The tax office has frozen more than $80 million in assets linked to Gold Coast developer, Jim Raptis, and associated companies following the largest offshore data leak in global history – the Pandora Papers.

According to The Australian Financial Review (AFR), the Australian Taxation Office has alleged that Mr Raptis, members of his immediate family and associated entities, were involved in “tax avoidance arrangements.”

Mr Raptis’ $20 million canal-front home, a Lexus 2018 LS500H and shares in ASX-listed entities, including Telstra and the Raptis Group, are among the frozen assets.

The 75-year-old told the AFR on Wednesday: “We intend to work co-operatively with the ATO (and if necessary, lodge objections) to resolve these historical matters. Although we are disappointed with aspects of the orders, we note that business as usual is part of the orders, and all our current projects are progressing as planned.”

READ MORE: Pandora Papers: Law firm founded by Cypriot President named in offshore data leak.

The old-school developer:

An old-school developer of the Gold Coast, Mr Raptis portrays himself as a visionary of massive apartment complexes on the Glitter Strip such as the Hilton Hotel in Surfers Paradise. 

In his director profile for his ASX-listed entity Raptis Group, Mr Raptis pointed out he has an Order of the British Empire and is the Greek Consul for Queensland.

But he has also had three brushes with financial disaster, including in 2009 when his Raptis Group and associated entities fell into administration in the global financial crisis owing almost $1 billion.

During this period, efforts were successfully made to resuscitate the companies via a debt restructuring deal called a deed of company arrangement.

The Samoan connection and the Pandora Papers:

Mr Raptis is the first Greek Australian to be connected to the Pandora Papers leak so far.

The AFR revealed that Mr Raptis has been a long-term beneficiary of a Samoan superannuation fund while a client of tax scheme promoter Vanda Gould. Mr Raptis’ entity was called the Queensland Builders Super Fund. He and his wife Helen, also a director of Raptis Group, were named as beneficiaries of the fund in documents.

The Pandora Papers claimed Mr Raptis’ Samoan trust had interests in a UK company called Sevinhand.

The documents also indicated Mr Raptis was unwittingly entangled in a campaign to shunt money into a war chest designed to keep other offshore funds confidential from UK authorities.

In response to questions about this fund last month, Mr Raptis said: “I have always conducted my financial affairs appropriately and legally” and his investment in an offshore fund was legally done for diversification purposes.

Then on Friday, the ATO took out a surprise action against Mr Raptis, Sevinhand and another private Australian company called Northernson Pty Ltd, seeking to freeze assets.

Mr Raptis was alleged to owe $23.8 million himself following amended tax assessments and penalties for the years 2014 to 2019, the AFR reports.

“As a result of a review-audit the [ATO] has concluded that there are significant amounts of undisclosed income and evasion by Mr Raptis,” the judgment said.

The freezing order also incorporated money in bank accounts in Mr Raptis’ name with ANZ and Suncorp, which were both lenders to Raptis entities that collapsed in the global financial crisis.

Mr Raptis was still allowed $10,000 in weekly living expenses, legal expenses and to deal with ordinary business costs.

Source: The Australian Financial Review.

Kristy and Steven Colakidis’ daughter Samantha lives with an incurable form of cancer. 

Samantha was diagnosed with stage 4 high-risk neuroblastoma at just three years old in June 2019 after the couple noticed a yellowing bruise on her left eyebrow bone. 

Since, Samantha has undergone chemotherapy, keyhole surgery, a double stem cell transplant, and radiotherapy. 

“They basically take your child to the brink of death and then bring them back again,” Kristy recalls.

“She had six or seven machines going and alarms and every doctor would come running into the room to see if she needed to go to ICU (Intensive Care Unit) or not.”

“She’s a tough little cookie.” 

Things weren’t looking bright.

The radiotherapy particularly damaged her kidneys and caused hearing loss and the odds were stacked against her. 

That’s when Kristy and Steven began considering other treatment options, landing on a DMFO data-supported trial in the US that prevents cancer from reoccurring. 

They boarded a flight to the US in October 2020 and dealt with a headache of travel restrictions, but Kirsty says “even if it increases her chance of survival by 5%, it is worth it.” 

Today, Kristy and Steven know there’s a chance of Samantha’s cancer reoccurring, but they try to focus on what they have right now. 

“I’ve got her, she’s with us now, she’s alive, that’s all that matters,” Kristy says.

Source: Honey Nine

One of the men accused of kidnapping test cricketer Stuart MacGill has been released on bail. 

The NSW Supreme Court released Marino Sotiropoulos on strict bail conditions on Wednesday, including house arrest, a $100,000 surety, daily communication with police, an alcohol and drug ban, and a restraining order. 

He faces charges of supplying a large commercial quantity of a prohibited drug, as well as take/detain in company with intent to get advantage occasioning actual bodily harm, and participating in a criminal group. 

The former offence carries a maximum penalty of life imprisonment. 

Sotiropoulos is one of six men arrested following the alleged plot and kidnapping of his brother-in-law MacGill in Sydney in April.

Sotiropoulos denies involvement.  

His barrister, Ian Lloyd, attacked the strength of the crown case in relation to the drug supply charges on Wednesday. 

Police said at the time that MacGill was not involved in any illegal activity and that he was “purely” a victim. 

Sotiropoulos, 47, will return to court with his co-accused in 2023.

Source: Daily Telegraph

For-profit childcare providers are disproportionately breaching safety requirements and the problem is getting worse. 

Childhood educators say poor staffing arrangements in their centres are leading to safety concerns.

Sydney-based early childhood educator Theodora Hatzihrisafis says providers put kids at risk when they squeeze their staffing budgets. 

“The quality of education and care is just not there, it ends up being crowd control,” she says.

“That puts a lot of pressure on the educators [and] that results in staff burnout.” 

She criticises the “under-roof” staffing ratio strategy she’s seen many for-profit providers use to keep their staffing budgets to a minimum. 

She says this approach leads to a chaotic environment where children are put at risk because there isn’t enough supervision. 

For-profit providers made up three-quarters of the 12,000 enforcement actions taken since 2015, according to a report from the United Workers Union.

The report found 16 per cent of for-profit centres exceeded quality standards compared with 36 per cent of not-for-profits and 40 per cent of publicly-run centres. 

Source: Sydney Morning Herald

A man accused of murdering four people during a shooting spree across Darwin was terrified someone was out to get him before the killings, a court has heard. 

Benjamin Glenn Hoffman has pleaded not guilty to four counts of murder in less than an hour at four locations on 4 June 2019, the Guardian reports. 

The day before the men died, Hoffman allegedly pulled his car into a service station in Coolalinga and gave his mobile phone to the cashier, Edith Reidy. 

“He was scared,” she told the Northern Territory supreme court on Tuesday.

“Terrified?” the defense lawyer Jon Tippett QC asked.

“Yes,” Reidy said.

Hoffmann’s ex-girlfriend Kelly Collins told the court that about the same time, Hoffman had smoked crystal methamphetamine with her at her home in a nearby suburb. 

She said the third man to die the following day, Michael Sisois, 57, was also with the pair. 

In the days after the rampage, Hoffman allegedly told police he believed Sisois had poisoned him in an attempt to kill him two days earlier. 

“I reckon I was spiked. Maybe with a substance or something,” he said in a recording played to the Northern Territory Supreme Court last week. 

“I think Sisois did it. That Greek guy. I don’t know if he used tranquilizer or tried to poison me.”

Hassan Baydoun, 33, and Nigel Hellings, 75, and Rob Courtney, 52, were also killed in the spree as Hoffman searched for Collins and a man named Alex Deligiannis less than 24 hours later, the crown says.

The trial continues. 

Source: The Guardian, Northern Beaches Review