Forum Finance boss Bill Papas’s assistant named in Forum court action

Forum Finance founder Bill Papas’s executive assistant has been named in court action against the company and her boss.

Forum Finance founder Bill Papas.

Forum Finance founder Bill Papas’s executive assistant is caught up in court action against the company and her boss, with French bank Societe Generale alleging she may have knowingly submitted fraudulent documents.

Societe Generale’s statement of claim outlines allegations of deceit and false signatures and puts the bank’s outstanding balance or contract loss at $10.3m in the civil Federal Court case. The claim is part of $400m being sought by three banks, including Westpac, from Forum amid allegations of fraud.

The allegations come as liquidators of about 24 Forum entities, McGrathNicol, are understood to be seeking to sell hundreds of waste digester machines, with bids due this week. Those machines sat within the Iugis entity, and break down food waste into water.

Societe Generale’s statement of claim unpicks the bank’s allegations against respondents to the case, being two Forum entities and Mr Papas.

“Mr Papas or Ms (Eloise) Orlandini (with Mr Papas’s knowledge and/or direction) would submit the fraudulent documents to EQWE knowing and intending that:

“EQWE would deliver the fraudulent documents to SG (Societe Generale); (ii) the fraudulent documents would represent to SG that the proposed transactions were legitimate and in accordance with the terms of the master agreement (when they in fact were not),” the statement of claim said.

Ms Orlandini is not a respondent in the Societe Generale case against Forum, but is named in the bank’s statement of claim.

The bank also said the transaction documents concealed “the existence of the scheme” and relied on it to “be induced by the fraudulent documents” to make payments to Forum.

Mr Papas and Ms Orlandini did not respond to requests for comment on Tuesday.

Ms Orlandini joined Forum as facilities manager in July last year, before moving to the role of executive assistant to the chief executive, a position she held between December 2020 and July 2021.

Societe Generale is one of three banks pursuing Forum and Mr Papas in court. Westpac has lodged the largest fraud case against the respondents spanning transactions over at least four years, and Japan’s SMBC Leasing and Finance also has a civil action underway.

In total, claimed losses from alleged fraudulent equipment leases and forged contracts amount to about $400m across the three banks.

Societe Generale has been claiming a sum of about $8.7m, as well as compensation, interest, damages and costs. An amended originating application, submitted to the court, said as well as the aforementioned requests the bank was seeking “any traceable property acquired by it (Forum Finance) or any entity that it controls using those funds”.

The document highlights money paid by Societe Generale over three transactions in March and May of this year, relating to finance agreements for equipment leases.

The bank alleges in its statement of claim the products being leased “did not exist”, it accuses Mr Papas, Forum Finance and another entity Forum Group Financial Services of “the tort of conspiracy by unlawful means”.

Societe Generale is one of three banks pursuing Forum and its founder Bill Papas in court. Picture: AFP

Societe Generale also claims Mr Papas “made a false or misleading representation” regarding the products and equipment leases.

“The dishonest and fraudulent purpose of Mr Papas and Forum Finance in devising and implementing the scheme was to benefit themselves and people and entities related to them, to the detriment of SG,” the documents said.

On the sale of waste machines, sources said the liquidator was seeking to sell about 300 that were within the premises of customers and a similar number being housed in a Sydney warehouse.

Untangling the complicated web of Forum entities comes as the Financial Crimes Squad forges ahead with a probe into Mr Papas and the alleged fraud, while he is in Greece. The Financial Crimes Squad was referred the matter last month from NSW Police.

Last week, affidavits by Mr Papas and fellow Forum director Vincenzo Tesoriero were made public, revealing an empire of fast cars, houses and business interests spanning the globe.

Westpac and the two other banks are seeking to trace the trail of money within Forum entities, as they battle to retrieve funds.

Westpac is expected to lodge an expanded statement of claim on Wednesday.

Last month, leases for printers and photocopiers and some staff sitting within the Forum Group were sold to technology firm Our Kloud, which is led by Mr Papas’s cousin Eric Constantinidis.

The decision has had ramifications as the buyer sought to lock in customers and other firms severed ties with Our Kloud.

A Konica Minolta Business Solutions Australia spokeswoman said after the Forum customer lists were sold to Our Kloud it had ceased accepting any orders for goods and services from the entities.

“Konica Minolta also has no commercial involvement with Our Kloud. At this time, Konica Minolta has no plans to appoint a new distributor for the DEVELOP range of multifunction printers in Australia, which is owned by its parent Konica Minolta, Inc,” she said.

"Service for the DEVELOP range is available through Konica Minolta directly or through anyofits authorised service providers. We encourage any DEVELOP customers that are uncertain about their support arrangements to contact Konica Minolta."

The printer company was listed as a creditor to Forum, and says it is owed more than $800,000.

The Rozelle residence of Forum Finance director Bill Papas.

Rothsay, which audited Forum for years, cut ties with Forum in the wake of Westpac’s fraud allegations.

However, the business has signalled it is willing to re-engage with the reborn Forum group acquired by Our Kloud.

Mr Constantinidis, who raced Audis with Mr Papas, bought the business from administrators Mackay Goodwin in a move that retained 72 jobs in the company.

Forum is understood to have been a significant Our Kloud customer.

Our Kloud also provides servers to Rothsay, which in turn audits Our Kloud and has provided tax services to its owner Mr Constantinidis for 20 years.

Rothsay principal Frank Vrachas said “provided there are no ethical or legal issues” he would retain a relationship with Our Kloud.

“They will be under the threshold for a statutory audit,” he said.

“Please note that we stopped working with the former Forum Group and any private work for Bill Papas as soon as we became aware of the fraud allegations.”