The accountant, the bikie boss, and the cat and dog hotel
Insolvency adviser Wayne Fraser has a unique method of resolving disputes over money: he calls in his ‘good friend’ Jason Fahey, one of the most feared Hells Angels bikies in Sydney.
Insolvency adviser Wayne Fraser has a particularly effective method for fending off disputes with people who claim he owes them money: he calls in his “good friend, Jason”.
The Jason in question is Jason “Ace” Fahey, one of Sydney’s most-feared bikies.
The South African-born Fraser is at the centre of a series of phoenix-like operations revealed by The Australian, in which a mystery caravan park resident with no assets became owner of more than 20 companies that went on to be liquidated owing creditors money.
In another case, a Sydney shopkeeper who had used Fraser as her financial adviser discovered she’d become a director or owner of more than 20 companies, including a large aviation operation in Broome.
The Australian Securities & Investments Commission is now investigating those schemes, but Fraser is also involved in many disputes with former business partners, some alleging he has intimidated them with threats of violence.
The Sydney-based accountant and insolvency adviser claims he has “no association” with bikies, but former colleagues told The Australian they were threatened by Fahey at Fraser’s behest.
A former national president of the Bandidos, Fahey last year controversially “patched over” to the Hells Angels, joining the world’s largest bikie gang as it moves to aggressively expand its operations in Sydney.
Fahey’s Sydney home was raided in June last year by Raptor Squad police officers targeting bikie gangs, but he was not charged. His most recent scrap with the law was in March in what police allege was a planned road-rage incident.
In court documents obtained by The Daily Telegraph, police say the 43-year-old bikie used a stolen Porsche SUV to deliberately rear-end the vehicle of his alleged victim at Brighton-Le-Sands.
Fahey then allegedly jumped out and exchanged details with the man – acting as if the crash was a genuine accident – before two of his associates got out of the Porsche and demanded $200,000.
The 50-year-old alleged victim protested that he didn’t owe anyone any money and told police he feared Fahey and his associates were going to kill him.
One of those associates hit the man in the face with a hammer, police allege, while Fahey punched him several times before fleeing the scene.
Fahey was later charged with assault and demanding money with menace, and refused bail. So, when Sydney investment director Marcello Pinto got a message from Fraser to “talk to my friend, Jason” to resolve a business dispute, he was alarmed.
“My good friend, Jason, has called you twice today to arrange a meeting to resolve this,” Fraser wrote ominously. “Please talk to my friend. We want this resolved.”
It is unclear what mediation skills Fahey was expected to bring to a complex dispute that would later take a NSW Supreme Court judge several pages of analysis to unravel – and not in Fraser’s favour. Pinto had become involved with Fraser over a “business opportunity” to run a cat and dog boarding facility at Fraser’s large Dural property, with Sydney businessman Rodney Adler and his wife, Lynda, as the third parties to the deal.
Fraser had run a pet facility for many years but, according to Pinto, wanted to stay out of the limelight because he had “a bad reputation in the kennel-boarding industry”.
In 2015, Fraser was fined $2500 for failing to provide veterinary treatment for an animal in his care at what was then known as Acacia Grove Canine Lodge. The owner of a German shepherd had complained that she found her pet seriously ill from consistent neglect when she collected her after a two-week stay.
A vet’s report submitted to the court said the dog had lost more than 8kg, had an ulcerated tongue with a 12cm lesion, was dehydrated and had serious wounds on her elbows and rear legs.
Fraser denied the neglect, telling The Daily Telegraph at the time: “The judgment was a very disappointing result in relation to one dog’s unfortunate illness without any recognition of the thousands of dogs that have been exceptionally cared for over many years.”
Pinto’s plan was to rebrand the new facility as the Cat and Dog Hotel, with he and his business partner fronting the business.
But when Fraser opted out of the deal, a dispute arose about rent and an agreement over ownership of the property. Pinto and his business partner paid Fraser $250,000 to acquire an interest in the property.
Fraser took a CBA loan on the property and agreed to accept $11,000 each month from Adler and the others to manage the mortgage repayments. But within a few months, Fraser began claiming that he was owed $16,500 each month. He issued a statutory demand for more than $100,000 he claimed was owed in rent on the property but emails clearly showed him referring to monthly payments of $11,000 and not $16,500.
In the Supreme Court, Justice Ashley Black threw out the claim and awarded costs against Fraser, assessed at more than $48,000.
Pinto says those costs have not been paid and that he is still seeking the $250,000 he is owed by Fraser. Adler, who swore an affidavit supporting Pinto’s evidence that there was never any discussion about paying the rent claimed by Fraser, declined to speak to The Australian. When the dispute got ugly, Fraser called in Fahey in what Pinto says was “an attempt to intimidate me and harass me”.
In September 2022, the high-profile bikie called and told him: “Wayne Fraser has paid me to collect a debt from you. I don’t want there to be a problem.”
Pinto says he told Fahey there was no money owing to Fraser, but kept receiving calls from Fahey demanding the money allegedly owed. Pinto eventually reported the threats to police.
‘Hell on earth’
Pinto says his dealings with Fraser have been “hell on earth … it’s just an absolute nightmare”.
Like others who have demanded their money back, Pinto was accused of being “too aggressive” when he complained – except this time Fraser took out an apprehended violence against him.
“When I confronted him about (the money), he said I was threatening him, being aggressive, which is just nonsense,” Pinto said.
“And then he sought an AVO against me. It’s just incredible the shit that I’ve gone through with this guy.”
Pinto discovered it was likely to cost him $20,000 in legal fees to fight the AVO and didn’t contest it because he had no intention of being violent towards Fraser. Fraser told The Australian he had “no association with any bikie, and any such allegation is false”.
“And if you mention any bikie names in the article, you are intentionally fuelling a fire and trying to promote criminal retaliation, and you will be responsible for the consequences,” he said.
Fraser claimed he had asked for the AVO because Pinto had “threatened to kill” his six-year- old son – an allegation Pinto said was “absurd”.
“It’s all just nonsense. I’ve got no criminal record. I’ve never done anything to anyone. Why would I randomly threaten the guy?” he said.
In a text message, Fraser said he needed a week to answer the questions put to him by The Australian. He repeated he had “no association with any bikie but my legal advise (sic) is bikies will not be happy about publication and AFP (Australian Federal Police) need to be consulted”.
But Pinto isn’t the only person who claims to have been threatened by Fahey on behalf of Fraser.
Physically intimidating
A Sydney private lender and former navy officer, who worked on the same office floor as Fraser, mentioned to him that he was having trouble recovering an outstanding debt.
“Wayne then stated that he could help me and assured me that he was a certified liquidator and debt insolvency specialist,” said the lender, who asked not be identified for fear of retribution.
“He said he could get started on this immediately and that if made a payment of $11,000 to his company, Maxum Enterprises, he would be able to sort it out.
Fraser had agreed that he would “guarantee to return your $11,000 in the event I cannot make a recovery”.
“It was a gentlemen’s agreement, a handshake, but I sent him a confirmation email so I had something in writing,” the lender said.
He paid Fraser the money.
“After a month, it was apparent that no work had been done. I asked Wayne for a refund and emailed and called him and his office. He said that ‘nothing had been agreed to and nothing was put in writing’.”
When the lender continued to raise the issue, Fraser had become threatening and aggressive and invited Fahey to the office to help settle the dispute.
“So, Jason and his associate – a very, very large man – and Wayne came in and cornered me in my office and proceeded to tell me that no refund would be granted and that I was causing trouble,” the lender said.
“They were threatening and intimidating towards me, and at one point during the conversation Jason came round to my side of the desk, while I was sitting down, and was putting his face in mine.
“I was fearful for my wellbeing as they were physically intimidating and verbally intimidating, and it was clear that Wayne had an extensive relationship with them.
“I explained that I had evidence of the transactions and that I would pursue Maxum Investments legally. That’s when Jason and his associate blew up in anger, saying ‘That’s not how things are done’. They were swearing and yelling as they left.
“They said any complaint I made would ‘have consequences’.”
The lender, who served in the navy for 12 years, said he didn’t scare easily – but had dropped any thought of legal action.
“I don’t want trouble with bikies,” he said. “I just want to stop Wayne from operating like this and threatening and intimidating people in the future.”
Of the many people who say they are owed money by Wayne Fraser, the most upset are those who believed he was a friend.
‘A kick in the guts’
A Sydney businessman, who asked to remain anonymous, met Fraser through a business club several years ago and developed what he thought was a close relationship.
“We’d catch up for coffee and drinks. I’d been to dinner with him and his wife, and on his superyacht a number of times, so we actually became mates,” he said.
“I was often thinking ‘How can he afford a boat that probably costs $10,000 or $20,000 a month to run – how does that work?’.”
Over a drink at Hemmesphere restaurant in the Sydney CBD in June 2020, Fraser had offered him an “amazing investment deal” – a short-term commercial loan backed by equity in real estate.
He said Fraser told him: “I have put hundreds of thousands of my own personal money in this deal. Essentially, you’ll be backing me – it’s the best deal I’ve seen in years.”
“I’m quite a trusting person and maybe a bit too naive at times. Also, I’d known him for so long,” the businessman said.
He paid $40,000 to Maxum Capital, with the loan repayable within three months.
When his own business hit a bad patch nine months later, he asked for his money. Fraser returned only $20,000 at the one-year mark – without any of the agreed interest.
The businessman sent Fraser a letter of demand in April last year seeking the balance, but more than a year later his pleas have been ignored.
In a text response, Fraser said the investment “was still active and any suggestion that I have the money is false and defamatory. It was invested in an unrelated party and still is”.
Fraser’s former friend accepts it’s unlikely he’ll get his money back. What hurts him more is that the man he’d thought of as a mate knew he needed the money when he asked for it back: “It was like a kick in the guts when I was down”.
If you know more: rices@theaustralian.com.au
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