By Nick Newling
Copyright brisbanetimes
The case was originally investigated by the former Australian Commission for Law Enforcement Integrity and the ATO, but was handed over to the NACC upon its establishment in July 2023. This is the 11th successful conviction from a NACC investigation since its founding, and the third relating to employees of the ATO.
In March 2024, Wenfeng Wei, a former ATO employee, was convicted and sentenced to five years in prison after accepting a $100,000 bribe, handed over in a white plastic bag. The bribe came from a person they were auditing, Raymond Shlemon, in exchange for reducing millions of dollars in personal and business tax debts and disclosing restricted information on over 1000 occasions. Wei’s sentence is currently under appeal.
Shlemon – who was being audited alongside his business Global World Group – was sentenced to just over 3 years in prison for paying the bribe, and John Zeitoune was sentenced to 2 years and 10 months in prison for aiding and abetting the payment.
Another investigation handed from the law enforcement integrity commission to the NACC found an ATO employee had “extensively accessed various taxation records” between August 2020 and April 2021. The employee was fined $2000 and given an 18-month good behaviour bond.
