Westpac widens document chase in $294m Forum Finance fraud claim

Westpac has widened its actions against Forum Finance and boss Bill Papas by targeting a suite of linked corporate entities.

Forum Finance boss Bill Papas.

Westpac has widened its actions against Forum Finance and boss Bill Papas by targeting a suite of linked corporate entities, as investigations into an alleged $294m fraud grow.

The Federal Court ordered on Monday that National Australia Bank and four Forum Group companies, including Forum Enviro and Forum Group Financial Services, hand over documents to the court by Wednesday.

The orders require a copy of the most recent audited or unaudited financial statements and management accounts of four Forum Group companies.

They also call for a copy of bank account statements and debtors ledgers from the four companies from August 1, 2018 to now.

Court documents show two plastic tubs of documents were removed from equipment leasing firm Forum Finance’s Walker Street office in North Sydney, as part of a search order.

Those same documents reveal attempts by Westpac to gain access to the inner workings of Forum Finance were blocked by delays from the holders of the company’s computer servers.

An annexed email from Corrs Chambers Westgarth partner Felicity Healy shows when she attended Forum Finance’s offices on June 29 she was told OurKloud, the holders of company records, was controlled by a relative of Mr Papas.

Annexed emails show the bank’s technical experts had been seeking to access the electronic records on June 30.

But subsequent calls on July 1, 2, 5 and 6 all went unanswered. Justice Lee ordered OurKloud to hand over the records on July 7.

Mr Papas, whose full name is Basile Papadimitriou, was the president of Sydney Olympic Football Club until the fraud action became public early this month and last year bought Greek soccer team Xanthi FC.

Westpac Australia’s exposure to the alleged fraud is pegged at $254.5m, while the bank’s New Zealand arm is also exposed to the tune of $39.8m ($NZ42.8m).

The difficulty in Westpac accessing Forum Finance’s documents comes as the firm is yet to file a defence to actions lodged against it, nor provide a reconciliation of assets and liabilities after missing two earlier court deadlines.

Westpac sought to freeze Forum Finance and Mr Papas’s assets.

Mr Papas had also been ordered to hand over an affidavit of his assets, something his representative Rocco Panetta had noted “may, or may not, tend to incriminate him”.

Late on Sunday night Forum Finance filed another document to the court showing it had again changed legal representation.

Forum Finance was placed into liquidation on Friday after Westpac succeeded in getting McGrathNichol partners Jason Ireland and Jason Preston appointed.

However, the location of Mr Papas, is proving puzzling with no sign of the Greek-Australian in the country since mid-June nor word from those close to him that he has returned from Europe.

Mr Papas was due to return to Australia on Saturday from Athens, according to statements to the Federal Court by Mr Panetta.

Mr Panetta had told the court Mr Papas had told him – via screenshots of his itinerary – that he would fly out of Athens to Sydney via Dubai on a Japan Airways flight.

“He’s made a decision to attend to these serious allegations against him personally and to the company. He told us he’d come back.”

However, there were no Japan Airways flights landing in Australia on Saturday.

Mr Panetta had told the court Mr Papas’s girlfriend had booked his flights.

However, when the Australian visited Mr Papas’s girlfriend in West Ryde on Monday she declined to comment.

Justice Michael Lee on Friday noted the questions regarding Mr Papas’s flights.

“It may be that Mr Papas returns to Australia tomorrow (Saturday), although at present that is not entirely clear,” he said.

The Australian was unable to determine if Mr Papas was in quarantine in NSW, with police declining to comment.

However, police did reveal they had acted on the reports against Forum Finance.

“Investigators have commenced assessing the information received and inquiries are continuing,” a NSW Police spokesman said.

EQWE head Luke Price reported the allegations of fraud to North Sydney Police Station on June 24 after inconsistencies in accounts were highlighted by internal investigations.

When news of the alleged fraud broke on July 2 Westpac said it also reported the matters to NSW Police, and relevant regulators.

An Australian Prudential Regulation Authority spokesman on Monday said the agency was monitoring the Westpac action against Forum, while an Australian Securities and Investments Commission spokesman declined to comment.

Mr Papas’s location had frustrated earlier attempts to make headway into the investigations around Forum Finance, and alleged discrepancies in customer accounts.

He failed to show up for a June 15 meeting in Perth where he was due to explain to representatives the alleged almost $9m discrepancy in the lease loans held in the name of WesTrac.