Brett Lee paid $300k to push Indian scheme exposed as Ponzi scam

Australian cricketer Brett Lee was paid almost $300,000 to promote the Pearls Group that turned out to be a Ponzi scam.

Brett Lee in a Pearls ad.

Australian cricketer Brett Lee was paid almost $300,000 to promote the New Delhi-based Pearls Group that turned out to be a Ponzi scam which fleeced at least 50 million Indians of $10 billion, according to Indian police.

It can also be revealed Indian authorities will meet next Thursday and likely agree to request the ­Australian Federal Police freeze assets bought with more than $130 ­million the Pearls Group and its founder Nirmal Singh ­Bhangoo funnelled to ­Australia.

Those assets include the Gold Coast Sheraton Mirage Resort, which Pearls Australasia bought for $62m in 2009 and spent about $20m renovating.

The Pearls Ponzi scheme is India’s largest fraud case and many of the victims are poor Indians living in slums and villages.

A police source from the Indian Central Bureau of Investigation told The Australian yesterday that “1.4 crore rupees, 14,000,000 ­rupees” was sent by Pearls to a company called Insite Organisation in Sydney in 2011.

Neil Maxwell, who was until recently Lee’s manager, is a founding director of Insite (now called Hoatson Maxwell) and Lee’s brother, Shane, is a former company director.

Mr Maxwell confirmed the $300,000 payment yesterday, saying that he and Lee had been introduced to Pearls Group in India by Austrade.

“It was a referral from an ­Australian government body,” Mr Maxwell said. “If police want to discuss it I will talk with them.”

Mr Maxwell said he was no longer able to speak on behalf of Lee and the cricketer’s new ­manager, Jake Elder, said Lee had no comment to make regarding the Peals matter.

The source at India’s CBI said the agency had not yet contacted its counterparts in Australia to have Pearls assets in Australia ­frozen.

However, the meeting scheduled for next week, a committee headed by the former chief justice of India, RM Lodha, will meet to discuss what to do next. It will ­decide what directions are given to the CBI and to the corporate regulator, the Securities Exchange Board of India.

A source at SEBI said the Lodha committee could direct authorities to instigate a freeze of Pearls’ assets in Australia at this meeting.

The SEBI source said that, at present, “the investigations are ­focused in and around India”. ­Investigators have discovered that Pearls’ directors lived lavish life­styles and owned fleets of luxury cars such as “Rolls Royce, Porches, Bentleys and BMWs”.

Police have also discovered more than 66 office buildings in Delhi’s prestigious Connaught Place and hundreds of hectares of land held under shelf ­companies.

Last month, Bhangoo and three of his associates were jailed over the missing billions, ­sub­stantial amounts of which Indian authorities allege had been shifted offshore.

From late 2009, Nirmal Bhangoo, his son, two daughters and their husbands set up a string of business in Australia with Gold Coast property developers Paul Brinsmead and Peter Madrers, founding Pearls Australasia. It was through this group of companies the Gold Coast Sheraton Mirage, once owned by the late fugitive Christopher Skase, was purchased, with funds from Pearls Group in India.

Mr Brinsmead and Mr ­Madrers were introduced to Pearls Group India executives by a personal friend who worked as an Austrade executive in India.

They have previously said they were unaware of the alleged­ ­illegalities with Pearls Group in India.

Austrade has been contacted for comment and is understood to be looking into the matter.

Regarding his Pearls affiliation, in 2010, at a press conference, Lee reportedly said: “As a brand ­ambassador, I want to be assoc­iated with the best.

“This association has not ­happened overnight, and I have made sure that I am aligned with a company, which is the best.

“It’s not about only being a brand ambassador, but I am proud to be a family member of Pearls Group.

“I feel every person is being touched by Pearls around the world.

“I certainly believe that Pearls is the best.”

There is no suggestion that Lee knew Pearls was running a Ponzi scam at the time he signed on as a “brand ambassador”.

Lee has made no public statement since the story broke.

The Australian had reported that on the website Brett-Lee.net Pearls was listed as one of the companies Lee was endorsing.

However, it appears that ­brettlee.com.au is his official website and Pearls is no longer ­endorsed on this site.