The law firm linked with a $165 million alleged tax fraud syndicate was also central to a $100 million land-banking scandal based in Victoria involving notorious property spruiker, Henry Kaye.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Clamenz Evans Ellis is the subject of investigations by authorities over property schemes which ripped off millions of dollars from hundreds, possibly thousands, of small investors across Australia.
The alleged scams in NSW and Victoria both include the use of complex webs of companies and trusts to obscure money flows and hide identities such as Kaye, the "phoenixing" of companies, and the use of "straw" directors as proxies in the formal running of companies.
Around 2014 the firm split, becoming known as Clamenz Lawyers in Sydney and Evans Ellis in Melbourne.
However, at least one "straw" director, Sydney accountant Ian Stephens, is a director of companies linked with both the alleged NSW tax fraud matter and the Victorian land-banking schemes.
Stephens is also a director of a company The Passage Holdings, which is linked to a Queensland development controversy involving embattled and formerly twice bankrupt property figure, Craig Gore.
The sole director of that company is Clamenz's Daniel Clarke, although the ultimate ownership is murky.
Clamenz Evans Ellis represented Mr Gore, including in court, in 2013.
Clamenz's Sydney-based lawyer, Dev Menon, formerly a principal of Clamenz Evans Ellis, was one of 10 people arrested last week over an allegedly fraudulent scheme that skimmed $165 million in taxes through a complex web of payroll businesses.
He was part of the syndicate, known as Plutus, that allegedly included the son and daughter of Australian Taxation Office deputy commissioner Michael Cranston, who now faces being charged with abusing his position as a public official by accessing restricted information on an ATO audit of his son.
In Victoria, the maze of company structures set up by the legal firm kept Henry Kaye's involvement in Victorian land-banking schemes hidden until Federal Court Justice Beach named him in April 2016.
For the land banking scam, Clamenz Evans Ellis established a maze of companies and trusts with its own lawyers sometimes acting as directors.
Both the NSW and Victorian scams also highlight the widespread use of trusts in Australia for the avoidance of both tax and transparency.
The alleged tax fraud scandal has embroiled Mr Cranston, a specialist in trusts and pursuing rich tax dodgers.
The Henry Kaye land-banking scam involved luring naive investors through manipulative and misleading get-rich seminars into buying options and lots on undeveloped farmland that was supposedly earmarked for luxury development.
One such project in Melbourne's outer west was spruiked as an "iconic, architectural masterpiece" in the making. Years later it remained a disused rubbish dump.
The land-banking scam has been a major investigative focus of the corporate regulator ASIC since Fairfax Media exposed it in 2015.
Evans Ellis senior lawyers Ben Skinner and Darren Eliau are subjects of interest for ASIC in its ongoing investigation.
Last year Federal Court Justice Beach liquidated two of the companies involved in the scam. Both Mr Skinner and Mr Stephens had been directors.
In his judgement, Justice Beach noted that millions of dollars of investors' money had been "misappropriated" through the two scams.
He said that as a director, Mr Stephens had not responded to instructions from individuals "who appear to have been involved in these schemes that have siphoned off $24 million or more of retail investors' funds".
Fairfax tried unsuccessfully to contact Mr Stephens.
Fairfax Media understands the Victorian Legal Services Commission is currently investigating another lawyer, Adam Zuchowski, who is based at the offices of Evans Ellis where his brother-in-law, Mr Eliau, is a senior lawyer.
Mr Zuchowski is believed to be under investigation over his advice to land bank investors while working for a former employer, Slater and Gordon.
As revealed by Fairfax Media this week, Mr Menon and other lawyers have also been targeted by authorities for professional misconduct including over the alleged misuse of their position as solicitors to obtain motor vehicle registration details for debt collectors.
Court documents reveal that the Law Society of NSW has been trying for years to get Mr Menon, Clamenz partner Daniel Clarke and another colleague, Peter Webb, struck off for alleged misconduct.
However, in September, Mr Menon and Mr Clarke successfully had the case thrown out by arguing that the society's reasons were not of the standard required by law.
Do you know more? Contact us securely via Journotips
