Gluten-Free Snack Tycoon Dodges Taxes, Funds Mansion, Avoids Jail

Celiac.com 05/17/2021 - A gourmet gluten-free foodie was duped into using her business skills to support a "staggeringly sophisticated" multimillion-dollar tax scam to pay for a friend's luxury mansion. Melinda Jane Trembath, 45, founder of Melinda's Gluten Free Goodies, has been found guilty on four counts, including forging documents and attempting to influence a Commonwealth public official, but she escaped jail in a $3.6 million bid to defraud the Australian Taxation Office, after a Brisbane District Court judge found she was 'betrayed' by her friend.

Trembath, who is the creator of food company Melinda's Gluten Free Goodies, apparently believed she was helping a longtime family friend to support cancer research. Instead, the mother of three became what the court called "a vital cog" in the scheme.

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The family friend, who has been charged but is yet to face court, had lost her mother to cancer. The woman is described as the main instigator of the elaborate scam, and allegedly created two biotechnology companies, appointing Trembath to be a director.

The problems began in 2017, when the companies wrongly made a tax offset claim of $3.6 million. The court heard evidence, that when the ATO challenged the claim, Trembath used her extensive business experience to forge fake invoices and bank statements to support the questionable return. 

Trembath pleaded guilty to all four charges in the Brisbane District Court on Monday.

According to prosecutors, Trembath played a significant role in the fraud, since she "agreed to be the director of two companies. She took active steps using her business skills to forge documents to perpetuate this fraud."

According to the defense, Trembath was wrong, but did not deserve jail, since she was unaware that proceeds of the fraud were intended for the purchase of a mansion by the friend, rather than as support for cancer research as Trembath was led to believe.

Trembath was handed a suspended sentence of 18 months, and released on $2000 recognizance and immediately released.

Read more in The Daily Mail