Director told employee he'd split salary 'so others can't see how much you get paid'
A director's attempt to hide an executive's $200,000 salary from other staff by splitting payments between two companies has blown up in court, triggering multiple Fair Work violations.
Mohammad Shirmohammadi was hired as operations manager at MMP Industrial on October 31, 2022, with an agreed salary of $200,000 per annum including superannuation. But in early October 2022, director Andrew King proposed an unusual arrangement.
"If you don't mind, I'd like to pay you $100,000 on the books and the rest through another entity," King told Shirmohammadi, according to evidence presented to the Federal Circuit and Family Court. The reason? "So the others can't see how much you get paid. I don't want the controversy."
Shirmohammadi agreed. MMP Industrial paid him roughly $1,923 weekly, while a separate company called Avance Urban Pty Ltd paid him $6,121 monthly. MMP issued payslips for the weekly payments but provided nothing for the monthly transfers from Avance Urban.
The arrangement quickly became messy. The combined payments consistently fell short of what was owed each month. No superannuation contributions were made on the Avance Urban payments. When Shirmohammadi needed payslips for a car loan application, King couldn't provide complete documentation.
On April 14, 2023, Shirmohammadi emailed King asking him to check with his accountant about superannuation for "the other half of my salary"...
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