A Sydney journalist has denied threatening to expose alleged major tax fraud masterminds, a jury has heard.
Stephen Barrett, 63, has pleaded not guilty to blackmailing three people allegedly behind the $105 million Plutus Payroll tax scandal.
On his second day in the witness box, the veteran reporter denied threatening the trio in a February 2017 meeting at a law firm that had been previously bugged by police.
"The whole point of me attending the meeting is to try and flush out the truth, shake out the tree," he said on Tuesday in the NSW Supreme Court.
"You didn't shake the tree at all Mr Barrett," crown prosecutor Patricia Mcdonald said.
"I believe I did," Barrett responded.
The Plutus Payroll tax scheme allegedly skimmed money such as GST and superannuation owed to the ATO through second-tier companies headed by straw or shadow directors, the jury has earlier been told.
The alleged kingpin of the venture was Adam Cranston, son of then-deputy commissioner of the ATO Michael Cranston.
Barrett agrees he never squarely asked the alleged Plutus fraudsters if what he had been told by his source was true, but that he was putting the allegation on the table allowing both parties to respond.
He also had another pressing matter to attend to straight after, he said.
"If you're investigating something and you strike gold ... you have Cranston in the room ... you could be late for the next meeting."
"Striking gold to me was getting the proof, the documents," Barrett said.
In a later secretly recorded phone call between Barrett and property developer Daniel Hausman, who became his primary source for the story, the former 60 Minutes reporter is asked to "give the bastards another poke".
Barrett denies this shows he was aware of Hausman and another inside man's plans to extort $5 million out of the Plutus Payroll alleged leaders.
The trial continues.
