ALLEGED TAX EVASION.

Otago Witness, Issue 3833, 30 August 1927, Page 17

ALLEGED TAX EVASION.

BY MELBOURNE MERCHANTS.

SYDNEY, August 19. Arising out of an alleged conspiracy to defraud the Commonwealth Taxation Department, officials of that department and police conducted a series of extraordinary raids on business premises and private residences in Melbourne last week-end to secure documents which, it was alleged, would prove that the people concerned had defrauded the authorities of large sums of money. Practically all the people concerned belonged to a family of Jews, the, heads of which are two brothers, Alfredand Louis Abrahams, often alluded to by the cheaper press as the ‘‘Mystery Millionaires.”

All the raids were made concurrently under warrants issued by a police magistrate on information sworn by the chief taxation investigation officer under a new section of the Commonwealth Crimes Act, It was the first time that such warrants had been issued. Eighteen police constables and 20 taxation officers formed the raiding forces, which was reinforced by two safe experts. In the information on which the warrants were issued it was stated that the Taxation Department believed that many of the taxation returns were made pursuant to a conspiracy to defraud the Commonwealth and evade tax assessment. The office of the chief firm concerned—the Small Arms Proprietary, Ltd.—had been visited several times by taxation officials with authority to inspect documents, but false documents had been produced. Surprise visits subsequently made had proved that there were other documents which had been wilfully concealed on previous occasions. It was to obtain further similar documents that the warrants were now required. Arrangements for the raids were made by the Commonwealth law officials. Eighteen constables were assembled at police headquarters and extraordinary precautions were taken to ensure secrecy. The constables were led to believe that they were going to raid opium dens, and the 20 taxation officers also engaged on the raid did not know for what special mission they had been detailed. The main centre of operations was the Small Arms Proprietary. There the secretary of the company, William Robert Bartlett, refused to hand over the keys of the safes, and it is believed by the searchers, twitted them and challenged them to open the safes. Then the safe experts set to work, and for three days safes were being opened and piles of documents being extracted and impounded. Various other, parties of raiders were simultaneously at work in the offices of the company’s solicitor, Dr A. E. Jones, in offices of other firms and partnerships in which the Abrahams and various members of their families were interested, and at the private residences of all the people concerned in the alleged conspiracy to defraud. No fewer than eight motor cars were kept busy travelling from one centre of operations to another. In some cases the keys of safes were delivered up on demand bv the searching officials, but in other cases where the searchers met with refusals no compunction was experienced in bursting open the safes. In all, eight motor car loads of documents were taken from offices and- homes. All these will be minutely examined, and if, as is probable, they disclose for proceedings, all the persons concerned will be nrosecuted. The legal action is certain to be one of the most complicated and severe, and alreadv a large and expensive bar has been briefed'by both sides in preparation for the battle in the courts. Besides Alfred and Louis Abrahams, there are two other brothers and several sisters and their families, numbering in all, with the Small Arms Proprietary’s secretary and solicitor, 30 persons. The conspiracy concerns the income of seven public companies and 12 partnerships. About some of these concerns numerous romances of big business have been woven, and although the Abrahams kept most cf their business secret, some idea of the extent of their resources may be gauged that in a series of purchases Alfred and Louis Abrahams bought nearly the whole of one Sydney block for over £1.000,000. Their operations extended to every State and to every capital. To elucidate how much profits they, their relations, and their close business associates were really making, is now the task of the keenest and most efficient lawyers and taxation experts in the country.