Accountant Damien Luscombe admits stealing millions from high-profile music stars
Damien Luscombe cheated music stars including Amy Shark and Peking Duck out of millions by falsifying emails and invoices during a decade-long fraud scam.
Police & Courts
Don't miss out on the headlines from Police & Courts. Followed categories will be added to My News.
An accountant to the music stars has admitted to the embezzlement of millions of dollars from high-profile Australian musicians.
Damien Luscombe, a former partner and senior executive at music business and accounting firm White Sky, on Monday pleaded guilty to a $2.15 million fraud spanning more than a decade.
ARIA award-winning artist Amy Shark, electronic dance band Peking Duck and folk duo Angus and Julia Stone are believed to be among those cheated by the accountant.
Court documents show Luscombe is charged with 11 counts of obtaining financial advantage by deception from September 2011 to September last year.
He is accused of creating false documents, emails, invoices and payment summaries to cheat clients out of sums of money ranging from $3134 to $625, 639.
His last deception involved a fraud of $495, 000 which occurred between August 2021 and September 2022.
Court documents state he moved the millions from “client accounts into his personal account”.
Luscombe pleaded guilty to a dozen charges laid by Victoria Police’s Financial Crime Squad and will face a pre-sentence hearing next year.
He was ordered to surrender his passport, not travel outside of Australia and not contact prosecution witnesses at a Melbourne Magistrates’ Court hearing on Monday.
He will next appear in court on March 8, 2024.
Luscombe was suspended from White Sky in October after an internal investigation turned up large financial discrepancies.
Ironically, the accountant gave crucial evidence in the high-profile trial of Guy Sebastian’s former manager Titus Day who was last year jailed for 2.5 years after he was found guilty of ripping off $620,000 from the Australian Idol winner.
Industry insiders alleged Luscombe spent years duping invoices to pay off large gambling debts.
White Sky provides services including royalty accounting, book keeping and business management to hundreds of clients including many of Australia’s best-selling acts.
Grammy-awarded artist Gotye, Tim Minchin and Vance Joy were among other White Sky clients informed of Luscombe’s offending.
‘Disgusting’: Customers turn on restaurateur charged with displaying swastika
Customers have turned against Nomad restaurant after one of its owners was charged for displaying a swastika at Sunday’s pro-Palestinian march in Hyde Park.
Man who murdered Celeste attempts suicide in jail
The man serving 30 years’ jail for stalking and then murdering young Celeste Manno as she slept at her Mernda home four years ago has been hospitalised after attempting to take his own life.