ATO in $7.3m freeze on Skase's broker over avoidance scheme

THE late Christopher Skase's former stockbroker Tom "The Black Cat" Klinger, has had $7.3 million in shares and cash frozen because the Commissioner of Taxation believes he has avoided tax by using a scheme set up by Vanuatu-based accountant Robert Agius, an accused tax evader.

By InvestSMART · 8 Dec 2009

By InvestSMART ·
8 Dec 2009

Federal Court judge Peter Graham has ordered that Mr Klinger's assets be frozen until February, when the court will hear further evidence.

The assets can be thawed if Mr Klinger agrees to pay a $3.6 million tax bill.

Mr Klinger, 73, who advised Skase and his company Qintex when he ran Melbourne stockbroking firm McIntosh in the 1980s, has been named as part of a wider legal case against other alleged members of the tax scheme, including former Murchison Metals director and Sydney Swans backer Phillip Grimaldi and Sydney property developer Garry Bonaccorso.

Mr Grimaldi has agreed he should pay more than $36 million in tax and penalties to the Tax Office and Mr Bonaccorso has agreed he is liable to pay $3.5 million in tax and penalties.

Next year, the Commissioner of Taxation, Michael D'Ascenzo, will apply for orders ruling Mr Klinger is liable to pay the $3.6 million, which relates to taxes between 2006 and 2008 as well as penalties and interest up to November this year.

He has had $3.1 million in shares held in a Comsec trading account in the name of IFTC Broking Services frozen, as well as $4.2 million held in an ANZ account in New Zealand in the name of Vanuatu-registered International Finance Trust Company Limited.

The public trustee is in charge of the shares.

The shares that have been frozen include a $1.2 million stake in listed mineral exploration company Centamin Egypt, a $633,000 stake in WA iron ore miner Gindalbie Metals and $420,000 in BHP Billiton shares.

IFTC Broking services has also had more than $10 million worth of shares in a Comsec account frozen.

Mr Klinger's lawyer, John Mitchell of Arnold Bloch Leibler, said Mr Klinger did not want to comment on the case.

The case returns to the Federal Court on February 2.

Aside from his career as a stockbroker and investment banker, Mr Klinger was a founding chairman of automotive parts and transport group Ion. He also helped Skase fund his Mirage resorts on the Gold Coast and in Port Douglas in the 1980s, before he launched his own tourism venture in Port Douglas in 1994.