The former chief financial officer of beleaguered Forum Group has been dragged into a lawsuit by Westpac seeking to recoup $294 million in funds paid into an alleged fraudulent scheme.
A court has summarily dismissed a lawsuit accusing the Victorian government of acting unlawfully by improving the Western Highway and threatening to harm six ‘directions’ trees of cultural significance to the Djab Wurrung people.
Forum Finance director Vincenzo Tesoriero wants to strike out Westpac’s claims against him and has told a court he too is a victim of alleged fraudster Bill Papas, having sunk up to $9 million in the company.
The Federal Court has issued an arrest warrant for Forum Finance founder Bill Papas for contempt of court for allegedly transferring $720,000 out of one of his companies in breach of a freezing order.
Westpac will serve court documents, including a motion for contempt, on Forum founder Bill Papas by text message after securing a Greek mobile number for the absent accused fraudster, as the judge overseeing the bank’s case pulled up Papas’ former lawyer for treating his courtroom like a “suburban golf club”.
Westpac wants Forum Finance founder Bill Papas held in contempt of court, but the bank has hit a snag in serving its motion on the missing Papas, saying he dropped his lawyers without telling them the address of his current residence in Greece.
A Forum Finance director is unable to file a defence against Westpac’s $400 million fraud case because his former solicitor has refused to hand over case files to his new lawyers until he pays a “remarkable” $300,000 legal bill, a court has heard.
A judge has ordered 17 companies connected to Mayfair’s “failed” IPO Wealth Fund to be wound up after finding the fund’s director put investor money at risk through “highly speculative” investments to make a windfall for himself.
Companies associated with Mayfair’s IPO Wealth Fund should be wound up because they contained assets “artificially inflated” in value and ran what was effectively a Ponzi scheme, the Victoria Supreme Court has heard.
Mayfair director James Mawhinney has been blocked from talking to investors ahead of a hearing on an application to wind up the IPO Wealth fund, after a judge raised concerns about investors being “misled and coerced” by the investment hotshot.