Bankrupt Gold Coaster Paul Sarkis blames cyber scammers for $20m liquidation of Jade Northcliffe

A bankrupt Gold Coaster – whose collapsed company has debts of more than $20m – claims international cyber scammers tricked him out of more than a billion dollars of investment returns.

A bankrupt Gold Coaster, whose collapsed company has debts of more than $20m, claims international cyber scammers tricked him out of more than $1.1bn of investment returns.

But one creditor – owed an eye-watering $6m – says he doesn’t believe the claims.

Paul Sarkis, 62, has been bankrupt since June 16, 2023, after his company Jade Northcliffe was wound up in Brisbane Supreme Court.

Mr Sarkis, Jade Northcliffe’s sole director, told liquidator Matthew Bookless he’d been tricked by scammers impersonating a major UK financial services firm, Lucid Issuer Services.

Mr Sarkis said he’d transferred $12m of investor funds to a HSBC account in the UK, believing it was going to Lucid for “risk-free” leveraged market arbitrage investments, according to Mr Bookless’s report.

The director said he’d been tricked into transferring millions of dollars which are now unaccounted for.

Mr Sarkis subsequently received a letter, purportedly from Lucid, saying a planned payment of $US743m – $A1.14bn – had failed to go through.

Subsequent attempts by Mr Sarkis to recoup the funds via HSBC were unsuccessful, the report said.

The Gold Coast Bulletin has been unable to contact Mr Sarkis via his lawyers or the liquidator, and his address has been legally suppressed from his bankruptcy notice.

Jade Northcliffe’s largest known creditor is Infinity Life Concepts, directed by Graham Andersen and Nigel Harrison, and is listed as being owed $9.65m.

There are millions more in debts to other creditors, listed in US dollars, euros and British pounds.

Aiden Garrison, director of Ocean Pacific Group which wound up Jade Northcliffe, said his company had invested $6m after being promised returns of 20 per cent a month.

Mr Garrison said he’d met Mr Sarkis “through a third party”.

“We weren’t friends, it was just a business transaction that went wrong,” he said.

“I’ve spent a lot of money trying to get some money back.

“Obviously that’s a lot of money to lose, my focus now is to try and see where the money went.”

Liquidator Matthew Bookless. Picture: John Gass

The liquidator’s report said there were “inconsistencies and concerns with the director’s claims”, including that more than $20m was missing, not just the $12m apparently transferred to the UK.

Mr Bookless said although Mr Sarkis told him Jade Northcliffe was only used as a consultancy firm prior to 2020, its “bank accounts show sizeable transactions within 2019”.

The liquidator’s report said the director’s claim the investments were “risk-free” was “clearly false”, and the offered returns “completely unrealistic for genuine investment opportunities”.

The liquidator said he’d identified “substantial creditor investments” made after Mr Sarkis’s alleged dealings with Lucid had broken down in June 2020.

Mr Bookless said the director had failed to provide all books and records of the company in his possession, including the company’s email server.

The liquidator said he didn’t believe Lucid was involved with the matter as it emails were “poorly written” and inconsistent with what would be expected of a large financial services firm.

Mr Bookless said he may not be able to investigate the case further unless creditors or ASIC could provide funding for his work.

ASIC has been notified of the case.

The Bulletin has contacted financial firm Kroll, which acquired Lucid in 2020, for comment.

Other creditors include Singapore company, Capgen Holdings, which is listed as being owed $US2.6m; two companies in Malta and the Netherlands which are owed 300,000 pounds between them; and three companies in the United States, listing as being owed $US700,000.

Mr Garrison said the money for his company’s $6m investment came from “family and close associates” who had made it on property developments in Brisbane and Perth.

He described the cyber scam claims as “just bulls---”.

Mr Garrison is seeking answers from NAB, who he said had transferred the $12m out of Australia without proper scrutiny.

“We’re going to do some investigating into where that money went and whether NAB is responsible for that,” Mr Garrison said.

Aiden Garrison.

A NAB spokesman said the bank couldn’t comment on individual cases.

“We will always make every attempt to prevent scams and recover funds where possible,” he said.

“However, once the funds have left a victim’s account, it can often be difficult to recover them due to the sophistication of these criminals and the speed with which they move stolen funds to foreign jurisdictions, out of our reach.”

Mr Garrison said bankrupting Mr Sarkis and liquidating his company had been a last resort.

“We tried to work with him, but it got to the point where every time we were promised something it never happened.”