Peter Clyne

Peter Leopold Clyne (24 April 1927 – 10 October 1987) was an Austrian/Australian lawyer, businessman, tax consultant and author.

He was dedicated to avoiding taxes and assisted others to do the same.

He wrote 21 books, mainly on the subject of tax avoidance.

He was involved in numerous court actions and was convicted in the United States and Australia for false statements, and placed into bankruptcy twice in Australia.

Clyne was born in Vienna on 24 April 1927, and was aged 11 when Nazi Germany occupied Vienna as part of the annexation of Austria.

His father, as a monarchist, had to flee.

Near the end of his life he stated that he had been challenging authority ever since this experience.

He was an Australian citizen.

He was married to Densey Clyne and had no children.

For 20 years he lived part of each year in the Sebel Town House in Elizabeth Bay, Sydney, and part of year at Hotel Sacher in Vienna, except when court orders prevented it.

Clyne graduated in Law from the University of Sydney in 1944 with a maximum pass.

However, in 1954, new tenancies were no longer granted protection, and by the 1960s, the protected rents were well below market values.

He practiced as a barrister in the New South Wales Bar Association On 8 December 1959 he was disbarred for his conduct of a case, for using his client as an "instrument of blackmail."

His appeal was dismissed on 21 June 1960.

He subsequently made several unsuccessful attempts to gain readmission to the bar.

In 1964, provisions were added to the legislation allowing the rents to be increased for well-off tenants.

Clyne, in acting for landlords, believed that he could arrange the eviction of any tenant, regardless of income, using a number of different grounds.

Clyne ran as an independent for the New South Wales state parliament seat of Bligh in 1968.

He failed to win the seat, receiving 630 votes out of 21671 cast (3.01%).

During his campaign he had advertised for "10 beautiful girls" to form a brigade to bring his message to the voters.

In 1969, Clyne was operating a professional eviction service in Sydney.

Under the Landlord and Tenant Act, rents had been capped to protect tenants from a housing shortage during World War II and the years following.

In September 1971 Clyne took up a magistrate post in Zambia.

In December 1971, bankruptcy proceedings began against him in Australia.

Clyne paid the debt of the petitioning creditor and defended the case by claiming in an affidavit that he had sufficient funds to cover his remaining debts as the fell due.

In 1972, while still in the post in Zambia, he was declared bankrupt in a court hearing in Sydney.

On 19 February 1976, Clyne was arrested in Dallas, Texas, on a charge of preparing a false document for the owner of a Dallas theatrical agency.

The document was alleged to have falsely stated that Clyne had made a loan to the owner.

An undercover tax agent had noted Clyne's activity in the US as a self-styled international expert on avoiding taxes and had posed as a pornography dealer to get close to him.

In April he was sentenced for tax fraud to a maximum three years' jail, but was given bail pending an appeal.

With lawyers working on proceedings to increase his bail amount, he left the US illegally.

Although his passport had been confiscated, he travelled to Canada and obtained a "limited travel document" in Vancouver which permitted him to travel to Australia via Fiji and New Zealand.

In New Zealand, he became involved in a bid to buy the Chateau Commodore chain of hotels.

The New Zealand Prime Minister, Rob Muldoon, noted Clyne's presence and suggested that the Investment Commission would have to obtain assurances that the "international financier" could live up to his promises of raising millions of dollars.

The Australian High Commission in Wellington subsequently refused to issue him a duplicate passport, and said the travel document had been issued by mistake.

Asked about a return to the US, he said "Who would want to go back there?"

Suffering from diabetes and obesity, he died of a heart attack in a Sydney hospital on 10 October 1987, aged 60.

In 1987 he offered to become a candidate for the Federal Lower House for Joh Bjelke-Petersen.

Clyne advocated a flat tax.

He claimed that people didn't avoid paying tax in Switzerland because they saw their flat tax as being fair and equitable.