A WEALTHY Brisbane cryptocurrency entrepreneur who lives in a $3.5 million apartment overlooking the Story Bridge is in financial hot water with the taxman.
Alvin Hong Liang Phua, 47, who made his fortune in his publicly listed IT-turned-cryptocurrency company Byte Power Group, was slapped with a creditor’s petition by the Australian Taxation Office on February 19.
The ATO moved to bankrupt him over a $700,468 debt, which he was ordered to pay by the Supreme Court in Brisbane in April 2016, court documents say.
Singapore-born Mr Phua told the Administrative Appeals Tribunal during his tax battle in 2016 that he refused to pay any tax debts while “the ATO was pointing ‘bazookas’ at him”.
Mr Phua frankly told the tribunal he has not offered to pay his full taxation debts because he wanted the ATO to give him a discount.
Documents filed in the Federal Circuit Court state Phua has paid $290,922 of the debt which used to total $911,470.
The creditor’s petition is addressed to Phua at his home in the luxurious 47-storey Skyline building in Brisbane’s CBD.
The apartment has “breathtaking, uninterrupted views of the Brisbane River”, four bedrooms and bathrooms as well as five car parks and was purchased off the plan in 2004 for $2.4 million.
The ATO told the tribunal it is worth at least $3.5m but Phua claimed it was only worth $2.4 million.
It is currently listed as “under contract”, with sales ads saying all offers will be considered because the owner was “relocating”.
It is owned by Phua and his wife Ethel Wai Tak Lau, who is already bankrupt.
The ATO told the tribunal that Ms Lau had under-reported her income over several years including by $828,862 in 2003.
In 2015 Ms Lau said she had $4 million in assets, and Phua said he had $3.4 million worth of assets, the tribunal heard.
Phua and his wife told the tribunal that if they were bankrupted it could block them from acting as directors.
Late last month Byte Power Group posted a half-year loss of $8 million, including a $6.6 million impairment for its suspended cryptocurrency called Soar.
At the height of his success Phua’s Byte Power office in Newstead was opened by Premier Peter Beattie
The case is due in court today.
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