Former assistant tax commissioner Nick Petroulias has been charged with multiple fraud offences, accused of obtaining financial advantage by deception and using false documents.
The charges come four years after the Independent Commission against Corruption (ICAC) found he and others engaged in serious corrupt conduct in relation to property dealings involving the Awabakal Local Aboriginal Land Council (ALALC) and referred him to the NSW Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP).
Mr Petroulias’s then-partner, lawyer Despina Bakis, has also been charged with fraud, as has former deputy chairperson of the ALALC board Richard Green.
Mr Green is facing a further two charges relating to misconduct in public office.
The trio were embroiled in a long-running ICAC investigation known as Operation Skyline, which examined proposed property dealings between ALALC and Gows Heat Pty Ltd (Gows), a company secretly controlled by Mr Petroulias.
In its final report in 2022, the ICAC found Gows and ALALC entered into “sham” agreements that falsely purported to grant the company an option to purchase five NSW properties.
Those rights were then to be on-sold to a third party, Sunshine Property Investment Group Pty Ltd (Sunshine).
The commission found that Ms Bakis, who acted as lawyer for Gows and the ALALC, allegedly prepared false contractual documents and Mr Petroulias altered handwritten ALALC board meeting minutes to reflect the proposed sale to Gows, without the board’s knowledge or approval.
Money trail ran through 63 banks
More than $1 million from Sunshine ended up with Mr Petroulias’s company Gows, not ALALC, despite it having no entitlement.
The money trail ran through 63 bank accounts to “disguise the source and ultimate use” of the funds, then-ICAC commissioner Peter Hall found.
The commission also found Mr Petroulias had falsified documents to fabricate the company’s corporate history and conceal his involvement, including allegedly stealing a dead man’s identity to appoint him as a director of the company.
In its final report, the ICAC found Mr Petroulias received $1,023,934 for his role in the scheme, including funds transferred into bank accounts opened under the alias Nicholas Peterson.
ICAC found Ms Bakis “falsely-secured” a passport under the name Daphne Diomedes, which she used to “improperly secure” a Tasmanian driver’s licence. (Supplied)
The commission also found Ms Bakis “falsely secured” a passport under the name Daphne Diomedes, which she used to “improperly secure” a Tasmanian driver’s licence and open a range of bank accounts and credit cards under the false identity.
ICAC found hundreds of transactions were made on the credit cards during 2016, including the purchase of an $853 queen mattress and base from Fantastic Furniture and $159 worth of cosmetics from a boutique in Rose Bay.
ALALC board member Mr Green was also found to have taken part in the fraudulent scheme, receiving a Mercedes and some of the proceeds, which ICAC found he used in part to buy a tip truck and excavator.
Through that entire period, Mr Petroulias was an undischarged bankrupt with no official source of income.
Mr Petroulias, Ms Bakis and Mr Green will face court on July 23.
