A former Australian political leader’s son convicted of supplying narcotics and prescription drugs helped an offshore company to operate in several jurisdictions and to establish a bank account in Cyprus.
Mark Chikarovski sold huge quantities of cocaine and other drugs on the dark web under the alias “AusCokeKing” in exchange for cryptocurrency.
Chikarovski, from Sydney, is the son of former New South Wales Liberal Party leader Kerry Chikarovski. Sydney is the capital of the state of New South Wales.
Mark Chikarovski pleaded guilty to charges over his multimillion-dollar dark web narcotics supply operation, using the marketplace Abacus.
On Dec. 6, he was sentenced at a Sydney District Court to a 35-month intensive corrections order that must be served in the community, following a finding of special circumstances, including risk of self-harm.
The sentence included 18 months of home detention, 500 hours of community service and continued engagement with mental health treatment.
In sentencing, Judge Jane Culver said Chikarovski never had to physically meet his customers, making his “sophisticated” operation “far more serious than the average street dealer.”
Prosecution documents reportedly showed Chikarovski sold drugs to undercover police across 18 different transactions between February and May 2023.
He advertised the drugs online as being “premium European imports” and offered cocaine at a “spring sale” price of about $200 (AU$299) and “limited edition meth.”
Chikarovski’s defense said that he turned to using illicit drugs to cope with a childhood marked by dysfunction and the pressure of living in the public eye.
Police say Chikarovski had been selling MDMA, crystal methamphetamine and prescription drugs, as well as cocaine, on the dark web.
Chikarovski was caught wearing blue latex gloves stuffing drugs into an Australia Post envelope at an apartment in Sydney’s Bondi Junction suburb when detectives arrested him in May 2023.
Detectives discovered large quantities of drugs, two Porsche SUVs, about $20,000 (AU$30,000) in cash and $178,000 (AU$269,000) worth of cryptocurrency during raids on the apartment and a home in the Vaucluse area.
A ‘sophisticated’ operation
Australian police say Chikarovski and his wife, Hannah, led a lavish lifestyle despite him having no discernible income.
Chikarovski’s defense barrister Phillip Boulten SC later denied in court that his client’s drug trafficking operation was “particularly sophisticated.”
Now, documents obtained by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists reveal that Chikarovski was a client of the Geneva, Switzerland, and Dubai, United Arab Emirates, offices of SFM Corporate Services.
Chikarovski is identified in the SFM documents as the contact for a shell company called Aquay Holdings Ltd.
The records show that Chikarovski paid fees over several years to SFM for the provision of a UAE address and nominee director and shareholder services for Aquay Holdings.
SFM Corporate Services is a global firm that markets itself as a one-stop shop for those seeking to form offshore companies quickly. It featured widely in ICIJ’s Pandora Papers investigation.
Chikarovski was billed by SFM after it established Aquay’s position in the UAE and Seychelles using nominee director and shareholder services, the ICIJ documents show.
SFM billed Chikarovski for Aquay employing a registered agent in Ras al-Khaimah in the UAE, a confederation with a thriving trade in financial secrecy, shell companies and opaque free zones.
SFM also billed Chikarovski when the shell company established a second bank account in Cyprus.
SFM did not respond to requests for comment from ICIJ and the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC).
Chikarovski, via his lawyer, Philip Boulten SC, did not respond to a separate request for comment for this story from the ABC.
Australian police say they know that Chikarovski was involved in the international drug business from at least 2017. Aquay was operating from at least 2015 until at least 2019, SFM documents show.
Police say the 38-year-old received cryptocurrency in exchange for prohibited drugs on thousands of occasions since 2017.
Chikarovski provided SFM with a copy of his passport, and a phone bill and a water bill with a Paddington, Sydney, address.
The UAE is now home to several international drug dealers, many considered high-value targets by police.
Chikarovski, who was remanded to prison before his sentencing, recently sold a $10 million (AU$15 million) home with harbor views in the Sydney suburb of Vaucluse to a businessman from China.
In a letter of apology to the court, Chikarovski said he started selling drugs online because he “lacked the liquidity” to clear his own drug debts and had faced threats of violence.
That was disputed by the prosecutor, who said that at the time of the offending, Chikarovski had two Porsche Cayennes, about $40,000 (AU$60,000) in private school fees, and a $1.4 million (AU$2.2 million) mortgage.
Contributor: Ben Schneiders (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)
