DEECA and GMW refer SA water broker Bill Koufalas to ACCC

South Australian water broker Bill Koufalas’s inconsistent trading practices have been referred to the ACCC.

The Victorian Governmentand Goulburn Murray Water have referred South Australian water broker Bill Koufalas’ inconsistent trading to the ACCC.

The Victorian Government and Goulburn Murray Water have referred a major inconsistency in South Australian water broker Bill Koufalas trading to the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission.

An extract from the Victorian water registry staff’s letter to the ACCC states Mr Koufalas attempted to trade water from his account, when official records showed “his allocation account balance was zero and therefore the trade application was refused”.

“In an apparent attempt to demonstrate that his trade should be approved, Mr Koufalas submitted what appeared to be falsified evidence to GMW – a screenshot of his online ‘MyWater’ VWR account, which appeared to have been manipulated to falsely show that there was a sufficient balance in his allocation account.”

Mr Koufalas did not respond to a question on whether he submitted falsified evidence to GMW, as part of an $82,000 deal he brokered for the SA winegrape growing Proud family.

A government spokesman said the Department of Energy, Environment and Climate Action and GMW “have referred this matter to the ACCC as the appropriate regulatory body”.

Just last week Mr Koufalas denied falsifying a Central Irrigation Trust authorisation on the same deal.

He said “there was a clerical error in relation to the date” on the copy of the CIT authorisation he supplied to the Prouds, which he traced from the original.

The Weekly Times spoke to a Victorian irrigator earlier this month who said he was forced to threaten Mr Koufalas with legal action to gain payment on a large parcel of water he sold to federal government earlier this year.

Since then a NSW irrigator has emerged who says he has faced repeated delays on Mr Koufalas transferring the proceeds from the sale of 1000 megalitres of Coleambally allocation water.

The Weekly Times has previously reported on a case in 2019 where Mr Koufalas was caught selling $200,000 of his own water and another in 2020 where an irrigator only gained payment after obtaining a court order freezing $1m of his assets.

Mr Koufalas Trading Water Australia firm operates under the slogan “Looking after you and your water”.