THE nation's highest-profile tax cheat, music industry supremo Glenn Wheatley, is back in the cushy surrounds of his South Yarra mansion this morning, where the breakfasts are no doubt superior to those at Beechworth Correctional Centre.
Beechworth's self-catering inmates, which included Wheatley until 5am yesterday, get a weekly allowance of $27 to buy groceries and cook their own meals. Wheatley, we hear, is a better hand at either the bass guitar or the books than in the kitchen - but if the music career doesn't get back on track, a prison diet cookbook just might be in the offing.
How To Lose Weight on $4 a Day is a catchy title.
Wheatley served 10 months of his 15-month sentence at Beechworth and, on his release into home detention, the promoters of the tax fraud investigation that nabbed him were just as eager to link the Wickenby name to this successful collar. "It (Operation Wickenby) has been a good partnership with the Australian Crime Commission and other commonwealth authorities," chirped Tax Commissioner Michael D'Ascenzo.
"This year, we're starting to see the fruition, in terms of the range of charges and criminal proceedings. It sends a very clear message to the community that abuse of tax practice just doesn't cut the mark. It was a situation of people trying to come good and co-operate, go forward. That's what we want to do with people that have been involved in any of these arrangements - come good, get back on the straight and narrow. That's a good message for all Australians."
D'Ascenzo also said that "more activity" in relation to Operation Wickenby would become public "soon".
Which is just as well, because an audit of Wickenby's successes over the past four years makes for brief, and hardly scintillating, reading.
That is despite the fact that the Howard government was so fond of Wickenby that we confusingly ended up with two of them - Operation Wickenby and Project Wickenby - under some kind of "buy one, get one free" deal on tax fraud investigations.
So, what is the difference between the two Wickenbys?
Wheatley was the target of Operation Wickenby. That probe was established by the ACC in 2003, following a Tax Office audit of a scheme linked with Michael Brereton, the Melbourne-based celebrity lawyer, the previous year.
Brereton this month won his two-year court battle against ACC investigators. Magistrate Phillip Goldberg threw out the charges against Brereton for failing to take an oath or affirmation at a secret ACC examination in March 2006.
According to the Australian Federal Police, nine specific and ongoing investigations form Operation Wickenby, including that of Brereton.
In order to win prosecutions, Operation Wickenby taskforce members have been granted special powers of investigation. Those taskforce members come from the ACC, the Tax Office, Federal Police, ASIC and the Director of Public Prosecutions.
In chasing Brereton, Operation Wickenby investigators lucked out - they obtained client data from the computer of Philip Egglishaw, a principal of Swiss-based accounting firm Strachans.
That information led to the Project Wickenby investigation into offshore tax havens, which was given a $305 million cheque, as well as the power to tap telephone calls and request transaction records.
It was Project Wickenby that nabbed Vanuatu-based accountant Robert Agius last month, and has him under house arrest at his Sydney apartment.
But therein lies the rub for both Wickenby investigations - despite all the headlines, mostly generated by the high public profile of Wheatley, neither seems to have generated much bang for the taxpayer's buck.
Wheatley himself was convicted of defrauding the Tax Office of an estimated $650,000.
Three company directors were arrested and charged in Queensland in July 2006 with two counts each of conspiracy to defraud the Commonwealth of some $6.6 million. One even lost his Porsche.
More than 100 tax audits have commenced. Assessments totalling just over $30 million have been issued, while the investigation of PKF Vanuatu has flushed out another $30 million from clients who want to come clean. But that's small fry - and well below the $305 million Project Wickenby will cost.
And here are some other numbers to ponder. According to the Institute of Chartered Accountants, money laundering activities in Australia cost as much as $11.5 billion a year, much of that generated by organised crime and the "washing" of drug money - two areas where the Wickenby investigations have so far been ineffective. Besides, even if we do nab some of the nation's crime figures on tax evasion, the punishment amounts to being sent to your room, with dinner. Just ask Wheatley.
Billion-dollar blitz
YOU'D think joining the terms "Wall Street bank" and "leveraged sharemarket product" would result in a sentence ending with
"billion-dollar write-down".
JPMorgan Chase & Co, which reported a 34% fall in fourth-quarter profit in January due to subprime exposure, has launched it's range of investment warrants, which
can be used to buy iShares.
ASX-listed iShares are exchange-traded funds that allow retail investors access to S&P 500 stocks, emerging markets via the MSCI Emerging Markets Index and Chinese companies that make up the FTSE/Xinhua China 25 Index.
Investors will have access to up to 60% gearing against the value of stocks.
Leaky dates
ACCORDING to the Australian Health Insurance Association website, the Private Health Insurance Claims Leakage and Fraud Forum in Geelong runs from "23-35 July 2008".
Speakers will come from the major health funds, including NIB, Medibank Private, MBF Australia, BUPA Australia and HBF, and the forum is aimed at "health fund investigation staff". Who, we hope, won't be sticking around for the four days that don't exist.