Exposing Rudds are Duds – This Time Property Scams

Kevin Rudd is a real sleazbag. Just ask any Qld. public servant from the 1990’s. He earned the name Dr Death. Then he had the gall to use his position, as Wayne Goss’s chief of staff, to push his wife’s then small business, Work Directions. No wonder it has grown into such a mega business. It was no accident – it received some almighty help. The career, of one very decent and honest public servant, was flushed down the toilet, so uncle Kev could promote the business. He was not the only one, many others suffered the same fate.

62 Philip Street, Hawthorne

The next issue, which has not been covered by the media, are his house deals, which are just as sleazy. There are three properties involved.

You see Kev and his wife sold his house at Philip St., Hawthorne, in April, 1994 and immediately signed a lease to lease back the property. They then went out and purchased another property at Dilkera St. Balmoral. This property was purchased in May, 1994 but was not settled until the end of June, 1994. The purchase price of the property was $240,000. Uncle Kev and his missus put the Dilkera St. property back on the market, after only a very short period. A young lady was interested in the property.

It so happened, that she had a boyfriend, who worked for a major firm of solicitors. From the stamped document, the amount of stamp duty paid, when Kev and the missus purchased the property ($2,400), it was obvious, that they had declared to the Qld. Office of State Revenue, that they had intended to live in the property, for the required period (6 months within 12 months of purchase). A partner in the firm of solicitors, where the boyfriend of the young lady, who was interested in purchasing the property, worked, actually contacted Kev and pointed out to him that he did not qualify for the stamp duty exemption (PPR rate). Kev told the solicitor that he had fixed it up, but the solicitor knew he hadn’t and passed the information on (first lie Kev!). Then uncle Kev did something very strange or was it?. The house had a room air conditioner and uncle Kev left it running for 24 hours a day, in a vacant house

The next door neighbours complained about the noise and contacted uncle Kev. Kev went and contacted the original owner, a Mr Allen, who gave Kev instructions on how to work the air conditioner time clock…. INTERESTED? click below to READ MORE !!

41 Dilkera Street, Balmoral – this house has obviously undergone major renovation since 1994.

But why would uncle Kev leave the air conditioner running 24 hours a day? Not very environmentally friendly is it Kev? I wonder what Christine Milne thinks of this. Uncle Kev may have used the house briefly, as campaign headquarters when out door knocking, in the seat of Griffith, but was only there for very short periods

Good to see you didn’t win the seat first time round, Kev!

So this gets us back to the 64 million dollar question. Why did Kev leave the air conditioner running 24 hours a day? Well Kev, being the good little micro-manager that he is, had a very good reason to do so. You see the Qld. Office of State Revenue, as part of its compliance audit program, instituted a data matching process with SEQEB electricity records. This process not only checked, that the purchasers of properties, claiming the reduced PPR rate of stamp duty, connected the electricity in their names, but also had consumed more than a minimum amount of power. The approval for this checking process had to go to Cabinet and Oh! Yes, who was the Director General Office of Cabinet?- Yes, it was you Heavy Kevvie and we all know what a good little micro-manager you are. You haven’t changed one little bit.

So you thought you knew how to get around the OSR PPR verification process. Well uncle Kev, I’ve got news for you! You were doomed from the very start, from the time, of your first lie, to that solicitor, in late June, 1994.

This is not the end of the story – not by a long way. You see uncle Kev, an officer of the Compliance Audit Section of the OSR, who by the way, had never worked in the PPR investigations section, was present, when the solicitor passed the details on to another party. The officer, fearing that the matter would be raised in the Qld. parliament and that there would be a departmental witch hunt, for the source of an alleged leak, decided to get in first and reported the false PPR claim, to the OSR Intelligence Officer. He also made sure, that the Executive Director of the OSR knew, what he had done, by reporting the details to one of her toadies. This was in mid- October, 1994.

But uncle Kevvie, you had that covered didn’t you? You see, you with the assistance of Peter Coaldrake and Glyn Davis, had managed to stack just about every senior executive position (and more) in the Qld. public service, with political cronies and toadies. The Executive Director of the OSR was no exception.

So, no further thought was given to this matter, until the government changed in March, 1996. A document which became known as the public service “hit list” was circulated. The name of the senior former OSR officer was on the list. By that time the officer was DG of Justice. There were rumours going around the OSR Compliance Audit, that there were some sensitive PPR investigations quashed and the uncle Kev one was noted on the list, with a recommendation that it be investigated (amongst other matters), for a potential breach of the criminal code. Under normal circumstances the matter would have gone to the Criminal Justice Commission (CJC) for investigation, however, these were not normal times in Qld.. You see the ALP had managed to stack that organization as well and going there was akin to having the ALP investigate itself. It operated as a factional power base of the ALP would – Yes! the ALP had the CJC faction.

The list was leaked to the Courier Mail in August, 1996, by a disgruntled employee from the Police Minister’s office. The CJC became involved via the Carruthers Inquiry. They faced a Catch 22 situation. Would they investigate the construction of the list, but what about the contents?

There the matter rested until February, 1999, when a Courier Mail journalist, Rory Callinan, sniffed out a potential story. He phoned the OSR officer, who by that time, had left the public service and queried the mention of Kev and PPR on the “hit list”. Rory was given a run-down on what had happened and sought advice, on how the matter, should be investigated.

Rory certainly got to the bottom of the issue and established that Kev and the missus had sold their first house, at Philip St. immediately agreed to lease it back. In fact the real estate agent went on the record. Mr Allen, the former owner confirmed the air conditioning bit. The neighbours confirmed the complaint about the noise and so on.

Armed with this information Rory contacted Heavy Kevvie. Well uncle Kev’s first response was a claim that he lived in the Dilkera St. property. That was another lie Kev! Rory persisted and you dug through your records and quoted correspondence from an OSR officer named Noel Davis (since deceased).

You disclosed that your solicitors, Goss Downey and Carne, had lodged a form “Q” (claiming PPR exemption), but the form was unsigned. Mr Davis had written to you about this matter. Noel Davis worked in the OSR Returns Section. As if, your sleazy solicitors didn’t know where you were living! Noel, being suspicious of the PPR claim, forwarded the matter to the Compliance Audit Intelligence Officer for investigation. This was approximately two weeks after, the Compliance Audit Officer, had reported the matter.

It still doesn’t end there. You see, when really pushed by Rory Callinan, you said that Goss had told you that this disgruntled c**t from the Revenue Office had dobbed you in. You stated that you paid the additional stamp duty of about $4,600 on 4/11/1994. No penalty was apparently charged, as it should have been.

Well bugger me! Your system worked again. The crony and toady system had done its job. You didn’t have to look too far to identify this gross breach of trust and security within OSR.

Under normal circumstances, Rory Callinan had a great story, which would have been the end of Kev’s political career, but you had a backstop – didn’t you Kev?

Poor old Rory, had the story of the year, pulled out from under him because Kev ‘s mate Chris Mitchell, who was editor of the Courier Mail at the time, killed the story. I bet the phone ran hot between Kev and Chris. This is when uncle Kev and Chris were luvvy duvvey mates. This mateship lasted for some time and even after the 2007 Federal election. Uncle Kev was even godfather to Chris and Christine’s (Christine Jackman) son Riley, in 2006. It seems that Chris wouldn’t even know what a conflict of interest is, nor uncle Kev for that matter.

The final outcome of the Dilkera St. property was that the young lady girlfriend, of the young solicitor, did in fact purchase the property, after a long settlement period, for $287,000 on 13/12/1994.

Of course Kev and the missus no doubt declared the $47,000 capital gains on their tax return.

One final point is that under the Stamp Act 1906, purchasers of properties claiming PPR exemption rates of duty, are required to report their changed circumstance, to the Commissioner, within 28 days. In fact, there was never any changed circumstance, in the first place, as Kev and the missus never intended occupying the property, as evidenced by the leaseback arrangement, for the Philip St. property.

Well, uncle Kev and the missus, you’re done like a dinner!

85 Norman Crescent, Norman Park – note the obligatory “Kevin” sign – yes just “Kevin”

Uncle Kev and the missus purchased another property on 14/12/1994. This is Kev and the missus’s current premises. They paid $384,000 for the property. The vendors were two trusts and they were supposedly in the business of “House Renovators”. This is the only property which could be found which they renovated. They in fact ran restaurants and a coffee shop.

What is strange about this transaction, is the fact, that on 5/5/1994, the vendors paid $500,000 for the property and then spent, at least, an estimated $50,000 renovating the property, prior to its occupation by Kev and the missus.

Well got you again, uncle Kev and the missus, well maybe not! It sure looks a bit odd. You have to look a bit deeper into some other transactions.

This represented a loss of $116,000 plus the cost of the renovations of an estimated $50,000.

You see, there was this company called Julrose Pty Ltd. which ran a gym equipment manufacturing business. On 19/5/1995, Julrose Pty Ltd went into a deed of arrangement with its creditors. It owed in excess of $880,000 and had few assets. The business was put up for sale and was purchased back by a director of Julrose for about $260,000. The poor old mug creditors only got about 20c in the dollar. The new owner was a company called Clubco Pty Ltd. This was the family trust company for the same director as Julrose. The ATO was right on to this arrangement and it is believed, that they got their pound of flesh.

From a series of property transactions, it became obvious that assets were being funnelled into Clubco where they would be ostensibly safe from creditors. The administrator of Julrose advised that, he was aware that there was a relationship between the director of Julrose and an individual involved in one of the trusts which sold Kev and the missus the Norman Cres. property. They were apparently brothers in law. The administrator also advised, that another party was interested in purchasing the Julrose owned business, however he was warned off by the Julrose director. Real nice types!

This type of transaction is commonly known as a Phoenix Company Arrangement and it is illegal.

In fact in about 1994, Attorney General Michael Lavarch issued a press release stating that the Keating government was going to crack down on Phoenix Company Arrangements. It a shame he didn’t tell his Labor mates.

Now this is where matters get real interesting. The two vendors (trusts), which sold Kev and the missus the property, were also directors of another company, Amarance Pty Ltd. Now this company managed a restaurant at Mt Gravatt, called Trawler Restaurant. It was owned by a company called Texberg Pty Ltd. Texberg was a wholly owned subsidiary of Labor Holdings Pty Ltd. The same individuals were also directors of Texberg Pty Ltd until 1992.

The history of Texberg is in itself interesting and has links to former ALP bagman and convicted paedophile Bill D’Arcy.

Now in 2007, when The Australian newspaper was presented with this story, by someone in John Howard’s office, they ran dead on the issue. An article “Labor link in Rudd’s cut-price family home” was published on 27/6/2007.

In the article the vendors acknowledge that they were directors of Texberg Pty Ltd until 1992. They later became directors of the management entity Amarance Pty Ltd and were believed to be still directors of this company, when the Norman Cres. property was sold.

In The Australian article it states:-

“A spokesman for Mr Rudd said yesterday: “Mr Rudd and Ms Rein put a bid on a house in December 1994. They understood that the house had been vacant and on the market for a long period of time. After a normal commercial negotiation through the real estate agent, they bought the property.””

Well let’s examine that statement a little more closely. “They understood that the house had been on the market for a long period of time” The house was purchased by the vendors on 5/5/1994 and then they had to set to work renovating the property. Kev and the missus purchased the property on 14/12/1994. It was hardly a long time, considering the renovations required. Still that is more an issue for the vendors.

“After a normal commercial negotiation through the real estate agent, they bought the property.”

There’s a bit of a problem with this statement. You see, early in 1995 an independent real estate agent actually inspected the property. As he could not get access to the property, he could not place a realistic value on it. He also checked all the real estate listings in the area and guess what he found? Surprise! Surprise! No listing could be found for the property with any real estate agent. Well Kev, you and the missus may have purchased the property through an agent, however, this mystery agent didn’t market the place too well on behalf of the vendors.

As for the implication that the purchase was an arms length transaction, it is simply not believable, by any stretch of the imagination. Next you’ll be saying “there’s fairies at the bottom of the garden” – well why not? You’ll say anything.

Well in June, 2007, Kev, it appears, that your little mate Chrissy Mitchell, did the right thing by you again. It must be great to have luvvy duvvy mates like that or is it?

I wonder if Tony Abbott and the missus have any property dealings like yours. I suspect if they did the ALP dirt team would have exposed them years ago.

It’s really sad when luvvy duvvy mates have a falling out. It is now a fact that Chrissy Mitchell hates Kev’s guts, so much for mateship! And of course uncle Rupert is in the background imposing his view on Chrissy Mitchell. Uncle Rupert must be obeyed, even by Chrissy. Well bugger me! Kev, you’ve had a damm good run up to now – you should have been knocked out of the ring in February, 1999, however you survived, thanks to your ex-mate.

The simple fact is Kev, you were never PM material in the first place and what can I say? “what goes around comes around” and this one’s coming around the mountain at a great rate of knots.

Bye, Bye, Kev and good riddance.