"The ATO whacked a Departure Prohibition Order on Mr Karantzis in December 18 last year, at the same time it served him with the unpaid tax bill, following concerns he would flee to Cyprus.
This was due to Mr Karantzis’ behaviour in the weeks after the ATO, in October last year, gave the executive a month to provide documents and financial statements related to his onshore and offshore entities, and his Netherlands’ bank account statements.
While Mr Karantzis “appeared to initially engage” with the ATO by appointing legal advisers in mid-November, a week before the documents were due Mr Karantzis, through his lawyers, sought to extend the due date to late January despite the ATO’s contention that most of the information “should have been available to you [Mr Karantzis] in a short period of time”.
The ATO said Mr Karantzis’ claim he needed more time to conduct assurance over the documents was “incorrect”, that he failed to specify exactly how his ability to respond was “impacted by COVID-19″, and that he “asserted that you [Mr Karantzis] live in Cyprus despite having remained in Australia since February 2020”.
Two days after the ATO asked for more information about these claims, and requested his lawyers give the agency two weeks notice if he intended to leave Australia, Mr Karantzis applied to the Department of Home Affairs to depart to Cyprus with no return date."
Additional detail on the DPO and events leading up to the airport trip.
ISX Price at posting:
$1.07 Sentiment: None Disclosure: Not Held
