Fake emails at heart of Forum Finance fraud, Westpac claims

Westpac alleges Forum Group boss Bill Papas faked emails, invoices to build a $453m fraud.

Vince Tesoriero with his lawyer outside of the Federal Court in Sydney. Picture: Jane Dempster

A court has been told a vast array of allegedly fake emails were used by Forum Finance figures to siphon almost $450m from a trio of banks and escape the country after they were caught.

The second day of hearings in the Federal Court has focused on allegations former Forum Group boss Bill Papas faked a significant number of emails in a bid to trick lenders into handing over millions of dollars to fund bogus leases.

Justice Elizabeth Cheeseman was shown a series of extracts of emails showing communications between business figures allegedly signing off on major lease deals with the Forum Group.

But the court heard that when contacted by Westpac – as the bank sought to uncover the extent of the alleged fraud – many said they had neither seen the correspondence nor signed off on the deals.

Westpac senior counsel Jeremy Stoljar referred to an email from Mr Papas’ brother, Tas Papas, to the Forum Group’s chief executive, Craig Rollinson.

“Hi Craig, I just received this from Coles. I’ve never seen this before and I don’t understand what it is,” Tas Papas wrote.

But Mr Stoljar noted many of the emails had glaring mistakes in them, including phone numbers.

“It also gives the Coles’ slogan ‘A Little Better Everyday’ which was never included on (this) email,” he said.

Mr Papas and his former Forum business partner, Vincenzo Tesoriero, are at the centre of three weeks of hearings after the two men were targeted by a trio of banks over allegations of fraud.

Westpac, Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation, and Societe Generale all claim they were defrauded by the Forum Group over several years.

Mr Stoljar said emails between Mr Papas and his partner, Louise Agostino, who also worked in the Forum Group, showed she assisted in preparing the fake documents.

“It makes it very clear that Ms Agostino was intimately involved in the creation of these false documents,” he told the court.

Westpac claims it discovered the fraud in 2021 after discrepancies were raised with loan accounts from Caterpillar dealer WesTrac.

Mr Stoljar said Mr Papas’ conduct after the bank started investigating the alleged fraud showed his guilt.

He referred to messages from June 16, in which Mr Papas claimed he was flying to Perth to meet with Westpac over the loan issues.

However, Mr Papas had applied in May to leave Australia on “urgent business”.

“Mr Papas … the evidence against him was simply overwhelming; he was the architect of the scheme and participated in every detail of it,” Mr Stoljar said.

“An honest person who had done nothing wrong would stay and give an explanation.”