An ATO raid on a Brethren-linked company last week has put the spotlight on the immense wealth of the sect’s most influential family.
When Sydney accountant Bruce D. Hales took over from his father as the global leader of a small and secretive religious sect called the Exclusive Brethren in 2002, he had grand plans.
The revelation comes as the Australian Tax Office combs through troves of documents obtained after its Private Wealth – Behaviours of Concern team last weekATO officers enter Number 10 Herb Elliott Drive, the headquarters of businesses related to the Plymouth Brethren Christian Church, in Olympic Park, on March 19.A spokesman for the PBCC said: “UBT is a business owned by church members in their own right, and not on behalf of the church.
Instead, it is Hales’ wife Jenny, their six children and partners who have emerged as the area’s best-housed locals, with some 15 houses to their name, and a couple of luxury estates in Dural, West Pennant Hills and Kurrajong added in recent years for a combined $20.5 million. These properties boast lavish extras such as swimming pools, tennis courts, billiard rooms and even a golf driving range.
Next door to Bruce and Jenny is the home of their son, Gareth Hales, purchased originally as two houses for $2.85 million in 2010 and 2013 and rebuilt at a cost of about $2 million in 2016. Behind it is a third significant residence built across a consolidated site that cost a total of $6.55 million in 2013 and 2020. City of Ryde council approved the demolition of two houses to create a single new dwelling in 2021, which is currently under construction at a cost of $4.2 million.
This West Pennant Hills acreage with a swimming pool, tennis court, billiard room and manicured gardens set a suburb record of $5.5 million when purchased in 2021 by Gareth Hales.Hales’ daughter Jane Henderson and her husband Warren Henderson own just one house in the area, a seven-bedroom house in Epping they bought in 2000 for $530,000.
“What they choose to do with their wealth, including the houses they own or build, is entirely up to them, as it is for every other Australian.”UBT needs non-Brethren employees in professional positions because members of the PBCC are not permitted to attend university. One former world leader of the church, James Symington, suggested his tertiary-educated flock urinate on their degrees.
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