Corrupt lawyer Dev Menon set a high bar for the forensic accountants who would eventually do what he thought was impossible, bringing down him and his co-conspirators in a $105 million fraud.
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His comments were revealed in covert recordings that formed part of the 30 terabytes of evidence collected by investigators chasing those behind the Plutus Payroll tax fraud and money-laundering conspiracies.
The scheme involved siphoning money from legitimate clients through a series of second-tier companies when it should have gone to the tax office.
Australian Federal Police assistant commissioner Kirsty Schofield said the investigation was "extremely complex".
Menon, one of the group behind the fraud, knew it would be.
"No one will figure this out because, even I ... all of us together trying to piece it together now is f***ing hard - and we know," he told his co-conspirators.
"There's no forensic accountant in the world ... like it's impossible. They will never figure it out."
But authorities were already busy unpicking the scheme.
"We were listening to those conversations," Ms Schofield said on Tuesday outside the NSW Supreme Court, where conspiracy architect Adam Cranston was sentenced to at least 10 years in jail.
"I just turned around to (the forensic accountants) and just went: 'The bar's been set, off you go'."
Cranston was also caught on the recordings boasting about the size of the fraud.
"If this was fully uncovered and they knew exactly what was going, on it'd be f***ing Ben Hur, man," he said
"It would be the biggest tax fraud in Australia's history, definitely, there is no question," Menon responded.
Justice Anthony Payne presided over a nine-month trial beginning in April 2022 that ended in guilty verdicts for Patrick Willmott, Jason Onley, Menon, Cranston and his younger sister Lauren.
"Given the content of the recordings in particular, the Crown had a compelling circumstantial case," the judge said.
Menon will be eligible for release in May 2032.
Australian Associated Press
