Construction boss George Alex has been sentenced to nine years and three months in jail for his role as the overseer of a $10 million tax fraud scheme that delivered him the “lion’s share” of criminal gains.
Alex, 53, and four co-conspirators were sentenced in Sydney’s Supreme Court on Friday following a marathon six-month trial that ended with each of the group convicted of tax fraud and dealing in more than $1 million in the proceeds of crime.
George Alex outside court in August.Credit: Dion Georgopoulos
The vehicle for the fraud, which ran from 2018 to 2020, was a labour-hire business secretly owned by Alex, an undischarged bankrupt who was legally barred from involvement.
He had no business email address and rarely spoke to his co-conspirators on the phone. But he was found to have been instrumental in the scheme, which siphoned off more than $100,000 a week in pay-as-you-go taxes owed to the Commonwealth.
In the words of one co-conspirator, Alex’s approach was one of “raping and pillaging”.
Justice Desmond Fagan found it was “inconceivable” that any of the fellow conspirators would have taken the steps they did without Alex’s agreement and instructions.
“George Alex asserted full ownership and the right to make all decisions affecting the business,” Fagan said, adding Alex had received the “lion’s share” of the criminal proceeds.
According to Crown prosecutors, this included $1 million transferred to a company he used as a personal “moneybox”, $150,000 in rental payments for his family home, and $74,000 toward a Range Rover for his wife.
Alex will serve a non-parole period of six years and two months’ imprisonment. Each of the four conspirators – Lindsay John Kirschberg, Gordon McAndrew, Pasquale Loccisano, and Mark Ronald Bryers – was sentenced to a non-parole period of at least five years.
“None of them has shown any remorse,” Fagan found.
On Friday, Alex appeared via audiovisual link from prison, wearing a green top. At a sentencing hearing last month, he appeared in the dock, winking and waving at family members in the gallery.
This included Alex’s 26-year-old son Arthur, who the jury found not guilty of recklessly dealing with the proceeds of crime of $1 million or more.
‘Persistent’ fraud
The Crown, in its written sentencing submissions, described “a lengthy, persistent and calculated course of fraudulent conduct” helmed by Alex as leader.
While the other members had each played a “pivotal” role, Alex had acted as the “controlling mind of the back office, which was critical to the success of both conspiracies.”
At last month’s sentencing hearing, the Crown maintained that Alex was an overseer of the schemes but did not press an earlier submission that he was their “architect” – a characterisation Alex’s lawyers had resisted.
The judge noted that there was “not much to design” for an architect. At its heart, according to Fagan, the attitude of the conspirators toward their tax obligations was simple: “Don’t pay”.
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