Court calls for Bill Papas itinerary for return to Australia

The Federal Court has ordered Forum Finance boss Bill Papas to submit his return travel plans from Greece to Australia.

Forum Finance founder Bill Papas is being sued by three banks for alleged fraudulent conduct.

The Federal Court has ordered Forum Finance boss Bill Papas to submit his proposed return travel plans from Greece to Australia, as the firm’s auditor accused it of concealing information.

Forum Finance and several of its related entities are entangled in allegations of a $400m fraud, and are separately being pursued in court by three banks, Westpac, Societe Generale and Japan’s SMBC Leasing and Finance.

Federal Court judge Michael Lee has ordered Mr Papas’s solicitor file and serve an affidavit by close of business Monday, that “identifies the proposed travel plans of the second respondent in relation to his return to Australia” .

The order asks for specificity on the steps that have been taken to obtain a disclosure document from Mr Papas of his assets, which was required earlier this month by the court, but not complied with.

Justice Lee wants the disclosure document supplied, or objections outlined as to why it isn’t.

On Thursday, Justice Lee took a swipe at Mr Papas in a case-management hearing for not adhering to court orders, as it was also revealed he had tested positive to Covid-19 in Greece and was unable to return to Australia.

“I’ve made two orders. I don’t make orders on the basis that they can be treated like traffic lights in Athens, I want them complied with,” Justice Lee said.

The Weekend Australian revealed on July 2 that it was understood Mr Papas was not in the country. That was the day Westpac made its case against Forum Finance and Mr Papas public, which led to his resignation as president of the Sydney Olympic Football Club.

Mr Papas’s full name is Basile Papadimitriou.

Across Australia and New Zealand, Westpac’s exposure to Forum Finance is about $294m, SMBC is seeking the return of $98.9m, plus GST and interest and Societe Generale has an exposure of $9m to Forum Finance.

National Australia Bank is Forum Finance’s transactional bank and is understood to hold the mortgages over the bulk of Mr Papas’s property portfolio.

While Mr Papas’s whereabouts were initially unknown, his lawyer then told the court he was due to return to Sydney on July 10 from Athens via Dubai. That didn’t occur and the court was then informed on Thursday of a July 8 positive Covid-19 test.

The court cases and allegations against the equipment leasing firm Forum Finance – and a further group of related entities – centre on the forging of invoices and not ordering the goods to lease to customers, but still obtaining finance for them.

Rothsay, which has audited the Forum books since 2015, on Friday hit out at alleged concealment activities and said a Forum manager eventually came forward with information.

The firm’s principal Frank Vrachas said the transactions at the centre of the alleged fraud were “carefully designed to be concealed from us, from the banks, from the shareholders and even from supposed recipients of the finance”.

“If this was concealed successfully from the bank, there was no way we could have known,” he added.

Mr Vrachas said Rothsay first became aware of the situation after being contacted by the company’s general manager “with concerns about the conduct of the director”, Mr Papas, on June 23.

Rothsay attended Forum’s office on June 25 to review documents, before reporting the situation to the Australian Securities and Investments Commission five days later.

“In our view we were not only misled but there was concealment by the company so that we would not become aware of the alleged fraudulent activities,” Mr Vrachas said.

He noted Rothsay often dealt with Forum via its accounts team and only met Mr Papas, his business partner Vincenzo Tesoriero, and company finance chief Tony Bouchahine, on rare occasions.

Mr Bouchahine, who has served as Forum chief financial officer since 2012, has reportedly been unreachable after going on stress leave around June 23.

Documents lodged by the Forum Group administrators Mackay Goodwin to the corporate regulator show despite being overseas Mr Papas dialled in to a meeting on June 24 with his lawyer Rocco Panetta, Mr Tesoriero, and administrator Domenic Calabretta.

“The meeting lasted for approximately one hour. Mr Calabretta also had a telephone discussion with Mr Papadimitriou for approximately five minutes,” the document said.

This was ahead of the formal appointment of Mackay Goodwin over the Forum Group on July 13.

The documents show conversations between Mr Calabretta and figures associated with Forum over several days. On July 8, Mr Calabretta also exchanged emails with Mr Papas.

That all came during a period where Westpac was trying to track down Mr Papas.

Court documents show Westpac’s complex investigations financial crime and fraud prevention manager Vince Damiano reported fraud against Westpac to NSW Police on June 30.

Mr Damiano’s affidavit shows he spoke to police on July 5 and was told: “Mr Papas is not onshore in Australia”.

On July 13, he was told by police: “Mr Papas is offshore”.

Court documents lodged by Societe Generale noted that shortly after three payments were made by the bank into the Forum Finance account, an “identical figure” was paid out into an account of Forum Group Financial Services.

The administrator’s investigations so far note it is unclear whether the latter entity operated as a business. It has cash in the bank of $570,142 and is the owner of two properties.

The Forum Group umbrella entity has cash of almost $3.1m and debtors totalling $4.7m, and stock estimated at $4.9m.