Jail time for ATO bribe
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A Sydney businessman has been jailed for bribing an ATO official to slash millions off his tax bill.
Raymond Shlemon has been sentenced to over three years in prison for bribing an Australian Taxation Office (ATO) employee in a bid to reduce substantial tax debts and gain access to confidential information.
Shlemon, who pleaded guilty in December 2023, was convicted by the District Court of New South Wales for bribing a Commonwealth official and providing corrupt benefits.
The court heard that Shlemon's corrupt dealings with Wenfeng Wei, a former ATO employee, spanned more than five years.
In one brazen act, Shlemon handed Wei $100,000 in cash at Granville railway station in August 2016.
The money was in exchange for Wei’s intervention to reduce Shlemon’s tax liabilities by millions of dollars and to prevent any penalties from being imposed during an audit of his business.
The court described the cash handover as “incredibly brazen”.
The sentencing follows Wei's imprisonment for five years in March 2024 for his role in the corruption scheme.
Another individual involved, who has admitted to aiding the bribe, is scheduled to be sentenced in November 2024.
The convictions were the result of Operation Barker, a joint investigation by the former Australian Commission for Law Enforcement Integrity (ACLEI) and the ATO, which was later taken over by the National Anti-Corruption Commission (NACC).
The investigation received support from multiple agencies, including the Australian Federal Police (AFP) and AUSTRAC.
Shlemon’s case marks the fourth conviction related to NACC’s efforts since its establishment in July 2023.