Sep 11, 2026 – 9.00am“Adam, we’re going to have to sell the house.” His mother, Lois, was on the phone, and her panicked confession came as a shock. It was only the first of many that day. She explained that his father, Laurence, a comfortably retired former tax official in his 70s, had received a letter claiming the couple owed an overseas business some $300,000.Adam Friend, a former police officer who works in security in Sydney, rushed to his parents’ house in rural NSW. “My parents were at a loss. They collapsed in a heap,” he tells AFR Weekend. Subscribe to gift this articleGift 5 articles to anyone you choose each month when you subscribe.Subscribe nowAlready a subscriber? Joshua PeachData journalistJoshua Peach is a data journalist and part of The AFR Data Investigations team.Fetching latest articles