The federal court has urgently frozen the sprawling property portfolio of disgraced Australian private security boss Micky Ahuja, after a judge was told of comments Ahuja made during a recent shambolic press conference.
Ahuja’s decision to call last week’s press conference from his new home in Dubai, ostensibly to clear his name, appears to have backfired, after the court was told of his responses to questions about whether he was offloading his Australian properties at the same time as authorities pursue his businesses over allegations of systemic tax fraud and worker exploitation.
The interim freezing orders over more than 30 properties, including houses and offices, were granted on Friday, just over a week after Ahuja not only revealed he was selling properties but prevaricated about whether the proceeds of these sales would go to his creditors.
Those owed funds by Ahuja or his now-defunct firms include the Australian Tax Office and thousands of exploited workers who worked in the MA Services security empire before its December collapse.
The properties frozen include a five-bedroom, six-bathroom house in Melbourne’s north with a pool, basketball court and movie room.
Asked at his press conference what he intended to do with the proceeds of his impending property sales, Ahuja said that his “lawyers were looking into those properties”.
Pressed on whether he would use the proceeds of his property sales to pay the ATO and exploited workers, he said his multimillion-dollar debt to the Tax Office was “disputed” and would be paid only if proven.
Ahuja also denied MA’s workers had been underpaid, despite key regulator Labour Licensing Commission chief Steve Dargavel revealing days earlier that there are “thousands of workers who had their wages stolen”.
The freezing order was sought urgently by administrator Jason Tracy, of Alvarez and Marsal, shortly after Ahuja’s rambling press conference.
In documents released by the court on Friday morning, Ahuja has been ordered to “not remove from Australia or in any way dispose of, deal with, encumber or diminish the value” of more than 30 properties that Tracy has identified during his inquiries.
The court order also says a breach of the judge’s directions could lead to imprisonment or the sequestering of Ahuja’s homes. Ahuja did not have the opportunity to contest the order but he will be able to at a future date.
Ahuja left Australia in December after a series of revelations by this masthead preceded the sudden collapse of the MA Services Group, amid allegations of tax fraud and widespread worker exploitation that have sparked a law enforcement operation.
But until recently, Ahuja was building Australia’s biggest private security operation as the supplier of thousands of mostly migrant security guards to clients including Kmart, Bunnings, Amazon, AFL clubs and the federal government.
His wife, Sasha Ahuja, who has been running a social media campaign defending her husband and who moved with him to Dubai, is named alongside Ahuja as a defendant in the court freezing order.
While Tracy declined to comment on Justice Catherine Button’s interim order, the administrator said in a recent statement that he was probing Micky Ahuja for suspected “insolvent trading [and] potential misconduct”, including “uncommercial transactions and unreasonable director-related transactions”.
Tracy has repaid about $1 million in wages to workers, but authorities, whose investigations continue, estimate that tens of millions of dollars may be owed in unpaid wages and superannuation.
Tracy has also previously revealed he is assisting the ATO and other agencies as they probe MA Services. The Tax Office is leading a multi-agency operation codenamed Hermes and it is probing what authorities have described in briefing papers as the MA “syndicate”.
The syndicate includes Ahuja and several other targets and is alleged to have operated between 2015 and late last year, pocketing unpaid tax and worker entitlements of more than $100 million.
Ahuja is separately facing impending legal action by lawyers acting for several of his former female employees, who allege he sexually assaulted or harassed them.
Ahuja, who will now have an opportunity to contest the federal court orders, could not be reached for comment.
The celebrity agent who arranged Ahuja’s press conference, Max Marxson, confirmed he had been paid for organising the event.
Asked whether it was appropriate that Ahuja was funding public relations when it was suspected he owed money to the ATO and vulnerable workers, Marxson said it “definitely” was because of the multitude of adverse allegations about him raised by this masthead, 60 Minutes and Australian authorities.
During the press conference, Ahuja offered several misleading answers about his activities as he downplayed his knowledge of the front companies being pursued by the ATO and other creditors and that supplied guards or payroll services to his security empire.
The expose of Ahuja’s allegedly corrupt security empire has also ensnared some of his former key clients. A major investigation by this masthead and 60 Minutes recently revealed that supermarket giant Coles stood accused by a key regulator of signing up for a $50 million-a-year contract with MA Services Group knowing it would result in widespread underpayment for thousands of security guards.
Dargavel – who is also assisting Operation Hermes – alleged a fortnight ago that Coles had turned a blind eye to MA’s wrongdoing and had displayed the morals of an “alley cat”.
The comments sparked furious attacks on Coles in Canberra, led by the Greens and Nationals.
Coles responded by claiming it had been duped by MA, which it described as a fraudulent security enterprise, but it dismissed Dargavel’s claims that the supermarket giant had known of the wrongdoing of its security provider.
As well as revealing Ahuja’s suspected involvement in tax fraud and the rorting of thousands of mostly migrant security guards across Australia, the investigation by this masthead and 60 Minutes also details his firm’s deep ties to a bikie gang involved in a major offshore Albanese government-funded security contract and Ahuja’s alleged rape of two female employees and his serial sexual harassment of other women.
Ahuja has strongly denied allegations of wrongdoing against him, including rape. He has said: “I did not rape her, and if she thinks I did, I encourage her to go to Victoria Police today.”
According to Operation Hermes’ confidential assessments, the MA syndicate is suspected of running a large-scale and highly organised criminal “phoenix” operation involving a network of front companies using dummy directors who collapse or disappear when tax debts or worker entitlements are demanded, only to resurface under new names.
The ATO has also confidentially outlined its suspicions that the syndicate has, for years, been breaking Australia’s immigration, corporate and employment laws to get rich.
After Ahuja fled to Dubai, the administrators of MA Services said that, along with a massive tax debt, Ahuja or his connected firms might have improperly pocketed loans worth $13 million, of which at least $4.8 million ended up in Ahuja’s personal accounts.
Operation Hermes emerged from the work of the Phoenix taskforce, a Tax Office-led multi-agency sitting group set up to inquire into criminal phoenix operations and whose members include the Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission.
The ACIC is also among the federal government agencies that controversially hired MA Services as its private security providers.
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Nick McKenzie is an Age investigative journalist who has three times been named the Graham Perkin Australian Journalist of the Year. A winner of 20 Walkley Awards, including the Gold Walkley, he investigates politics, business, foreign affairs and criminal justice.Connect via email.From our partners
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