Plutus Payroll Tax Office fraudsters extorted by Comancheros bikies for $25million

Secret recordings reveal how Australia’s biggest-ever tax fraudsters were blackmailed into handing over millions of dollars – by being threatened with a bashing by a bikie gang if they refused to do so.

The scammers handed over $25million after being issued the chilling threat, but that was only a fraction of the $141million that they had rorted from the tax office over a three-year period from 2014 to 2017, using a scheme fronted by wages company Plutus Payroll.

The scheme’s principal players, which included the son of the deputy commissioner of the Australian Taxation Office (ATO), splurged their ill-gotten gains on sports cars, prime real estate, Swiss watches and even a private plane.

Such extravagant displays inevitably attracted the envious attention of underworld figures and led to chief plotter Adam Cranston and his corrupt lawyer Dev Menon being threatened by standover man and Comancheros bikie club associate Daniel Rostankovski.

Rostankovski, who was used by Cranston’s criminal syndicate to recruit fake directors for the dummy shell companies that were fronts for stealing from the tax office, stormed into Menon’s Double Bay office in Sydney on February 2017.

The three men were unaware that they had been under investigation by the ATO and police for almost a year and that their offices were bugged. 

‘Sit down. I’ll be honest, sit down,’ Rostankovski can be heard commanding Menon and Cranston in a recording aired on ABC’s Four Corners.

‘I’ve got all boys, all the Commo (Comanchero bikie gang) boys waiting downstairs they all want to come up and belt the f*** out of you guys.’

A startled Menon replies: ‘What the…’ 

‘I’m not doing anything,’ Rostankovski says.

‘Now honestly bro, this is the only thing it’s five mill to this trust account.’

Cranston, who is the son of then ATO deputy commissioner Michael Cranston, attempts to buy time. 

‘Can we, can we pay it over time ’cause it would, wouldn’t be able to be done today,’ he says.

‘Well it’s going to have to be done today, otherwise you’re going to go in,’ Rostankovski replies.

Rostankovski goes on to threaten to expose the whole operation. 

‘I’ve seen it all,’ he says.

‘The amount that’s been put into the accounts, what’s been paid back and what’s been withheld.

‘It’s all there it’s as clear as day to me. We can see the whole scam here. 

‘This is the money that hasn’t been paid to the tax office. And it was f***ing huge bro. 

‘Don’t lie to me, cause if you lie to me I’ll take this and walk out and I am just going to hand it over.’

Menon pleads: ‘We are not lying to you.’

‘You’re overreacting. Can we all calm down for a second?’

Daniel Rostankovski (pictured) was convicted for his role in the scam and also for blackmailing the other syndicate members to pay him $25million after threatening violence from bikies 

Simon Anquetil (pictured centre) and Jay Onley (pictured right) were two of the main players in the criminal syndicate who lived large off the back of stolen money

Rostankovski then calls one of the dummy directors, who claims he is sitting outside the Australian Federal Police headquarters, ready to walk in and tell everything.

Menon and Cranston agree to pay the $5million, which Rostankovski later increases to $25million and is paid in full.

After beginning as a conspiracy between five men, the scheme had already reaped $50million near the end of its second year of operation in 2015.

The five principal plotters included businessman Cranston, fund manager Peter Larcombe, tech entrepreneurs Simon Anquetil and Josh Kitson, along with insolvency expert Jay Onley.

As the millions poured into the bank accounts of these men they went on a buying spree of Porsches, BMWs, prime real estate and even small single-engine aircrafts.

However, the flashy lifestyles led to tip-offs to the tax office, which in May 2016 began a full scale undercover investigation was launched.

The men’s phones were tapped with listening devices and hidden cameras installed in their offices.

These and other sources led to 28,000 pages of documents and around 70 hours of intercepted phone, video and audio being gathered as evidence. 

Cranston, however remained blissfully unaware of this as he bought a new holiday house and a second Porsche.

In a conversation with Menon, Cranston was told Onley was unhappy to be only getting $4million a year as his cut of the take. 

Over $15million in cash plus cars, houses, jewellery were seized by authorities when the raided the main syndicate members’ properties and offices

Expensive watches were also among the items seized when authorities pounced on the chief conspirators

In November 2016, Cranston hired an exclusive private racetrack on the NSW Central Coast to enjoy a day of opulent excess with Onley and a Plutus client.

In a recorded phone conversation, Cranston was heard saying he hoped Onley was happy with the treat.

‘And there’s like two Porsches there, and like, three f***ing race cars,’ Cranston boasted.

‘Jay’s got a tent with like six naked girls there.’

In another recorded conversation, he relayed a business friend’s astonishment at the event.

Cranston quotes the friend as saying ‘there’s like a million dollars worth of cars here which I know you guys wouldn’t have loans on’.

‘He (the friend) said: ‘You put on this ridiculous day, the day itself would have cost $30,000′,’ Cranston gloats.

The Plutus Payroll scheme was born in a Sydney strip club, the Men’s Gallery, at a lunchtime meeting of the five main plotters in early 2014.

After handing out new phones as a precaution against being listened to by authorities, Cranston was recorded outlining how the company would be set up  to pay the employees of legitimate businesses – but to then pocket the tax that should be sent to the ATO.

This was done by setting up dummy companies under Plutus Payroll.

Two planes were taken into police hands after raids on the fraudsters who ripped the tax office off by around $141million in three years

These fake companies were headed by so-called directors, who in reality were patsies, often drug addicts, with no idea what was going on.

The companies then funnelled the unpaid tax back to the syndicate members but were liquidated before the ATO could catch on or act upon what was happening.

After that, new dummy companies took the place of the liquidated ones and perpetuated the scam. 

However, following the extortion by Rostankovski, the syndicate started to come undone.

Larcombe, who is holed up in Los Angeles, began to grow frantic that the whole scheme would be exposed.

On the morning of August 19, 2016, Larcombe left the airport hotel he was staying at with his wife and told her he was going for a walk to get coffee.

That night, CCTV captured Larcombe walking to a multi-storey car park, where he was later found sprawled dead at the foot of the building.

The LA coroner ruled the death a suicide. 

After gathering a mountain of evidence, the authorities interviewed the syndicate’s surviving main players and finally swooped to arrest them on May 17, 2017.

Adam Cranston (pictured right) appears outside NSW Supreme Court with his sister Lauren Cramston, who has been sentenced to eight years jail for her part in the huge scam 

By raiding homes and offices they seized $15million in cash, 25 vehicles (including racing cars), 12 motorbikes, 18 residential properties, more than 100 bank accounts and share trading accounts, two aircraft, firearms, jewellery, art and vintage wine.

They also found at least $1million in a safe deposit box.

All up, 16 people were arrested and charged in connection with the fraud.

Cranston, Menon, Onley and Anquetil and Adam’s sister, Lauren Cranston, faced  charges of conspiring to dishonestly cause a loss to the Australian government and of dealing with the proceeds of crime.

Rostankovski was charged with blackmail, money laundering and fraud offences.

He pleaded guilty and was given a 10-year jail term.

Anquetil also pleaded guilty and got a seven-year sentence. 

After a marathon one-year trial, Cranston, Menon and Onley were found guilty in 2023 and are awaiting sentencing.

Lauren was found guilty and sentenced to eight years imprisonment in March 2023.

The other three await sentencing.

Adam’s father Michael also lost his distinguished career and resigned after phone calls he had with his son, in which Adam told a partially true account of his troubles, were recorded.

Although Michael was found not guilty of two counts of abuse in public office to gain an advantage, he resigned after an independent review found he failed to act with integrity. 

Michael told Four Corners he rejected the review’s findings and they were the result of a ‘flawed process’.

‘If I had not resigned, I would have challenged the finding in the civil courts and had the ATO finding thrown out,’ he said.

‘This is because I could satisfy every allegation of which I did in the criminal proceedings.’