Although his corporate entities included Legit Industries, as he languishes in a Serbian jail arrested over a $1.5 billion cocaine importation deal, it appears that Tristan Waters is anything but legit.
The 35-year-old Canberra nightclub boss was arrested in January over what the police claim was the second-largest cocaine bust in Australian history.
Tristan Waters was one of three Australians arrested in a Belgrade hotel. Credit: Serbian Interior Ministry
Prior to his arrest in a Belgrade hotel, Mr Waters had already come to the attention of the Australian Tax Office who accused him of tax evasion. In November last year, Mr Waters and his wife Sian Warren, a 30-year-old former model, were hit with tax assessments and penalties in excess of $12.2 million for the years 2013 to 2016.
Several months earlier The Sydney Morning Herald had revealed that not only had Mr Waters previously been arrested over a drug deal, he was also connected to the ATO fraud scandal which had resulted in the arrest of a deputy commissioner of taxation, Michael Cranston, as well as his son Adam and daughter Lauren.
Mr Waters had been a co-director of a real estate company with one of the alleged key ATO conspirators, property developer Daniel Hausman.
Sian Warren, former model and wife of Tristan Waters.Credit: Facebook
The shareholders in another of Waters’ and Hausman's companies, CREI Camperdown, were companies associated with an alleged blackmailer Daniel Rostankovksi and property developer Michael Teplitsky, who has not been charged.
According to police documents tendered in court, in a meeting in February 2017 Rostankovksi, known as Big D, who was aligned with Hausman, demanded a payment of $5 million from solicitor Dev Menon, Adam Cranston and others.
Also at the meeting was crime reporter Steve Barrett, who Rostankovksi said would expose them all on A Current Affair unless they paid up. These men have all now been charged.
Mr Waters, who was in charge of security for the now closed Canberra nightclub Minque, was arrested in 2008 after cocaine and MDMA were found in his car.
In 2013 an ACT Supreme Court judge noted that the police couldn't prove the drugs were Mr Waters’ and he was not charged. However, during the trial of his associate, the court heard that when Mr Waters was given the chance to make a call, he phoned his uncle, Egon Struss. The arresting officers weren't aware at the time that Mr Struss was wanted in relation to drug-trafficking, money-laundering and the distribution of cocaine and ecstasy in the Newcastle area, the court heard.
In the intervening years, Mr Waters and his wife amassed a vast property portfolio, including nine properties in the ACT, one on the NSW South Coast and another in the upmarket suburb of Vaucluse.
Meanwhile, the ATO was trying to figure out where the money was coming from.
For instance in April 2017 one of Tristan Waters and Sian Warren's companies Fit Republic spent $3.86 million buying a property in the Canberra suburb of Forrest. In court documents the ATO said the funds came from an “unexplained source” and Fit Republic had never reported any income.
Move to Dubai
Department of Immigration records show that Mr Waters left Australia on May 26, 2016 to live in Dubai. Mrs Waters and their young son joined him in March 2017.
From November 2017 the ATO was keeping an eye on the Waters’ property portfolios as they moved to obtain freezing orders.
To their horror on January 17 this year they discovered that the previous month Mr Waters had sold his Vaucluse house for $3.025 million, having bought it from the family of celebrity builder Scott Cam for $2.6 million two years earlier.
Two days later, on January 19, news broke in Australia that Mr Waters was one of three men arrested in an upmarket Serbian hotel over a cocaine importation deal with an alleged street value of $1.5 billion.
The Australian ambassador in Belgrade organised for the ATO’s worldwide freezing orders on his assets as well as other documents to be served on Mr Waters in jail.
Mr Waters left the documentation in the interview room, a consular official told the tax office.
David Campbell was arrested at Sydney Airport on Tuesday over the cocaine importation ring.Credit: AAP
Mr Waters is fighting attempts to have him extradited to Australia. On Tuesday his co-accused David Campbell, 48, arrived back in Sydney.
A third man Rohan Arnold, 44, was denied bail this week even though he argued that he was not a flight risk as he had not attempted to escape during a sightseeing tour of Paris with four AFP officers this year.
It is alleged that the three men were convinced another drug syndicate has seized their massive cocaine shipment in April last year. It had been hidden inside hollow prefabricated steel on a Chinese container ship bound for Sydney.
They were arrested in a Belgrade hotel as they attempted to hand over $1 million in cash which they believed would lead to the recovery of their drug shipment.