Oli Funds Management and Luo Qi sued by Gang Xu over Sydney gold bar sale

‘You can trust me and Alice’. Controversial businessman Luo Qi is accused of uttering these words in a meeting in Sydney last year that has triggered a $3m lawsuit over 41kg of gold bars.

A businessman whose Sydney-based investment companies have collapsed – triggering an investigation into the whereabouts of $50 million of clients’ money – is also being sued for allegedly failing to pay for more than $3m of gold bars.

The Daily Telegraph can reveal the lawsuit against Oli Funds Management director Luo Qi accuses him of misleading or deceptive conduct.

An amended statement of claim obtained by The Telegraph from the NSW Supreme Court alleges Mr Qi made false representations to Gang Xu of Milsons Point in a meeting at a George St office in October last year.

According to the claim, also at that meeting was former ABC Bullion account manager Alice Or.

In the court filings, Mr Luo is accused of saying to Mr Xu: “Alice talked to me about you. I have (an) Australian financial services licence and have provided gold trading services to my clients for many years.

Gold trading company account manager Alice Or of Sydney. Picture: Facebook

Ms Or is said to be on a “career break” at the moment. Picture: Facebook

“You can trust me and Alice”, the claim says.

Mr Luo allegedly went on to promise that the gold would be on-sold to ABC Bullion, with which Oli supposedly had an account.

The statement of claim says that during the meeting, Mr Xu emphasised he needed to be paid for the bars within four weeks because “I need to buy real property with settlement on 15 December 2022”.

Mr Luo allegedly said he could “guarantee” that payment for the gold would happen in that time frame.

A deal was then allegedly struck to sell an initial 30 kilograms of bars for $2.67m, with the money due by November 28.

Within hours of the agreement being made, the gold was delivered to a Castle Hill warehouse.

But over the next five weeks, only $450,000 was received in payment, according to the claim.

Five days before the deadline for the initial $2.67m purchase, a second agreement was reached to sell Oli Funds Management (OFM) another 11kg of gold for $935,000.

Again the bars were delivered the same day.

However, no payment was ever made, according to the suit.

Mr Xu alleges Mr Qi did not have an account with ABC and that OFM had only been registered as a company in April 2020, so it couldn’t have provided gold trading services for many years.

Mr Qi has left Australia. Picture: YouTube

OFM was one of three Oli companies placed in voluntary liquidation earlier this month.

Their liquidator last week told The Telegraph that Mr Qi had left Australia.

Mr Qi did not respond to a request for comment last night.

Ms Or, who is a jeweller by trade, did not respond either. According to her LinkedIn profile, she left ABC Bullion 10 months prior to the alleged George St meeting and is currently on a “career break”.

Ms Or and ABC are not accused of any wrongdoing.