‘Wolf of Oxford Street’ Ponzi scheme case: Prime Minister’s photo used in sales pitch
A COMPANY director from a massive $209 million Ponzi scheme falsely told potential investors Malcolm Turnbull had put money into the scheme and posted a photo of himself shaking hands with the Prime Minister on his since-deleted Facebook page.
NSW
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A COMPANY director from a massive $209 million Ponzi scheme falsely told potential investors Malcolm Turnbull had put money into the scheme and posted a photo of himself shaking hands with the Prime Minister on his since-deleted Facebook page.
David Sipina, a former Bondi and Districts Chamber of Commerce assistant treasurer, also posted pictures on his Facebook page of himself with a Bentley car and smoking cigars.
“He said Malcolm Turnbull is investing in Courtenay House,” creditor Mark Tobin said.
Mr Tobin invested and lost $400,000 on the false foreign exchange sting which The Daily Telegraph exclusively exposed yesterday.
Mr Tobin said he was introduced to the scheme via Mr Sipina’s sister-in-law.
A spokesman for the Prime Minister said yesterday Mr Turnbull did not know Mr Sipina and had never invested in any scheme being promoted by him.
Mr Sipina did not respond to attempts to contact him yesterday.
A number of creditors confirmed to The Daily Telegraph Mr Sipina displayed a picture on his Facebook page of himself shaking hands with the Prime Minister, which has been taken down since corporate cops in May froze assets held in Courtenay House companies and triggered liquidation.
Also frozen is a company of which Mr Sipina is sole director, Sipina Enterpizes, court an official corporate records show. The company owns an apartment worth about $580,000 in Queensland’s Burleigh Heads.
Mr Sipina, a joint director of Courtenay House Capital Trading Group, has refused the liquidator’s request to be interviewed about how $209 million was fleeced from 780 investors in the Ponzi scheme.
The Daily Telegraph yesterday exclusively revealed the scheme mastermind is Tony Iervasi, a joint director with Mr Sipina of Courtenay House Capital Trading Group and sole director of Courtenay House.
VIDEO: WHAT IS A PONZI SCHEME?
Liquidator of the Courtenay House companies, Said Jahani, said Mr Sipina may be among 18 to 20 individuals and institutions forced to give evidence in court as he attempts to uncover how the scheme - which pretended to be investing funds in foreign exchange markets - was operating and what happened to the money.
“Our investigations reveal the companies were operating as a Ponzi,” Mr Jahani said.
Almost 90 per cent of the funds were used to pay off existing investor interest and capital returns, with just 1 per cent actually invested as promised in foreign exchange markets.
Documents lodged with the Australian Securities and Investments Commission show Mr Sipina has been banned from holding a financial services licence.
After being elected assistant treasurer of the Bondi and Districts Chamber of Commerce in 2014, a photograph of Mr Sipina with MP Gabrielle Upton, NSW Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government, was posted on the business chamber’s facebook page.
Ms Upton through a spokesman said yesterday that she did not know Mr Sipina and had never invested in any product being promoted by him.
DIRECTOR ‘IN FEAR FOR HIS LIFE’
THE alleged mastermind of the nation’s biggest Ponzi scheme has received death threats over the loss of $209 million invested by hardworking people.
Liquidator Said Jahani said Tony Iervasi, when confronted by angry investors, has told them he has $100 million stashed overseas and is waiting for the liquidator to get out of the companies so he can begin to pay back creditors. “He fears for his life,” Mr Jahani said.
“In a number of instances (of being threatened) he has been telling people he has $100 million stashed away in a bank account in the US. My personal view is that’s not the case.”
Mr Jahani is conducting a forensic examination of the bank accounts and limited records kept at the office of Courtenay House companies. So far he has uncovered $100,000 in a US bank account and a US property worth less than $100,000.
Mr Jahani has interviewed Mr Iervasi but his joint Courtenay House Capital Trading Group director David Sipina has refused to talk.