Bill Papas on his way back to Australia
The Sydney football personality at the centre of the alleged $250 million Westpac fraud has booked a flight to return to Australia from Europe on Saturday, the court has heard, after being uncontactable by the bank since mid-June.
Westpac disclosed last Friday it was investigating a
potential serious fraud, after it said it had discovered loans had been given
to its corporate customers using forged signatures and falsified invoices
allegedly produced by Sydney-based Forum Finance.
The company is owned by former Sydney Olympic president BillPapas, who also recently bought Xanthi Football Club. Westpac alleges that it
has not been able to contact Mr Papas since June 15, soon after it made
inquiries about the potential fraud.
Westpac has issued freeze orders and search warrants to obtain
information related to the alleged fraud, and is now pursuing legal action to
have Forum Finance put into provisional liquidation, an emergency measure to
protect assets.
Panetta Lawyers principal Rocco Panetta, who has been hired
by Mr Papas, told the court on Wednesday he had spoken to his client around
five times over the past seven days.
During these conversations, Mr Panetta said Mr Papas had
refused to disclose his exact location or explain whether he intended to defend
the allegations against him, but that he had booked a Japan Airways flight back
from Athens via Dubai to arrive in Australia on Saturday.
“I understand he’s in Europe, in transit, making his way
back to Australia,” Mr Panetta said. “I understand he was in Greece, I don’t
know where he is now, but I think he is moving through other countries to make
his way back here.”
When pressed for details of Mr Papa’s overseas travel,
including when and why he left Australia and his current location, Mr Panetta
said he was stonewalled. “We did ask, he wouldn’t tell us.”
Jeremy Giles SC, acting for Westpac, said his team had not
obtained sufficient assurance from Mr Papas or Forum Finance that no documents
would be destroyed in making the case for an “urgent appointment” of a
liquidator.
“There are some 96 or 97 contracts ... almost all of them
are false, in the sense they are not signed by the counter-party. The
counter-party hasn’t got the equipment, it hasn’t been making payments on it,”
Mr Giles said. “This is a case of quite serious dishonesty in the amount of
circa $250 million. In those circumstances, there should be no delay.”
Federal Court Justice Michael Lee said he had not made a
final decision on the liquidation application, which presented a “serious
intrusion” into a company’s affairs but rejected the application to adjourn the
Friday hearing.
“We are left at present in the position that Mr Papas is
somewhere in Europe, yet refuses to tell even his solicitor his location,”
Justice Lee said.
“With what might be described as a somewhat unfortunate lack
of curiosity, it is apparent that no real inquiry has been made as to whether
Mr Papas has a defence to the current allegations made against him.”
Mr Papas has been director of Forum Finance since 2011, a
Sydney-based firm that leases equipment and provides digital and administration
services to third parties. A number of clients contacted by The Age and Herald,
including NYSE-listed manufacturing firm Boston Scientific, said they were
surprised by the lawsuit.
“We’ve never experienced any real issues at all,” said
Boston Scientific Australian managing director Martin Baker. “We use them for
pretty basic administration services, like printer management. It’s one of
those things where if you’re horrendous at it, you notice but if they do it
well, you don’t notice.”
Court documents lodged by Westpac claim at least seven major
clients including Coles, Woolworths, Veolia and WesTrac have been caught up in
the fraud, that could cost Westpac hundreds of millions of dollars. Westpac has
hired external lawyers to determine what went wrong, but insiders have blamed
poor standards around invoice verification.
Mr Papas was stood down from his role as Sydney Olympic
president last Friday, after news of the alleged fraud, which some fans said
raised “concerns that could potentially implicate” the club.
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