SYDNEY, Australia (JTA) — A Holocaust survivor who is alleged to have defrauded the Australian tax office for more than $5 million will not face trial in part because he was a victim of the Nazis.
Peter Agoston, 81, was freed by a Sydney District Court judge last week because of ill health, including dementia, and his past as a Nazi victim.
Agoston survived a concentration camp in Hungary. Between 1995 and 2000, he is alleged to have overstated spending in the production of four documentary films, according to an audit by the Australian tax office.
Judge Christopher Geraghty told Agoston that he could have been convicted of fraud by a jury, according to a report in the Sydney Morning Herald. But the judge ruled it was “inappropriate to inflict any punishment” on Agoston, who Geraghty said had suffered “unimaginable cruelty” under the Nazis.
