NSW Police push ahead with probe into Bill Papas and Forum Group

NSW Police’s Financial Crimes Squad is pushing ahead with a probe into Forum founder Bill Papas and $400m fraud allegations made by Westpac and other banks.

Forum Group CEO Bill Papas's racing Audi.

NSW Police’s Financial Crimes Squad is pushing ahead with a probe into Forum Group founder Bill Papas as Westpac and two other banks attempt to claw back funds lost in a $400m alleged fraud.

NSW Police referred the inquiries to the Financial Crimes Squad in late July after authorities were earlier alerted to allegations of fraudulent activity linked to equipment leases.

The financial crimes unit is understood to be stepping up its inquiries into Mr Papas’s affairs and the wide-ranging allegations by the three banks.

“In July this year, police received a report of an alleged multimillion-dollar fraud against a financial organisation,” a NSW Police spokeswoman said.

“Initial inquiries were conducted by North Shore Police Area Command before the matter was referred to the State Crime Command’s Financial Crimes Squad. Inquiries are continuing and no further information is available at this time.”

Westpac has reported its allegations to NSW Police, the banking regulator and the Australian Securities & Investments Commission as it pursues Forum and Mr Papas in the Federal Court.

The bank’s court action, lodged in late June, also names Forum director Vincenzo Tesoriero as a respondent. His and Mr Papas’s assets have been frozen.

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

Sources said Mr Papas, a Sydney soccer identity, was known to drive a Bentley and two Porsches, and the Bentley was often parked at Forum’s head office in North Sydney.

Roads and Maritime Services documents show he purchased the Bentley demonstration 2018 model in December last year.

Before Westpac’s legal ­action became public, Mr Papas was Sydney Olympic Football Club president.

Westpac is ramping up attempts to claw back about $294m in funds it says were allegedly defrauded by Forum and the duo, claiming signatures were forged and leases entered into for goods that didn’t exist. The bank has initiated court action in Australia and New Zealand.

Forum Finance director Bill Papas.

French bank Societe Generale and Japan’s SMBC Leasing and Finance have also separately lodged legal actions against Forum entities and Mr Papas, with the combined fraud alleged to amount to $400m.

Mr Papas has been in Greece since June. He failed to show up for a meeting in Perth in the middle of that month to meet management of WesTrac to explain alleged account irregularities.

He initially pledged to return to Australia before testing positive to Covid-19, and then requesting funds for a return plane ticket.

SMBC has in recent days lodged a statement of claim with the Federal Court outlining its allegations against two Forum entities and Mr Papas.

The document, similar to Westpac’s statement of claim, includes allegations of forged signatures and funds being moved between Forum entities.

“SMBC L&F’s loss and damage is the amount that it advanced to Flexirent pursuant to the 2018 MRASA (master receivables agreement) and the amount that it advanced to FEA (Forum Enviro Australia) pursuant to the 2020 MRASA (totalling $113,703,623.61) less the amounts it has received purportedly as payments from Veolia but which was in fact paid by FEA as part of the concealment of the scheme ($25,696,000) which leaves an outstanding loss of $88,007,623.61,” the document said.

“Mr Papas is liable to pay equitable compensation to SMBC L&F with respect to the losses occasioned by reason of the scheme.”

The statement of claim also identifies another loss of $11.3m by SMBC, which reflects that advanced to Flexirent minus funds purportedly paid from lease customer Veolia which were instead paid by Forum. That takes SMBC’s alleged losses to about $99.3m.

“Mr Papas, Mr Tesoriero, the Papas controlled entities and the jointly owned entities were receiving substantial payments traceable to the funds paid by SMBC L&F pursuant to the 2018 transaction documents and the 2020 transaction documents, which they had no legitimate basis to receive,” the document said.

SMBC highlights documents from 2018 and 2020 it says were not binding on the customer but allegedly “forged by Mr Papas or at Mr Papas’s direction and often falsely witnessed by Mr Papas”.