A federal court judge is under investigation after a secret police taskforce probed an unorthodox business deal involving his socialite ex-wife and a deal to sell Penfolds Grange to Chinese naval officers.
Federal Circuit and Family Court Chief Justice William Alstergren last month commissioned an investigation into allegations about Alexander “Sandy” Street, a Sydney-based judge, reservist navy commander and scion of one of Australia’s most famous legal and establishment families.
The probe by a retired senior judicial officer, confirmed in a court statement, was sparked after a months-long investigation by this masthead uncovered how, nearly a decade ago, a multi-agency police taskforce had secretly scrutinised Street’s conduct as it monitored a business deal involving his ex-wife’s freight firm.
Multiple sources, speaking anonymously, said that in about 2017, the Polaris Taskforce had compiled a confidential report urging further scrutiny of Street in light of allegations he helped his ex-wife, Sally London, with personal, legal and business matters in a way that could potentially conflict with his judicial obligations.
This masthead has also confirmed the Australian Federal Police never advised the then attorney-general, George Brandis, Alstergren or the chief justice’s predecessor about the police concerns, meaning the scandal remained buried for almost a decade. Alstergren was appointed chief justice in 2017.
The issues centre on freight firm Send it Pink, which was founded in 2015 – two months after Street became a judge – by London.
Street broke up with London, a lawyer-turned-jazz singer, two years before she started Send it Pink with her then-boyfriend, colourful businessman Spencer Fletcher.
Send It Pink attracted law enforcement agencies’ attention after a police informer in 2016 alerted detectives to Fletcher’s plan to sell millions of dollars of Penfolds Grange, a premium red wine that can sell for more than $1000 a bottle, to senior Chinese military officers aboard a People’s Liberation Army Navy surveillance ship, the Yuan Wang.
The deal, according to a leaked email from London, involved Send it Pink earning a commission by facilitating the sale from an Australian wholesaler to the “Chinese Navy Ship’s Captain at Fremantle Port” who would “exchange the wine for 100% payment … in cash”.
According to four officials and the businessman-turned-police informer who assisted the police operation, members of the Polaris Waterfront Taskforce, which was created to investigate waterfront crime, were initially suspicious about whether all duties and taxes would be paid, and about the origin of the funds from the Chinese military officials planning to ship the wine on their vessel.
Police also suspected that, unbeknown to London or Fletcher, two of Send it Pink’s loose affiliates — a New Zealander acting as the intermediary to the Yuan Wang and a Sydney real estate agent with underworld connections – were separately seeking to source illicit tobacco or other contraband from the naval officers.
There is no suggestion London and Fletcher were aware of the suspected contraband plot and there is no suggestion by this masthead that either broke any laws.
But as Send It Pink veered towards insolvency, court files reveal Fletcher was desperate to make money, and offered to help one of the company’s clients falsify records to avoid paying millions of dollars owed to the tax office.
The Polaris Taskforce’s inquiry into the Chinese naval ship unexpectedly uncovered material suggesting Street was allegedly advising London on her personal and business affairs as Send It Pink engaged in highly unorthodox dealings under Fletcher’s stewardship.
The sources said investigators were so concerned about Street’s conduct as a sitting judge that the taskforce sent a classified report detailing the allegations to federal police command in about early 2017.
Australia’s judicial code of conduct requires judges to be “especially vigilant in observing appropriate standards of conduct, both publicly and privately … to uphold the status and reputation of the judiciary, and to avoid conduct that diminishes public confidence in, and respect for, the judicial office”.
Last week, in response to an interview request, one of the former detectives who helped compile the Polaris report said he could not answer questions but that he was “prepared to give evidence to any formal inquiry, should one be held”.
“Any such inquiry would need to access the extensive investigation referral made to the AFP, which contains the full facts of the matter,” the ex-officer said.
“At the time, I and other senior police regarded the allegations as very serious, given the nature of the evidence and the positions held by those involved. I am prevented by law from discussing it any further.”
Under Australia’s federal judicial misconduct regime, complaints about judges must be made either to the attorney-general or to the chief justice of the relevant court.
In a statement, a spokesperson for Alstergren said the chief justice had received a letter from the federal police containing “details of a complaint made about a judge of the Federal Circuit and Family Court of Australia (Division 2) relating to alleged conduct in 2016”.
“This was the first time the court has been made aware of the complaint. The chief judge promptly appointed a retired superior court judge to independently investigate the complaint and provide the chief judge with recommendations,” the statement said.
“All material that has been provided to the court by the AFP has been provided to the investigator to form part of the investigation. The investigation is under way. Accordingly, the court cannot comment further at this stage.”
When the AFP was asked earlier this year whether Brandis or Alstergren were notified about the concerns about Street’s alleged conduct when they were first detailed in the Polaris report a decade ago, the agency did not directly address the question.
Asked again this month, a spokesperson said only that the AFP had referred the matter to the chief justice of the Federal Circuit and Family Court of Australia in April.
When contacted by this masthead, Street said he wanted to respond to questions but was prevented from doing so by court rules.
“Given the nature of the allegations … there are things I would like to ensure … are addressed,” the judge said.
Sources, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said the allegations that Street faces involve suspicions he sought to shield London from potential civil or other legal claims in connection to her business.
This masthead can also reveal allegations that Street was advising London on how to contest a legal dispute involving Send it Pink and a disputed debt claimed by one of its clients, a firm called Savemore.
After Savemore sued Send it Pink in 2016, it was hit with a counter-suit in which London’s then-business partner and boyfriend, Fletcher, claimed in an affidavit he had offered to help Savemore falsify its records to avoid a $2 million tax debt in return for $100,000 that was never paid. There is no suggestion of wrongdoing by London.
There is no suggestion by this masthead that the allegations about Street are true or that he has broken any laws, but only that officials believed that his alleged conduct had been serious enough to warrant further scrutiny.
The nation’s judicial code of conduct says a judge must exercise “discretion in personal relationships, social contacts and activities” and “strike a balance between the requirements of judicial office and the legitimate demands of the judge’s personal life, development and family”.
The code says judges should avoid situations that might “reasonably lower respect for their judicial office or might cast doubt upon their impartiality”.
“Behaviour that might be regarded as merely ‘unfortunate’ if engaged in by someone who is not a judge might be seen as unacceptable if engaged in by a person who is a judge and who, by reason of that office, has to pass judgment on the behaviour of others.”
The code also says that “commercial activity that might give rise to public controversy seems undesirable. Some activities may be seen as inappropriate for a judge, simply because of the nature of the activity”.
Street is a scion of the famous Street legal dynasty and son of famed former NSW Supreme Court chief justice Sir Lawrence Street. He is also a naval reservist commander and grandson and great-grandson of two other NSW Supreme Court chief justices. Street’s sister and brother-in-law have also both served as judges.
Brandis appointed Street as a judge of the Federal Circuit Court in 2015.
The judge, his ex-wife and her then-boyfriend became the unanticipated subjects of Taskforce Polaris after they became friendly with their neighbour, a wealthy businessman from Sydney’s eastern suburbs who was actually a police informer.
Polaris separately used the informer, “Mr X”, to infiltrate an international criminal syndicate that included crime boss Michael Ibrahim, North Sydney real estate agent-turned drug and tobacco trafficker Ryan Watsford and a Chinese-New Zealand businessman known as “Fast Eddy”.
Fast Eddy was suspected of smuggling methamphetamine and tobacco with officers aboard the Yuan Wang.
With Mr X’s covert help, and by tracking Watsford and Fast Eddy, Polaris investigators stumbled over the separate deal involving the Yuan Wang officers and an associate of Watsford and Fast Eddy: the British-born businessman Spencer Fletcher and the glamour jazz singer he was dating, Sally London.
After surveilling Fletcher via a wire worn by Mr X, Polaris turned its attention in 2016 to Fletcher and London’s plan for Send it Pink to sell a multimillion-dollar consignment of Australian Penfolds Grange red wine, along with milk powder and other consumer goods, to the same cell of Chinese naval officers.
The plan was laid out in a February 2016 email from London to Mr X and a South Australian wine wholesaler.
In it, London described Send It Pink as an “Australian commodities trading and logistics company, managed by Spencer and myself” that brokered “commodities with Chinese traders”.
In her email, London said that while a New Zealand trader had brokered the wine sale “to the Chinese government”, the South Australian wine wholesaler should expect to conduct “all the negotiations and organisation for the sale” with Send It Pink.
London also instructed the South Australian firm to “invoice our client [the trader] in New Zealand” during the wine deal but “pay Send It Pink Pty Ltd a commission fee”.
“This is to avoid any GST issues arising from … selling the wine to our Australian company (even though the wine is ultimately being exported to China),” London’s email states.
Next, London explained that the South Australian wine wholesaler would “meet our New Zealand client and the Chinese Navy Ship’s Captain at Fremantle Port, and exchange the wine for 100% payment for the wine which will be in cash (either USD or RMB).” RMB refers to the Chinese currency renminbi.
“The Navy Ship Captain will also provide … official stamped government documents for the cash and proof of export of the wine.”
In her email, London also described how “on the last occasion the Chinese Navy Ship came to Perth (December 2015), our New Zealand Client purchased in excess of $2m Penfolds wine from Treasury Wine Estates in Perth”.
‘I told Sandy Street I was in a terrible relationship, and I had to get rid of this guy.’
Sally London
In late August 2016, state and federal officers from Polaris Taskforce surveilled the wine being loaded onto the Chinese ship in Fremantle and, a short time later, arrested two Chinese nationals suspected to have moved tobacco from the vessel.
The informer, Mr X, told this masthead that police conducted months of surveillance on the trading deals with the Chinese military officials and various Australian business figures.
“There was lots of detailed information captured from us working undercover. I’d meet with a lot of people,” he said.
While Mr X said the Polaris investigation into Send it Pink led to no charges, he was aware that police had uncovered information about Judge Street’s alleged conduct and dealings with London and Fletcher.
“I still don’t understand to this day why nothing’s ever happened with that report” about Street, he said in an interview.
Fletcher denied any knowledge of any illegal behaviour, although he confirmed he and Send it Pink sold a large consignment of wine to Chinese naval officers aboard the Yuan Wang, and that while he had considered importing cigarettes from China, he never imported tobacco.
“My relationship with China in terms of cigarettes was quite good, yeah. So I was discussing with them about cigarettes 100 per cent, but we never did anything. We never moved any cigarettes.”
Court documents obtained by this masthead also reveal Fletcher employed his own strategy to counter the Savemore debt claim. He claimed in an affidavit filed in court that Savemore had told him it needed to help to falsely “create some export documents so that it appears” the firm had “exported” goods it was selling “locally”, thereby dodging a large tax debt.
“Savemore has a serious GST issue and really needs your help creating some export documents,” Fletcher said he was told.
In his affidavit, Fletcher said he then agreed to get a third party to help create false paperwork in return for $100,000 of which Fletcher was to receive $50,000, which was never fully paid.
In an interview, London denied any knowledge of wrongdoing by any person and said her ex-husband, Judge Street, had always acted with integrity and never given her legal advice.
She said Send It Pink was managed by Fletcher and she “just did the back office, like creating invoices for him, and like billing freight clients”.
London said she severed all ties with Fletcher after their relationship soured.
“I told Sandy Street I was in a terrible relationship, and I had to get rid of this guy, and … I told him how he ripped me off,” she said.
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