‘I just couldn’t stop’: Knox rugby star’s $4.1 million trading scam
He was once a star of Knox’s rugby team. Now he’s facing life behind bars after swindling more than $4.1 million from investors through an elaborate online trading scheme.
NSW
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EXCLUSIVE
After sending more than $4.1 million in investment funds from multiple clients, business owner Matt Wilson finally hit send on a text message he’d been dreading.
Six months ago, he had gone into business with his mate of 20 years Hamish McGilvray, who was a financial adviser and had assured him he was “gifted” at online trading.
“Mate I don’t care if you lost the money, just tell me and we will work it out. You are hiding me for some strange reason,” he wrote.
McGilvray was hiding from him.
He had lost it all.
McGilvray faced the NSW District Court on Friday after pleading guilty to swindling $4.18 million from his mate in an effort to fund his gambling addiction.
Mr Wilson was a director at loan company Onyx Capital and had convinced a number of clients to get involved in the “investment” scheme.
The court heard how McGilvray spent the money in less than eight months on “high risk” investments via the online trading platform XTrade as well as various sports betting.
At one point, McGilvray had accounts with 10 different betting agencies and said he put his money on mostly: “Sports, greyhounds and horses.”
“I just couldn’t stop,” McGilvray said on the stand.
“I had this deluded thinking that I could fix the problem … if a couple of things went my way, which obviously is ridiculous, but that was the state of mind I lived in for a long time.”
The court heard how at one point, McGilvray also received $300,000 from his father to purchase property which he also used for gambling.
McGilvray said at the time he believed he could rectify the situation through online trading.
“I was thinking that I could make fast money, very fast trading with 400 times whatever I had access to,” he said.
It was only until one of the Onyx Capital clients launched legal proceedings in February 2021 that he came clean.
The court heard how McGilvray filed for bankrupcy soon afterwards, where they took away his wife’s engagement ring.
He was formally charged by the NSW District Court in December 2022 and pleaded guilty to two counts of dishonestly obtaining financial advantage.
His wife Candice was in court on Friday, wiping away tears with a tissue throughout the proceedings.
“I’ve spend a lot of time thinking about it,” McGilvray told the court on Friday.
“It’s incredibly sad what I’ve done to him and to his family at that time. This was a very, very terrible thing that I did.”
The crown prosecutor told the court McGilvray had managed to maintain an income throughout the proceedings and questioned why he had not offered to pay Mr Wilson some of his money back.
The court heard how McGilvray quit his job as a financial adviser for Enhance Financial after the legal proceedings began, but was hired as an assistant project manager in a construction consultancy business through a family member.
The prosecutor told the court how McGilvray was living in the “affluent harbourside” suburb of Kirribilli. He had also gotten married and been on a honeymoon during the time of the proceedings.
The prosecutor argued that McGilvray’s scheme was “sophisticated” as it included falsified documents and bank statements which made Mr Wilson feel the investments were “going well”.
“He engaged in a course of deception,” he told the court.
McGilvray told the court that he did not financially contribute to either the wedding or the honeymoon, which were paid for by his family, his wife and her family.
The court heard how McGilvray is now in a gambling addicts program which has “changed” his life.
Judge Penny Hock told McGilvray that a custodial sentence – time in jail – was “inevitable”.
He will be sentenced on November 1.
Originally published as ‘I just couldn’t stop’: Knox rugby star’s $4.1 million trading scam
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