Westpac wins fight against ‘audacious’ Forum Finance fraud led by Bill Papas and Vincenzo Tesoriero

A court has found four key figures linked to a former Sydney equipment financing business engaged in Australia’s largest ever bank fraud, writing more than $500m in fake leases.

Vincenzo Tesoriero, left, with his lawyer outside Sydney Federal Court last year. Picture: Jane Dempster

A court has found four key figures linked to a former Sydney equipment financing business engaged in Australia’s largest ever bank fraud, writing more than $500m in fake leases.

The Federal Court found on Friday former Forum Group boss Bill Papas and his business partner Vincenzo Tesoriero had concocted an “audacious fraud” using fake loans, borrowing millions from a trio of banks on the basis of falsified equipment leases in a bid to fund a lavish lifestyle and multiple property purchases.

Justice Elizabeth Cheeseman found Papas was the “principal” mastermind of the fraud. She said it was less clear whether Tesoriero had also engineered the scheme but the Melbourne man had obviously benefited from the fraud and knew the funds were ill-­gotten.

The court also found Papas’s girlfriend Louise Agostino had assisted him in the fraud and both benefited directly, banking hundreds of thousands of dollars, as well enjoying lavish trips overseas and other benefits.

Forum Group’s former financial controller Tony Bouchahine was also identified as a key participant in the fraud, with Justice Cheeseman finding the Sydney accountant was critical to a convoluted flow of cash from company accounts that ultimately funded Papas and Tesoriero’s lifestyles.

The finding opens the door to the NSW Fraud Squad, which has been investigating the Forum fraud. An international arrest warrant for Papas has been issued after he failed to return to Australia to face the court.

Members of the NSW Fraud Squad have closely followed the court hearings, often sitting in the back of the courtroom, diligently taking notes on the marathon case which has dragged on over three years with almost 138 court appearances and actions.

Forum Finance director Bill Papas pictured in 2021 in Thessaloniki, Greece.

The massive fraud – the biggest ever to be perpetrated on an Australian bank, Westpac, and also involving two international rivals – would not have been discovered without the chance finding by WesTrac, which queried a discrepancy between its records of a $1.6m printer lease and Westpac’s $12m credit facility in its name.

The WesTrac query led to the discovery of a country-wide fraud affecting some of the biggest names in Australian business, including Coles, Woolworths and HWL Ebsworth, perpetrated through thousands of faked signatures from Papas.

The scandal sparked an investigation within Westpac, which bankrolled Forum’s sprawling rental business. The bank quickly discovered fake invoices for equipment worth more than $290m.

Japanese lender Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation and bank Societe Generale were both drawn into the scandal after discovering their dealings with Forum and Papas had also been on the basis of a bundle of faked leases.

Sources suggest the trio of lenders are unlikely to recover much of the nearly $400m outstanding from the Forum group loans, with much of the money spent on fast cars, boats, luxury houses and a lavish lifestyle by Papas and­ ­Tesoriero.

Some have suggested just $50m will be repatriated to the lenders, with several key luxury items still unable to be tracked down including a 2018 Lamborghini Huracan Spyder purchased by Tesoriero, who claims he “lost it”.

Papas has failed to return to Australia since fleeing the country in 2021 in the depths of the pandemic, after securing a letter from Forum Group executive Craig Rollinson warning he had to attend to business outside the confines of Australia’s strict Covid-19 border controls. Westpac has pursued the Greek-Australian businessman’s assets, including his ownership of a Greek Superleague 2 football team Xanthi FC, which Papas purchased with almost $15m in 2020.

The bank’s agents seized control of the team and its stadium from Papas.

The massive fraud against Westpac and two international banks was discovered by chance. Picture: Getty Images

Papas continues to live in Greece and was recently photographed by tourists at a beachside club in the ritzy Athenian suburb of Glyfada.

The coastal community, on the Attica peninsula, has proven a magnet for Australians, including John Macris who was shot dead in Glyfada in 2019.

Another Australian was nearly killed in a car bombing in Glyfada in the same year.

Tesoriero, Papas’s business partner who was at times so close to the salesman he told him he loved him like a brother, faces the loss of what little assets he has left. Liquidators McGrathNicol have spent years collecting assets assembled by Tesoriero on the back of the Forum fraud funds, including a string of 50 petrol stations, multiple commercial and residential properties, cars, boats, jet skis, caravans, and holiday homes. Tesoriero attempted to stop the sale of his family’s $9.25m double-block four-level home in Hawthorn, but was removed by the sheriffs.

Sources close to the deal report Tesoriero damaged the property after he was thrown out, removing chandeliers.

Vincenzo Tesoriero pictured in 2022 with his girlfriend Sam Ashleigh.

Justice Cheeseman found Tesoriero was “both an unsatisfactory and unimpressive witness” who tried to argue the money he banked from the fraud was a dividend from his investments in the Forum Group or a loan.

“Mr Tesoriero displayed a lack of candour. His interactions with counsel cross-examining were often snide as he sought to evade answering direct questions or quibbled to no purpose with the cross-examiner’s choice of words,” she said. Justice Cheeseman said Papas, who styled himself as Leonardo DiCaprio in The Great Gatsby in emails to staff, was a “dominant personality”, presenting as “charismatic, persuasive and confident” to customers and investors alike.

The court found Papas had concocted the scheme to defraud Westpac in a notebook, creating a diagram detailing plans to flee the country if discovered and noting: “Tell Vince everything you need to tell him.”

Justice Cheeseman found Westpac could not show Papas told Tesoriero “everything” but the Melbourne man knew about the fraud, given his connections to an earlier deal to refinance other lenders who had grown suspicious of Forum Group transactions. Non-bank lender MAIA Financial had originally bankrolled Forum, including an earlier allegedly fake loan scheme, before being replaced as lenders by Westpac after confronting Papas and Tesoriero over $58m in questionable loans.

Originally published as Westpac wins fight against ‘audacious’ Forum Finance fraud led by Bill Papas and Vincenzo Tesoriero