Plutus Payroll: Dev Menon is jailed for nine years over $105m scam

A lawyer covertly recorded telling his co-conspirators theirs was ‘the biggest tax fraud in Australia’s history’ has been jailed for at least nine years for his discreditable conduct.

Dev Menon, 39, was found guilty in March along with four others of conspiring to dishonestly cause a loss to the Commonwealth and deal with the proceeds of crime worth more than $1 million, described as the tax fraud and money laundering conspiracies of Plutus Payroll.

The company collected money from legitimate clients and funnelled it through a web of second-tier companies instead of paying it to the tax office, siphoning a loss of $105 million between 2014 and 2017.

Dev Menon, 39 (pictured), was found guilty in March along with four others of conspiring to dishonestly cause a loss to the Commonwealth and deal with the proceeds of crime worth more than $1 million

‘It would be the biggest tax fraud in Australia’s history, definitely, there is no question,’ Menon was covertly recorded telling conspiracy architect Adam Cranston, among hundreds of ‘compelling’ recordings played to the jury that sat on the marathon nine-month trial.

Menon who advised co-conspirators how to try avoiding detection, helped manage vulnerable straw directors of second-tier companies and had them sign false documents exposing them to massive tax liabilities became a knowing participant in the conspiracy from at least June 2015, Justice Anthony Payne found.

He sentenced the lawyer and accountant to a total of 14 years with a non-parole period of nine years in the NSW Supreme Court on Tuesday .

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Menon knew the straw directors were not capable of genuinely fulfilling their roles, describing one as ‘not smart enough to sit in a meeting with the ATO’ and two others as ‘retarded’.

He concealed those opinions and later lied to Revenue NSW that those same directors were legitimate, all ‘thoroughly discreditable conduct’ for a solicitor, the judge found.

It was submitted in his defence Menon performed real and valuable legal work for which he was paid accordingly.

‘It would be the biggest tax fraud in Australia’s history, definitely, there is no question,’ Menon was covertly recorded telling conspiracy architect Adam Cranston (pictured)

‘This rather misses the point,’ Justice Payne said.

Menon’s abuse of his professional status and the trust placed in it exacerbated his persistent course of conduct throughout his involvement in one of the most serious tax fraud and money laundering conspiracies, and he has not demonstrated any remorse or contrition.

Justice Payne accepted Menon’s child had a ‘very serious’ medical condition and his imprisonment posed a burden on his family, but those ‘heartbreaking circumstances’ and a finding Menon was not primarily motivated by greed could not prevent him being jailed.

Menon shook his head, which was in his hand, appearing via video link from the Metropolitan Remand and Reception Centre in Sydney’s west at Silverwater.

He is eligible for parole in May 2032.