A credit-card-abusing cop from the Australian Federal Police, a person who accessed tax records without permission, and an Australian Tax Office employee who accepted a bribe are the first three people to be convicted after investigations linked to the new federal corruption watchdog, Crikey can reveal.
All three were convicted after probes by another federal investigative body that was subsumed into the National Anti-Corruption Commission (NACC) upon its creation last year, but nevertheless represent the first three scalps claimed by the commission.
Crikey was first to reveal two of the three convictions on Thursday. Now new information has emerged that paints a fuller picture of some of the work the NACC has pursued since its inception in July 2023.
The first to be convicted was Spiro Kalliris, a superintendent with the AFP’s protective services who used an AFP credit card for personal purchases. Court records show he was convicted on two counts of dishonestly causing a loss on September 1, 2023, fined $5,000, and released on a three-year good behaviour order. The Daily Telegraph reported on his conviction three days later, without mentioning the fact that the NACC had overtaken the investigation from the former corruption watchdog, the Australian Commission for Law Enforcement Integrity (ACLEI).
According to the Telegraph, Kalliris used $17,000 of his employer’s funds to buy “dozens of household-type items such as shoes, clothing, a PlayStation, motor vehicle GPS, phone chargers, gym equipment and even white goods such as a fridge and microwave over a period of several years”.
The second NACC conviction was an individual known as Sarfraz Khan, who was convicted in Sydney’s Downing Centre Local Court on January of unauthorised access to taxation records. Court information indicates he was convicted but not sentenced. Instead he paid $2,000 and was ordered to be of good behaviour for 18 months.
Crikey applied for the police fact sheet and other documents in Khan’s case but was refused by the court, whose deputy registrar pointed to a section of NSW’s Criminal Procedure Act that states document inspections must be made within two working days of the criminal proceedings.
The third was Wenfeng Wei, an ATO employee who was sentenced to five years in prison last Tuesday. According to the NACC, which announced Wei’s conviction in a media release on Wednesday, he was convicted in Sydney’s Parramatta District Court on several counts, including accepting a bribe as a Commonwealth official, abuse of public office, and unauthorised access and disclosure of restricted data.
The NACC said it inherited the three cases on July 1, 2023, after they were formerly led by investigators from the ACLEI. All three were prosecuted by the Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions.
Crikey was provided with the names of Kalliris and Khan after making inquiries earlier in the week.
Apart from finishing off investigations commenced by the ACLEI, and overseeing investigations by other agencies, the NACC has also begun several of its own probes.
In an update on Wednesday, the NACC said it was conducting 13 corruption investigations, including four alongside other agencies, and was monitoring 25 probes by other agencies. It had seven investigations inherited from ACLEI.
The watchdog had received 2,637 referrals in total, 2,022 of which had been excluded from consideration, either because they didn’t involve a Commonwealth public official or didn’t raise a corruption issue. There were 403 referrals under assessment, including 13 under preliminary investigation.
