Bianca Cheah: How couple lost $1m after believing instafamous wellness influencer
An Aussie influencer who duped a couple into investing $1 million into a business she shared with her nightclub-owning husband has re-emerged.
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EXCLUSIVE
Aussie model Bianca Cheah built a glowing image as a wellness influencer, regularly sharing her glamorous life with her 1.2 million online followers.
But her squeaky clean reputation took a hit when the NSW Supreme Court ruled she and her night-club-owning ex-husband, Simon Chalmers, duped hopeful investors out of more than $1 million.
Now, the main victim has shared the devastating impact of the ordeal, his outrage over the police investigation and the falsified revenue documents that underpinned the scheme.
It comes as Cheah has rejoined social media, following years of silence.
When investment bank boss Garren Cronin and his wife, Emma, came across a digital marketing business run by Cheah and Chalmers called Sporteluxe, it seemed like an attractive venture.
Mrs Cronin, a nutritionist with an interest in wellness, approached Cheah in mid-2017, Mr Cronin told news.com.au.
“Bianca came back and said, listen, we’re taking investors, why don’t we meet you?”
“So we met them, they handed over some information, we went through a sort of a quasi-due diligence period, and we made an investment which was just over $1.1 million. So you know, a sizeable investment.”
News.com.au has seen the initial email chain between Cheah and Mrs Cronin in which Cheah says she is “looking forward to working together. Can’t wait to take the next step xx”.
It has also seen documents which projected Sporteluxe as on track to gain a healthy revenue in 2017, following similar success the prior year.
Unbeknown to the Cronins, the portrayal of a thriving business was built on “false and misleading figures”, as later ruled by a NSW Supreme Court judge.
In his judgment on September 6, 2019, Justice Hammerschlag found Cheah and Chalmers (who did not show up to court to defend the civil claim) had included false figures in material they used to pitch the investment to the couple.
“These figures are false and misleading,” Justice Hammerschlag found.
“Revenue of $167,537.57 included in revenue represented to have been earned by the Sporteluxe business was not earned by that business, but by Cheah in her personal capacity from her IMG (modelling) activities.
“SPL’s records … reveal that this income was reallocated, deceptively, as income of the Sporteluxe business … This conduct was misleading or deceptive in contravention of ACL (Australian Consumer Law),” he found.
Mr Cronin said within weeks of his investment, he discovered Chalmers had stripped their money out of the company account and sent it overseas.
“We couldn’t believe it,” he said of the moment he realised he had been duped.
“We called the lawyers in February, and we started the court case in March.”
Cheah and Chalmers were ordered by Justice Hammerschlag to repay the funds to the Cronins.
But Cheah was declared bankrupt in Australia in January 2021, and the couple are yet to recover a single dollar.
In a dramatic development, Cheah flew back to Australia from LA where she lived as the truth unravelled, only to be served bankruptcy papers.
She was sensationally arrested by Australian border force officials at Sydney Airport in December 2021.
NSW Police charged Cheah with two counts of publishing false or misleading material to obtain a financial advantage over the alleged fraud. But police subsequently dropped the charges. No criminal charges were ever laid against Chalmers.
Court records confirm the charges were dismissed at Downing Centre Local Court on April 3.
Mr Cronin said he and his wife were “exceedingly angry” at the result.
“We’ve thrown huge amounts of time at this. I’ve spent hundreds and hundreds of hours on this court case, this litigation, the police documents,” he said.
The whole saga has seriously hurt Mrs Cronin’s ability to trust anyone, Mr Cronin said.
“My wife hasn’t worked since then … she hasn’t gone and made any investments since. She was pretty destroyed for a couple of years. She still is, really,” he said.
“It’s been a big impostor emotionally for her, because she got taken to the cleaners. People lied to her. It was a horrible experience. It’s gone on for six years.”
Meanwhile, Cheah has reappeared in the online world in recent weeks, reinventing her influencer image.
Days before her arrest in 2021, she posted a cryptic message on social media to say she was “not posting on Instagram as much” to focus on motherhood.
But after several years of laying low, she announced she was back.
To her 150k Instagram followers, she wrote on May 17 that it had been “forever” since they last chatted.
“My heart is overflowing with excitement to reconnect with you all. So much has changed since we last spoke, but one thing remains constant: my unwavering love for the warmth, comfort, and serenity that embody the essence of home life and interior design,” she said.
She spoke of her excitement to “welcome” her fans into her “new world of magic and wonder, where I’ll be sharing my lifelong passion for interior design, soul food home cooking (made by my mama and me), and all the little moments that make life beautiful”.
Her return was welcomed by many fellow blue-ticked influencers, with one writing: “So wonderful to see you back! We’ve missed you”.
Another comment read: “We’ve missed you dearly darling B. I’m so excited to come along with you in this chapter”.
Cheah’s Facebook account, which still has 1.2 million fans, was also active again.
Mr Cronin said the return post was the “catalyst” for him to speak out.
“My wife was absolutely frustrated. Here she is, back on Instagram, two weeks after the police dropped the charges? It was just like, ‘here we go again’,” he said.
It is understood Cheah and Chalmers have separated, and the latter, who once owned Sydney’s popular Beach Haus nightclub in Kings Cross, remains in the US.
Cheah has been contacted for comment.
Originally published as Bianca Cheah: How couple lost $1m after believing instafamous wellness influencer
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