A former Australian Taxation Office employee has been sentenced to five years in jail for corrupt conduct, which includes accepting a bribe of $150,000 from a taxpayer they were auditing.
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The National Anti-Corruption Commission outlined the conviction on Tuesday of former ATO worker Wenfeng Wei at the Parramatta District Court following a guilty plea last July.
It is the first sentencing revealed by the anti-corruption commission since it started operations last year.
The conviction stems from Operation Barker, a joint investigation led by the ATO and the former Australian Commission for Law Enforcement Integrity, which was subsumed into the commission last July.
In a statement, the anti-corruption commission said it was alleged the former employee accepted a bribe of $150,000 from a taxpayer they were auditing to reduce personal and business tax debts of over $6 million dollars.
The anti-corruption commission said the activity took place over six years and only ended after the former employee's arrest.
Wenfeng Wei was convicted of several breaches of the Commonwealth criminal code, including accepting a bribe as a Commonwealth official, abuse of public office, and unauthorised access and disclosure of restricted data.
The Parramatta District Court has sentenced him to five years in prison, with a non-parole period of two years and six months.
in the period up to March 10, the anti-corruption commission has received more than 2600 referrals, excluded 2022 referrals at the triage stage, inherited seven investigations from the ACLEI, and started 13 corruption investigations, including four joint investigations.
The anti-corruption commission said Operation Barker was supported by the Australian Federal Police, NSW Police, the Department of Home Affairs, the Australian Securities and Investment Commission, the Australian Transaction Reports and Analysis Centre, and the Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions.