Fallen religious leader Rocco Leo and his former church owe more than $4.1 million in unpaid taxes for 2009-10 alone, court documents claim.
In documents filed with the District Court, the Australian Taxation Office calculates Leo’s personal debt for last financial year to be $1.75 million.
Agape Ministries International, the documents claim, owes $1.69 million for the same period while Leo’s confidant, Joseph Veneziano, is said to owe almost $700,000.
Those figures are just the tip of the iceberg for the ATO, which last month stripped Agape of its tax-exempt status as a religion.
Bureaucrats are preparing to pore through 10 years’ worth of seized bank records to determine how many millions Agape must pay.
Opponents of Agape claim it is a cult, and that Leo made his fortune by duping parishioners with stories of government plans to microchip humans and kill those who disagreed in concentration camps.
[…]Leo is being sued by two former parishioners for $1.2 million and $420,000 respectively, who claim they made donations under fraudulent circumstances.
[…more…]
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