Court on Friday the key witness, Daniel Hausman, had the “perfect motive to lie” and had done so to get a reduced prison sentence for his role in the blackmail conspiracy.
Mr Barrett, who has worked for Channel 7, Channel 9 and The Australian Newspaper, has pleaded not guilty to a charge that he was part of a conspiracy to blackmail a group of alleged tax fraudsters for $5 million.
It is alleged Mr Barrett, with two co-accused Hausman and Daniel Rostankovski, was part of a joint criminal enterprise hatched in February 2017, to demand money from a group who were allegedly behind a large-scale tax fraud dubbed the Plutus Payroll fraud.
Mr Barrett has pleaded not guilty to making an unwarranted demand with menaces to Adam Cranston, the adult son of the then former Deputy Commissioner of Taxation Michael Cranston, Jason Onley and Dev Menon and others who were allegedly involved in the serious indictable offences of fraud and money laundering.
The crown case is that the alleged Plutus payroll fraudsters were siphoning off $105 million PAYG tax and GST for themselves by contracting out the payroll tax responsibilities to second tier companies with straw directors, and that Hausman and Rostankovski had found out about it and demanded money to keep quiet.
On the first day of the trial, Crown Prosecutor Patricia McDonald said the court will be told how Mr Barrett was paid up to $3000 to play a part in the blackmail by threatening to expose the alleged fraudsters in the media.
But Mr Steirn told the jury Hausman had hatched the blackmail plan with co-conspirator Daniel Rostankovski long before ever contacting Mr Barrett.
The jury was told Mr Barrett only came into the blackmail matter in his capacity as a professional journalist, looking at a story, and he had been unknowingly “used and manipulated” by Hausman for Hausman’s own ends.
The court has already been told Mr Barrett had left a meeting with the alleged Plutus fraudsters before the demand for $5 million was made by Mr Rostankovski.
Mr Steirn told the court that the $5 million blackmail money that was paid as a result of the blackmail demand was shared between the men who hatched the plan – Hausman and Mr Rostankovski. Not with Mr Barrett.
The court was told that there was a second later successful attempt to blackmail the alleged Plutus fraudsters for $20 million which Mr Barrett knew nothing about.
The court was told that evidence will show Hausman is not a witness of truth and cannot be believed.
The jury also heard that Hausman had offered to do a deal with the authorities that he must be prepared to give evidence against Mr Barrett and others in the future for a reduction in his sentence for his role in the crime.
The court was also told evidence would show Hausman made many, many, statements to authorities in the lead up to the trial of Mr Barrett – but the last one, which the Crown is relying on to prove its case, he has to stick to.
Mr Steirn said if he doesn’t stick to the last story, he risks going back before the courts and having his sentence increased. And he will do anything not to increase his jail time.
Mr Steirn said in his view, Hausman is a businessman who the evidence will show, has manipulated people at every turn in subtle and nuance ways.
The trial continues.
Originally published as Key witness to alleged tax fraud syndicate blackmail case ‘had motive to lie’, defence claims
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