Judge Robyn Tupman responded by saying she expected he would likely file something in regards to the charge against Mr Cranston concerning Mr Poulakis.
In the police interview recording, Mr Cranston was upfront about his conversations with Mr Poulakis.
He admitted he had contacted Mr Poulakis on May 1 to arrange a meeting with Adam’s lawyer, Dev Menon, over ATO freezing orders that were preventing a company called Plutus Payroll from paying its clients’ workers.
He said he told Mr Poulakis he didn’t want to be involved because Plutus had “some connection to my son” and he had merely wanted to “make sure it’s right, that’s all”.
“All I did was for reputational problems because I don’t want to see … their [clients’] employees not getting paid,” he told police. “You can understand that’s not a good look for the ATO – it’s a really bad look.”
Asked about a conflict of interest, he stressed to police that when he spoke to Mr Poulakis he was “sick as a dog” and that if he had exercised judgment “I would have acted a little better”.
‘Never heard of him’
The voluntary interview was conducted at the Crown Plaza Hotel in Surfer’s Paradise Queensland at 6.30am on May 17, 2017, after police seized Mr Cranston’s iPad and iPhone under a search warrant.
Reading the warrant and the allegations for the first time, Mr Cranston was heard saying “God” under his breath.
He subsequently declined to call a lawyer and told police “I have nothing to hide”.
“I don’t know how you’re connecting him [Adam] … I’ve seen investigations go wrong and innocent people caught up in it,” he said.
However, pressed about alleged attempts in January to get then-assistant commissioner Scott Burrows to look into an audit of his son’s business associate Simon Anquetil, Mr Cranston said he could not recall doing so and that he had “never heard” of Mr Anquetil.
“I can’t give you any specifics, I can’t give you names. Sometimes when you’re deputy commissioner you deal with things every three minutes … it’s just chaos.”
He later said it’s a “pretty heady allegation”. “I would really like to see a little bit more … and work it through … I’m confident there’s a good explanation”.
Son’s business partner ‘got involved with some really bad people’
Asked about companies and names connected to his son, Mr Cranston said he knew his son operated a public company called Synep which owned Plutus, a percentage of Mr Menon’s law firm Clamenz Lawyers and “some Mexican restaurants”.
He told police he had also previously met Mr Menon after visiting the law firm but that the conversation was “very short, very high level”.
“One time they called me to the office for a cup of coffee … Adam had a business meeting and just wanted to introduce me in an informal way to his lawyer Dev.”
Mr Cranston said he had asked the law firm if it had any tax disputes and told them “if there are any issues, any client, if things go off the rails then make sure you get to the right people in the tax office, because there’s no use in disputes going on and on”.
Mr Cranston had also met his son’s former business partner Peter Larcombe, who he described as an “ex-Macquarie banker” and someone who had “a vision about getting small investors in for companies that were going bad”.
He said he had met Mr Larcombe in their office “maybe twice” and “I think Adam brought him to dinner once”.
“All I know is my son said he [Mr Larcombe] got involved with some really bad people.”
Wedding ‘conflict of interest’
The court also heard that Mr Cranston had previously identified a possible conflict of interest over a wedding he attended in October 2016 where the guests were people he was investigating in a scheme to use gold bullion to avoid paying tax.
Mr Staehli suggested that Mr Cranston had raised the matter with his superior, second commissioner Neil Olesen, who had dismissed it because it was “no real issue”.
However, Mr Olsen told the court he had no recollection of Mr Cranston raising such a conflict with him.
The defence is expected to start its case on Thursday, with the lawyers to decide whether to call Mr Cranston as a witness.
from A Viral Update http://bit.ly/2DJt2iz
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