Victorian police have searched several premises in Sydney as part of their ongoing investigations into fraud at the Health Services Union East branch.
Neither Victoria Police nor NSW Police, whose officers assisted during the searches, could confirm media reports that SGE Credit Union offices were among those targeted.
Stood-aside HSU president Michael Williamson and national secretary Kathy Jackson are both on the board of the credit union.
‘Victorian police with the assistance of NSW police executed a number of warrants in Sydney today in relation to the matter,’ a Victoria Police spokeswoman told AAP.
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The searches come three days after Fair Work Australia released a report alleging federal MP and former HSU boss Craig Thomson spent as much as $500,000 of union members’ funds on electioneering, escort services, lavish meals and cash withdrawals.
See the full article from “BigPond News”
Police search Sydney premises over HSU
Updated: 21:52, Thursday May 10, 2012
Victorian police have searched several premises in Sydney as part of their ongoing investigations into fraud at the Health Services Union East branch.
Neither Victoria Police nor NSW Police, whose officers assisted during the searches, could confirm media reports that SGE Credit Union offices were among those targeted.
Stood-aside HSU president Michael Williamson and national secretary Kathy Jackson are both on the board of the credit union.
‘Victorian police with the assistance of NSW police executed a number of warrants in Sydney today in relation to the matter,’ a Victoria Police spokeswoman told AAP.
…
The searches come three days after Fair Work Australia released a report alleging federal MP and former HSU boss Craig Thomson spent as much as $500,000 of union members’ funds on electioneering, escort services, lavish meals and cash withdrawals.
The $110 million, five-star hotel – closed in 2009 – is on the market but has been used for accommodation, parties and alleged prostitution.
The hotel’s liquor licence has been dormant since 2009.
Hospitality Minister George Souris has already asked officials to investigate, but the state opposition is demanding a wider inquiry into authorities’ alleged failure to detect apparent breaches of alcohol laws.
The Sunday Telegraph can today reveal police officers and a Woollahra council officer visited — separately — the Cross St hotel on no fewer than nine occasions in the previous six months.
Rose Bay officers say the only activities they observed were a magic show and a Russian cabaret show “being performed as closed and/or private functions”.
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Senior Woollahra inspector Viktor Wiecks confirmed he inspected the hotel six times when Hermitage and Chamber of Secrets dinners were being staged and said he found no evidence of prostitution at the hotel.
In Sydney, Gavin Bennett lived in a world replete with million-dollar views, beautiful women, champagne and international travel.
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In Sydney, he led a lifestyle of wine, women, fancy cars and accommodation, and made the city’s social pages attending exclusive parties.
Bennett used A$464,000 of fraudulently obtained funds to rent two apartments in a high-rise with views of the Sydney Opera House.
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These accommodation bills paled next to other living expenses – A$429,000 (NZ$550,000) for food and drinks at expensive Sydney nightspots, A$163,000 on designer clothing, and A$161,000 in international travel – plus generous payments to what were described as “female escorts“.
BusinessDay investigations found two of the “female escorts” listed as co-directors of businesses Bennett registered in Australia.
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These developments seemed to spook Bennett, who flew out of Christchurch to Sydney just before a High Court order froze his accounts and the Serious Fraud Office began investigating.
See the full article from “Stuff.co.nz”
Sydney Escorts: Love Philosophy
May 5, 2012
SYDNEY: Simon Stone, one of AXN’s favourite directors, has got his hands on Eugene O’Neill’s 1923 Pulitzer Prize-winning play, Strange Interlude. With a stellar cast performing Stone’s brand-new adaptation, the production is set to be a transformative night at the theatre. Actor Mitchell Butel sat down with Garrett Bithell.
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Strange Interlude is one of the few modern plays to use soliloquy woven through the dialogue, which Stone has retained. “It creates this complicity with the audience that goes right through the play,” Butel says. “A lot of the interior stuff is really bleak and dark and fucked up, and in contrast to what’s actually happening in the scene. Particularly with my character, because even though he’s the nice, benevolent family friend, his sexual inner monologue is pretty full on – it opens with him talking about being fucked in a brothel when he was 15.”
See the full article from “Gay News Network (press release) (blog)”
Sydney Escorts: Killer says he was blackmailed
May 3, 2012
A SYDNEY private school teacher was bound, gagged and left to die by a young male prostitute who claims the older man was blackmailing him into having sex, a Sydney court has heard.
Ian Craigie, 63, a retired barrister who taught Classical Greek at St Ignatius’ College, Riverview, was reported missing in September 2009. He was found dead in his Glebe flat three days later with his hands and feet bound and tape around his mouth.
Earlier this year, 24-year-old Yutian Li pleaded guilty to manslaughter, as well as armed robbery and obtaining money by deception for using Mr Craigie’s ATM card to withdraw $7000 after his death.
During Li’s sentencing hearing in the NSW Supreme Court yesterday, the court heard Mr Craigie had picked Li up at a brothel.
In Sydney, Gavin Bennett lived in a world replete with million-dollar views, beautiful women, champagne and international travel.
…
In Sydney, he led a lifestyle of wine, women, fancy cars and accommodation, and made the city’s social pages attending exclusive parties.
Bennett used A$464,000 of fraudulently obtained funds to rent two apartments in a high-rise with views of the Sydney Opera House.
…
These accommodation bills paled next to other living expenses – A$429,000 (NZ$550,000) for food and drinks at expensive Sydney nightspots, A$163,000 on designer clothing, and A$161,000 in international travel – plus generous payments to what were described as “female escorts“.
BusinessDay investigations found two of the “female escorts” listed as co-directors of businesses Bennett registered in Australia.
…
These developments seemed to spook Bennett, who flew out of Christchurch to Sydney just before a High Court order froze his accounts and the Serious Fraud Office began investigating.
Health Services Union head Michael Williamson was stopped allegedly trying to remove documents as police raided his Sydney offices this morning.
Mr Williamson was stopped in the car park of the union’s East branch building in Pitt Street, Sydney.
Detective Superintendent Col Dyson, Commander of the NSW Fraud and Cybercrime Squad, said that any interference may result in criminal charges.
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Raid … police outside the HSU offices in Sydney this morning. Photo: Peter Rae
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Two months ago, officers from the same strike force searched a house in Sydney’s northern beaches. It is believed to be the home of graphic designer John Gilleland, who runs a printing business and allegedly provided credit cards to Mr Thomson and Mr Williamson.
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It has separately been alleged Mr Thomson misused a union credit card for prostitutes, lavish meals and cash withdrawals when he was the HSU’s national secretary between 2002 and 2007.
Sydney Escorts: Police raid HSU branch in Sydney
May 3, 2012
Union boss Michael Williamson has allegedly been stopped in a car park with a bag of documents during a police raid on the Sydney offices of the Health Services Union (HSU).
About 10 officers from the NSW Fraud and Cybercrime Squad stormed the second level of an office block in Pitt Street, in Sydney’s CBD, about 9am (AEST) on Wednesday and seized documents and accessed computers.
The raid was carried by Strike Force Carnarvon, which was set up in September to investigate allegations of systemic corruption in the HSU, including alleged misuse of credit cards by Mr Williamson and former HSU official and now federal MP Craig Thomson.
During the operation, they intercepted Mr Williamson, the general secretary of HSU East Branch, in a car park in an adjacent building.
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“It is something that the Australian public understand is rank,” Mr Abbott told reporters in Sydney on Wednesday.
See the full article from “WA today”
In Sydney, Gavin Bennett lived in a world replete with million-dollar views, beautiful women, champagne and international travel.
…
In Sydney, he led a lifestyle of wine, women, fancy cars and accommodation, and made the city’s social pages attending exclusive parties.
Bennett used A$464,000 of fraudulently obtained funds to rent two apartments in a high-rise with views of the Sydney Opera House.
…
These accommodation bills paled next to other living expenses – A$429,000 (NZ$550,000) for food and drinks at expensive Sydney nightspots, A$163,000 on designer clothing, and A$161,000 in international travel – plus generous payments to what were described as “female escorts“.
BusinessDay investigations found two of the “female escorts” listed as co-directors of businesses Bennett registered in Australia.
…
These developments seemed to spook Bennett, who flew out of Christchurch to Sydney just before a High Court order froze his accounts and the Serious Fraud Office began investigating.