Briefs: Tax fraud and identity crime spree, NAB simplifies contracts, Westpac blasted over Yes email
A 25 year old man was arrested this week on 106 charges related to Commonwealth fraud and identity crime, after allegedly making 63 fraudulent tax return lodgements via myTax, from September 2015 to July 2016. The arrest follows a joint investigation between the Financial and Cyber Crime Group, State Crime Command and the ATO's Criminal Law Investigations area. During the investigation, officers identified 42 bank accounts allegedly opened in the man's name, linked to 54 unique tax file number identity take-overs. The alleged fraud totals A$566,762. NAB has overhauled its lending contracts for small and medium businesses, cutting out a third of the terms and conditions and dropping many default clauses. The new contracts, which have gone from over 100 pages to just over 40 pages, apply to business customers with current loans as well as to those with new loans. There are now fewer instances where customers will be deemed to have defaulted - and if they do default, they will now have a 30-day grace period to work on a repayment plan. Most small business lending contracts will no longer include financial indicator covenants. NAB said the changes were developed in consultation with the Small Business and Family Enterprise Ombudsman, Kate Carnell. An email sent to Westpac staff urging them to vote "Yes" in the marriage equality referendum has led to accusation of blackmail and inaccuracy, reports The Australian. The email, sent by the bank's youth network to up to 10,000 of the bank's 40,000 employees, urged staff to vote "yes" to prevent 3000 suicides a year. Westpac spokesman David Lording said that figure was a mistake, as the research cited was referring to suicide attempts. Prominent "No" campaigner Senator Matt Canavan said the bank's youth network was trying to "blackmail other Australians through guilt", while Immigration Minister Peter Dutton advised the bank to "stick to its knitting".