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Builder Fred [Fouad] Deiri claims he was "gobsmacked" when he found out - courtesy of The Australian Financial Review - that he had a company in the British Virgin Islands.
"It's not in Britain, is it?" he said of the Caribbean tax haven.
According to an enormous cache of leaked documents from law firm Mossack Fonseca, based in the tax haven of Panama, Mr Deiri and his friend, earthworks expert George Ghossayn, were among thousands of high net worth individuals across the globe who used Mossack Fonesca to establish an offshore entity.
"I don't have any money to hide, I never heard about this island," Mr Ghossayn told Fairfax Media on Monday.
The two Sydney businessmen also said they had never heard of their BVI company Fitall Development Ltd, which was set up in 2008.
When informed the leaked documents contained their passport details and their Australian addresses, the pair suggested they may have been victims of fraud.
"I am a bit worried now," said Mr Deiri, who heads up Redfern-based development company DeiCorp.
Others linked to the Panama firm are a chief executive, a greyhound trainer, a former head of SBS sport and a convicted cocaine smuggler.
In 2011 Mossack Fonseca created six companies in Samoa for sports promoter Dominic Galati, the one-time head of SBS sport.
According to the AFR, these were then transferred to a Hong Kong company called Global Wealth Group. Its directors included Mr Galati, a western Sydney greyhound trainer John McGeary, and his business partner Roy Bijkerk, who was jailed for four years in 1999 for cocaine importation.
Financial services director William Aloisi, who was named as another director of Global Wealth Group, told Fairfax Media on Monday that he had never been in business with Mr Galati, Mr McGeary or Bijkerk.
But he said he had personally introduced the men to representatives of a Hong Kong company he used himself, Corporate Management Services, which specialises in offshore structures.
The website for Corporate Management Services says it provides products in Hong Kong, Samoa and other "tax-free countries".
A Fairfax Media investigation recently revealed that Bijkerk, Mr McGeary and another convicted criminal had been involved in a $500,000 interest free loan to big-time punter and former brothel owned Eddie Hayson.
After his release from jail, Bijkerk helped set up Guardian Youth Care, a not-for-profit residential care provider which receives about $7 million a year from the NSW government to provide round-the-clock care to traumatised children.
Bijkerk and convicted murderer Ned Bikic, who has only been out of jail for a couple of years, have established a multi-million dollar property empire.
When contacted about the tax haven companies, Bijkerk said he was in "no mood" to talk to Fairfax Media. Mr McGeary and Mr Galati could not be reached.
While many investors legitimately use tax havens, the ATO deputy commissioner Michael Cranston told the AFR that some of the Mossack Fonseca cases "may be referred to the Serious Financial Crime Taskforce".
