The Federal Court in Brisbane has ordered the ATO to be paid $14m from the funds raised by Indian Pearls group, The Australian reported.
$5m will be paid to a company run by a Gold Coast businessman. The court is still deliberating on how the remaining funds will be distributed.
The Pearls Group raised $10 billion from 50 million investors in India before collapsing in 2014. The group claimed to be investing money in land, which was not true as many of the properties did not exist or were worth far less than the group had claimed.
The Indian Pearls group funnelled almost $100m to Australia to buy the Sheraton Mirage and luxury homes on the Gold Coast and in Melbourne.
Indian Pearls group was owned by Nirmal Bhangoo among others. Bhangoo started as a milk seller in the Attari village in Punjab and became a multimillionaire in Australia.
Indian agencies are investigating him for an alleged Ponzi scam which is said to be one of the biggest in the world.
Pearls group allegedly enrolled small landowners and farmers with the promise of quadrupling their investment in ten years. 10 billion dollars were raised from 50 million investors.
