A multi-millionaire bikini boss looking for a new career in politics has defended his attempt to smuggle swimwear into China to allegedly avoid taxes.
Erin Deering, co-founder of the multi-million dollar swimwear brand Triangl, worn by the likes of Margot Robbie and Kendall Jenner, is running for deputy mayor in Melbourne’s council elections next month.
Ms Deering is standing with environmentalist and former acting mayor Aaron Wood on a pro-business platform aimed at cutting red tape and boosting the local economy.
But comments from the past have since resurfaced about how Ms Deering once tried to ‘illegally’ avoid tax in the early days of her bikini business, which she set up with her ex-husband and former AFL star Craig Ellis in Hong Kong in 2012 .
In her memoir ‘Hanging by a Thread’, published last year, Ms Deering revealed how the pair ‘decided to illegally float the shares across the border to their new factory in Shenzen.
“A huge risk, but one we took so that we could save a fair amount of money… If we did it ourselves, we would avoid the inevitable taxes that China imposed on all goods entering the country,” Ms. wrote Deering.
Ms Deering and her ex tried to hide the bikinis in suitcases, but their ‘stupid’ trick was discovered by customs officials and seized.
Fortunately, they were released without fines or prosecution.
Erin Deering (pictured), co-founder of multi-million dollar swimwear brand Triangl, worn by the likes of Margot Robbie and Kendall Jenner, is running for deputy mayor in Melbourne’s council elections next month
The entrepreneur said in a podcast last year that the loss of so many shares could have ‘dead’ their company.
Ms. Deering denied ever breaking tax laws.
“Any suggestion that I have broken tax law is wrong,” she told the newspaper Herald Sun.
Despite writing in her memoirs that she had tried to act ‘illegally’, Mrs Deering denied any illegality.
“If anyone has done business in China, they know that it can be complicated and difficult at times,” she added.
‘All our bikinis are made in China, but shipped to Triangl in Hong Kong, where there are no import duties.
‘We tried to get stock back to China quickly because for the first time we had used a logistics company based in China and from then on we would send stock directly from China to customers.
“We were stopped at the border and the stock was confiscated.”
Daily Mail Australia approached Ms Deering for further comment.
Ms. Deering and her ex-husband grew Triangl into a $200 million company sold in more than 100 countries around the world.
Ms Deering has since remarried to business owner Zachary Keane and launched her own fashion brand (the two are pictured together)
The company’s success put them both on the rich list, with an estimated personal fortune of $35 million.
Ms Deering has since remarried to business owner Zachary Keane and launched her own fashion brand.
Melbourne council elections are decided solely by postal vote.