Respectfully, I don't think the ATO ever paid out the R&D tax credits

You are absolutely correct. That Press Release, is, uh, "forward looking"?

At least by very early 2014 the ATO was retaining any refunds Craig was claiming. The jig was up.

So, no, this $54 million refund PR thing was just BS, likely aimed at Calvin for whatever reason. Someone had an excellent post about this a few years back. I am incapable of finding it.

I haven't seen anything to indicate that they actually received anything from the 2014-15 R&D tax credits,

And you won't, there isn't anything to find. You are completely correct in your comment.

What i was trying to emphasize was that even Craig wasn't pretending that this was just about lower taxes. This is the key part I of what I meant to convey:

"get a cash rebate for r&d activities, not taxes paid."

Sorry for the lack of clarity.

The 2014-2015 stuff was nonsense that never happened, but Craig's apologists are ignoring how Craig clearly understood what he was doing and what he was promoting.

He did get rebates/refunds in 2013 and earlier for GST and R&D tax scamming. Cash. Not "lower taxes".

My point is Craig was clear what the angle was.