Ex-winemaker set for admissions in $17.5m fraud case

More than three years after being found to have made millions of dollars of fictitious tax claims, a bankrupt former winemaker is ready to admit some crimes.

Aaron Dennis Salvestrin, 31, was the owner of Sans Pareil Estate, a vineyard at Griffith in the NSW Riverina region.

On Tuesday, he appeared at Downing Centre Local Court where his barrister Russ Johnson said his client was set to make some major admissions over the alleged $17.5 million fraud.

Salvestrin - who now lives at Milsons Point on Sydney's north shore - has been hit with 16 counts of dishonestly intending to obtain a financial gain and one count of using forged documents.

Judge Susan Horan heard prosecutors were ready with amended charges which the 31-year-old had agreed to plead guilty to.

Mr Johnson said his client still disputed some of the facts alleged against him despite his foreshadowed guilty pleas.

The details of that dispute will be revealed when he returns to court on June 16.

Court documents seen by AAP show the now-bankrupt allegedly lodged false business activity statements from April 2021 until October 2022 in an effort to defraud the Australian Taxation Office.

A tax office audit in 2022 found the winemaker had claimed input tax credits by overstating the amount of GST he paid, according to an October 2024 NSW Supreme Court decision.

The false invoices were based on more than $200 million worth of wine sales that never took place, Justice Anthony McGrath found at the time.

"The vast amount of evidence reveals that the payments were either made directly to Mr Salvestrin or were payments on his behalf or for his benefit," the judge wrote.

The former winemaker had used the money for his personal gain, spending it on alcohol, entertainment, motor vehicles, travel and gifts.

He also used the money to repay millions on his American Express credit cards.

This brought detriment to the Sans Pareil firms which were unable generate enough business to refund the tax office's money, Justice McGrath wrote.

The Milsons Point man was ordered to repay almost $8.5 million to the firms which were then under the control of liquidators.

Four days later, he filed for bankruptcy.