THE only man charged and convicted for a $100 million construction tax scam that left a trail of destruction through the Hunter region has been sentenced to five years and six months jail for his Hunter crimes after an earlier five year jail sentence for tax fraud in the Sydney area.
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Song (Peter) Chang showed no remorse for his role in goods and services tax fraud committed by Chinese-backed construction company Hightrade between 2002 and 2009. His co-conspirators – Hightrade boss Li Zhang and finance officer Simon Chan – left Australia by early 2010 during an Australian Tax Office investigation, and have not returned.
Sydney District Court Judge Robyn Tupman sentenced Chang to five years and six months jail in early June for GST fraud during construction of what became the Crowne Plaza resort at Lovedale, with an earliest release date in December, 2019. The minimum four years and six months sentence will run concurrently with the minimum sentence imposed against him in 2015 after he was convicted of similar GST crimes during construction of a Hightrade building in Sydney.
Chang helped Hightrade use some of its more than 100 companies to lodge fraudulent business activity statements in which construction costs at the Lovedale resort were overstated by $115 million, generating $10.5 million in fraudulent refunds.
Hightrade left a trail of destruction through the Hunter after suppliers and subcontractors were repeatedly left with losses of sometimes hundreds of thousands of dollars as a succession of Hightrade companies were liquidated during work at some of the Hunter’s biggest construction sites.
They included the resort that became the Crowne Plaza at Lovedale, Sky Central at Charlestown and a number of Newcastle apartment buildings.
Judge Tupman said Chang might not have known the total amount of the tax fraud committed by Hightrade between 2002 and 2009, but he knew the invoices he sent to the tax office were fraudulent.
Chang, 45, was sponsored by Li Zhang to come to Australia in 1997.