The returns, which arrived on December 20, looked normal, written in the same computer-generated format used for 15 million taxpayers every year.
Press reports put the sale at $585 million. The tax office, which was already looking at the family’s finances, wanted to know how much they got, and where all the money went. It believed all four family members owned them equally, although conceded it was possible one family member held the shares on behalf of the other three. That individual could be any of the four, the Tax Office concluded.
Over the next 10 weeks, tax office officials added to their huge file on the Wus. Staff pulled Department of Immigration and Border Protection travel records, company and land title ownership records, directors’ reports and property valuations.