Ex-soldier James Christopher Chapman jailed for elaborate multimillion-dollar bond investment scheme
A former soldier who illegally obtained more than $3m in funds by defrauding victims in an elaborate investment bond scheme spent the money on cryptocurrency and online sports gambling.
A former soldier who was medically discharged illegally obtained more than $3 million in funds by defrauding victims in an elaborate investment bond scheme and spent the money on cryptocurrency and online sports gambling.
James Christopher Chapman, 42, was sentenced to nearly a decade behind bars in Gosford District Court late last week after pleading guilty to a dozen charges of recklessly dealing with the proceeds of crime.
The court heard Chapman was a retired member of the Army Aviation Corps who meticulously planned the elaborate offending with another Australian man, who had been living in Bangkok, Thailand, since 2009.
Chapman registered a number of businesses with the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) and also opened 23 bank accounts with various banks.
Some time before April 2021 various websites were set up offering high return investments and included a contact form for interested people to receive a call back.
Police facts state the first man to fall victim submitted a call back request and got a telephone call from a man purporting to be someone from Macquarie Asset Management.
The victim said he was interested in purchasing an AGL bond and got a follow up email from an authentic-looking address and signature in April 2021.
The victim searched the real Macquarie Bank’s website where he found the same name as had been in the email he had received and assumed it was legitimate and purchased an investment bond for almost $250,000.
He purchased another bond for nearly $200,000 but started growing suspicious by October when he couldn’t contact anyone.
The 76-year-old victim rang the real Macquarie Bank who confirmed he had been duped.
“With the exception of (one victim), each of the other victims engaged in similar correspondence with people purporting to be employees of either Macquarie Bank, Suncorp Bank, EQR Investments, Capital Management Services or Bank of Queensland,” the facts state.
“Each victim discussed investing various sums of money in various investment bonds. Numerous payments were made by victims to bank accounts not connected with the offender as part of the same scam.
“The victims frequently used their superannuation, or their life savings, to make the deposits.”
The 21 victims were aged 35 to 89, but mostly were retired.
“The offender received a total of $2,994,571.13 between May 5, 2021 and December 20, 2021 from these victims as a result of the bond scams,” the facts state.
Altogether, the total number of transactions was 565.
During that time Chapman splurged a staggering $550,000 from “primarily a day-to-day living type account” along with tipping just over $1m into cryptocurrency trading exchanges.
Chapman also deposited $163,117.32 into his online Sportsbet account and withdrew $75,608.65 during the same period as well as paying off a $76,000 personal loan.
Slowly between October 2021 and 2023 the victims all became aware of the scams and reported them to police who began to track the funds to bank accounts linked to Chapman and the IP address of transactions, which were “geolocated” to his Booker Bay address.
The court heard that Chapman had a number of mental health issues as a result of his 18-year tenure in the army and apologised for his reckless behaviour.
In a letter to the court, Chapman said “I’m extremely sorry for the harm and inconvenience I’ve caused victims” and said once he is able to access his super, he wants to use it for reparations.
Judge Tanya Bright described the offending as “planned and sophisticated” and said it was wholly apparent the offending had a financial impact on the victims.
Judge Bright sentenced Chapman to nine and a half years jail. He will be eligible for parole on July 28, 2029.
More Coverage
Originally published as Ex-soldier James Christopher Chapman jailed for elaborate multimillion-dollar bond investment scheme
