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A $5000 payment to an OnlyFans creator in early 2023 triggered the beginning of a costly infatuation.
By August 2024, the payments, from a family company behind several Queensland sporting facilities, had skyrocketed to nearly $160,000. There was $12,500 for a “birthday gift”, thousands for “helping” and “wages”, and another simply described in Federal Court documents as “Xoxo”.
The transactions were unearthed in a broader covert probe into a Queensland man, his wife, and their community sports business.
This masthead can reveal the Australian Taxation Office is now investigating unpaid tax totalling more than $60 million in relation to the couple, as the Federal Court issued freezing orders over millions of dollars of assets.
Colin James Kinnest, 36, and his wife, Ashlee Maree Kinnest, 37, and their sporting facilities across Queensland, including QIA centres at Springwood, Browns Plains, Strathpine and Bundaberg, are at the centre of the investigation which has also embroiled 21-year-old OnlyFans creator Bridget Jean Faith Cotter.
Colin James Kinnest, and wife Ashlee Maree Kinnest pictured at the Bundaberg Indoors Sports Centre in 2020. Credit: Bundaberg Regional Council
The investigation is now focused on 18 properties between the three individuals and the businesses, with dozens of payments under scrutiny, including purchases by the Kinnests’ company at Tiffany and Co for more than $178,000.
In Federal Court documents obtained by this masthead, the ATO alleged business activity statements by Bundaberg Indoor Sport, Kinnest Family Pty Ltd and Bundaberg Junior Indoor Sports, owned by the Kinnests, contained false and misleading information.
The ATO alleges the Kinnest’s three entities intentionally over-reported their sales, GST on sales, and GST credible purchases to gain refunds they were not entitled to.
The OnlyFans creator
In a glimpse into how the ATO assesses OnlyFans creators, Cotter was determined by the watchdog to have either a “personal or transactional relationship” with Mr Kinnest.
Documents state Cotter, a 21-year-old dental assistant living on the Gold Coast, received $220,000 over 118 transactions from OnlyFans between May 2022 and July 2025.
The Kinnest Family made 22 payments to Cotter totalling nearly $160,000 between January 31 2023, and 29 August 2024.
“Colin may have subscribed to one or more content creator’s accounts on OnlyFans because he made frequent payments to OnlyFans,” the ATO said in documents.
The largest payment to Cotter was $29,000 with the reference ‘jetski’. In January 2024, there was a payment for $9000 for camping equipment, and $10,000 for ‘helping’ in April 2024, $14,500 for ‘help plus wage’ in May.
Some of the transactions were described as ‘Xoxo’, ‘Birthday Gift’, ‘Earrings’, with many listed ‘Bridget Jean Helping’. One of the ‘helping’ payments were for $15,000.
OnlyFans content creator Bridget Jean Faith Cotter.Credit: Instagram
In July 2024, Cotter was also paid $7500 for ‘wages and drink’, and in August, $1000 for ‘Wet and Wild help’.
The smallest transaction was nearly $100 for movie tickets.
In July last year, two of the Kinnests businesses received their net business activity statement (BAS) refund for more than $3.5 million.
Around the same time, a Madison Road property in Coomera on the Gold Coast was settled for $867,000, which Cotter became the owner of.
According to court documents filed in September, Cotter was recorded as residing at the property. The ATO also noted the property was a 4.5-hour drive from Thabeban, the registered address of Mr Kinnest with ASIC. But it also highlighted there were several other properties close to the Coomera property, some as close as 31 minutes. There was no record Mr Kinnest received rental income.
Cotter told this masthead that Mr Kinnest’s personal life was “none of my business”.
“I’m just doing my job as I do with every other subscriber on my OnlyFans, chat, sell, make money – that’s what it’s about,” she said in a statement.
Frozen out
The couple and their businesses’ finances were all frozen following an application from the ATO, with exceptions to allow the family to pay $20,000 for legal expenses and $1000 for weekly living expenses. Cotter’s Gold Coast property was also frozen as part of the orders.
The ATO alleges the business services prices were low, and unable to be explained by the references to the reported sales in statements lodged.
Between 2022 and 2024, the facilities reported mixed indoor netball at $80 per team of seven, while indoor cricket was $100 per team of eight. The ATO said for Bundaberg Indoor Sports to have reported sales of nearly $240,000 it would have needed to service the equivalent of 2,9887,322 netball teams, or 2,389,857 indoor cricket teams.
The reported sales were described as “excessive and out of character” for small businesses in regional Queensland that manage sport venue hire, the ATO says.
‘The tax mischief of Colin, BIS, BJIS, and Kinnest family demonstrated an intention, willingness, and ability to evade the correct payment of tax over a lengthy period for financial advantage.’
ATOThe ATO says when it notified BIS and BJIS it was conducting an audit, BIS, Kinnest Family and BJIS each lodged business activity statements for the next periods reporting a “significant deviation in sales on GST which for the first time obliged them to pay the ATO a GST shortfall. They were also not entitled to a refund for the first time.
Documents state that one of the companies was not an “enterprise” for several reasons, including that it did not have an Australian bank account, did not appear to have an online presence, and there were no properties registered in its name.
Mr Kinnest had not reported that he earned wages or salary as a director of that company. The ATO says that company appeared to duplicate the commercial presence of Bundaberg Indoor Sport, which suggested that commercial activities could be used to justify, disguise or otherwise cover its lack of commercial activities.
The ATO goes further to suggest even if there were warrants to seize the property, it would not be enough to recover the loss.
The real estate
Between August 2023 and August 2024, Mr Kinnest purchased nine properties, with a total value of $5,920,000, according to court documents.
He sold three properties between October 2024 and June 2025 for almost $2 million.
Between June 2022 and August 2023, his wife purchased seven properties, with a total value of $2,579,000.
Two properties valued at almost a million were also purchased in one of the company’s names.
The ATO alleges Mr Kinnest’s mortgage transactions and property sales were all undertaken after the watchdog began communicating with him and his companies in August 2024.
“Mr Kinnest has already sold three of the nine properties acquired by him using funds traceable to the net BAS refunds and has encumbered the remaining six by registered mortgages,” the ATO says.
“Notably, these disposals each occurred after Mr Kinnest was contacted by the Commissioner of Taxation and asked to provide information and details regarding the GST refunds claimed.”
In total, the ATO is currently investigating 18 properties, including Cotter’s Gold Coast property.
The Kinnest family
The couple appear to be an active part of the Bundaberg community, with several articles by the council detailing their plans to improve their sport facilities.
A 2020 release from the Bundaberg Regional Council detailed how the couple had embarked on an extensive refurbishment program that had transformed Bundaberg Indoor Sports Centre.
“We wanted to do the carpets and nets for a long time, but because it’s such a big job and the only time I close down is over Christmas we just couldn’t afford to do it.”
According to online profiles for Mr Kinnest, he has a bachelor of business and bachelor of finance.
The couple were contacted for comment.
Other financial dealings
The court documents detail a long list of transactions, including luxury goods of more than $218,000. In one example transaction listed by the ATO, $178,750 was spent at Tiffany Co Australia.
ATO investigations show BIS made withdrawals from its bank account – excluding real estate acquisitions – in the amount of $11,309,879.46. For the Kinnest Family, withdrawals totalled $25,528,239.20.
There was a cash transfer from the Kinnest Family of $157,248 to Cotter, with an example of a $7000 birthday gift.
Other financial dealings listed by the ATO include $213,000 on vehicles, $188,587 on entertainment and gambling (including $9310 at the Bundaberg Golf Club), more than $425,000 on property investments and capital works, and nearly $22 million on various business experiences.
The case remains before the court.
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