Donna was prosecuted by ATO criminal investigator Mr Rains for alleged fraud relating to unpaid superannuation and non payment of GST. The ATO withheld evidence relating to the payment of debts and the creation of false debts that defeated allegations.
Background
Donna was charged by Mr Rains with 95 offences for fraud and forgery relating to debts of the company.
Donna’s charges were laid by Mr Rains, not before being hunted and tracked down by international police engaged by Mr Rains when he swore a false affidavit claiming a debt that was not owed so he could extradite her back to Australia. Mr Rains had Donna pursued and tracked until she was jailed overseas, then extradited back to Australia leaving her in a prison in Brisbane without any personal belongings. It is alleged, fraudulent Director Penalty Notices (DPN’s) were issued by the ATO prior to any statutory power enabling the issuing of the notices, and money owed under superannuation was not paid.
A DPN is a legal document issued by the ATO to a director of a company. The purpose of the director penalty notice is to inform the director/s that they are now personally liable for the tax debts of the company. Donna was served with fabricated debts in excess of $7.0M.
The ATO have aggressively and unjustifiably pursued and attacked Donna and her husband for more than 14 years where the ATO have vexatiously issued 197 tax audits on the family business over a five year period, of which resulted in no legitimate debt assessment. The assault on the family resulted in the suicide of Donna’s husband.
Following her husband’s death, Donna has been left to fight the ATO where despite complaints being made to the Inspector-General of Taxation, no protection was offered allowing Mr Burns, Director of Debt to aggressively attack Donna and bankrupt her, despite none of the debts being valid.
Allegedly, under the guidance of the Director of Debt, Mr Burns, the ATO confiscated company assets worth over $60 million to settle a fabricated debt of $15 million, along with the family home valued at $5 million. Moreover, Mr Burns pursued action against Donna to personally bankrupt her over unpaid ‘falsified debts’. Total losses are estimated at $270M+ including lost revenue.
ATO employees in Brisbane then used the fabricated debts to allow Mr Rains to lay criminal charges against Donna. Mr Rains has no authority to file a complaint and summons.
The allegations against Mr Rains:
- he is an unauthorised taxation officer gone rogue who exceeded his authority and position to file charges;
- unlawfully engaged international law enforcement agencies to arrest Donna;
- deliberately and unlawfully suppressed, distorted and manufactured evidence;
- concealed relevant evidence relating to the prosecution that contradicts the allegations he made in charges;
- interfered with prosecution witnesses;
- unlawfully passed himself off as an authorised Qld police service officer to thwart State police investigations against his chief witness against the case against Donna, who had engaged in alleged fraud, theft and forgery whilst being employed by Donna’s company;
- made false statements alleging criminals connections to obtain his search warrant by a retiring justice;
- accessed and disseminated protected information obtained from a compulsory record of interview.
The allegations against Mr Burns, Director of Debt and Commissioner:
- Creation of false debts and duplicated the false debt to increase the debt to 42 x times larger than the alleged debt as first claimed by the ATO.
- liquidated all family businesses 60.0M+;
- liquidated the family home valued at $5.0M+;
- engaged in covert liquidation of companies whilst the debts were still under dispute through the court system;
- forced Donna to sign a debt agreement and withdraw complaints again him, otherwise he would walk down and file the bankruptcy notice;
- falsely accused the company director/s of being involved in phoenix scheme activity;
- ATO officers provided false and misleading information to IGOT, Commonwealth Ombudsman and Information Ombudsman to response to complaints made about ATO misconduct;
- Concealing and withholding all information and evidence that shows false allegations made are contradictory or detrimental to the ATO’s position from the Court and government agencies such as ACNC, AUSTRAC and ASIC;
- provided false and misleading “Proof of Debt” information to their liquidators so they could pursue Donna and the companies for $4.47M, despite the ATO giving evidence under oath that “Nil” was owing;
- Issued false DPN’s without following ATO’s Practice Statement Law Administration process;
- $6.6M collected by the ATO with no explanation, refusing to provide explanation of the debts;
- More than $30,713,820 worth of falsified debts and statutory demands, and garnishee notices.
- $16,449,000 of farnishee notices knowingly sent to financiers to support Statutory Demands that soured and later destroyed financial relationships;
- $2,275,745 ATO claims based on overstated tax debt estimates, duplicated debts for BAS that had been lodged and paid, refusing to acknowledge payment;
- $11,988,457 false Statutory Demands improperly administered and based on duplicated and overstated DPNs for the same periods, refusing to correct and withdraw.
- unlawfully took the sale proceeds of the family home to pay down false debts.
Senior executives within the ATO including the Second Commissioner Jeremy Hirschorn are aware of Donna’s case and the misconduct of Mr Rains and Mr Burns yet have completely disregarded the abuse and cost to taxpayers. Letters of complaint have been issued to the ATO, however Mr Hirschorn and others refuse to respond.
As the criminal matter is still before the court, limited information has been provided. A pseudonym has been used in these circumstances.