A NSW Supreme Court decision has permanently removed solicitor Sevag Chalabian from the legal profession for his involvement in a $25 million blackmail and money laundering scheme connected to the notorious Plutus Payroll tax fraud.
Chalabian, who in 2022 received a 12 year jail sentence (with a seven and a half year non parole period), was found to have laundered almost $25 million through the trust account of his firm, Lands Legal. The funds were part of a blackmail plot orchestrated by Comanchero associate Daniel Rostankovski, alongside Daniel Hausman and Stephen Barrett, targeting the conspirators behind the Plutus Payroll scheme.
Under their direction, Chalabian processed 53 deposits through his firm’s trust account and created falsified documentation, receiving just over $51,500 for his participation. The court found this conduct represented a clear and deliberate breach of trust accounting obligations.
The judicial panel, Justice Julie Ward, Justice Kristina Stern and Acting Justice Derek Price, held there was “no doubt” Chalabian was unfit to practise now or in the foreseeable future, citing the serious and intentional nature of the misconduct. They ordered that his name be removed from the roll of practitioners.
The Plutus scheme diverted gross wages through second-tier companies rather than remitting GST and PAYG withholding to the ATO. Run by Adam and Lauren Cranston (children of former ATO deputy commissioner Michael Cranston, who was not involved), alongside Jason Onley, Patrick Wilmont, Peter Larcombe (deceased) and later lawyer Dev Menon, the operation siphoned more than $105 million from clients.
Rostankovski initially assisted the scheme by recruiting straw directors, but in 2017 attempted to extort the group by threatening to expose the fraud. The blackmail payments were made over a 12 week period.