SA water broker denies falsifying trust authorisation

A South Australian water broker has denied falsifying a Central Irrigation Trust authorisation on an $82,000 temporary trade. See the details.

South Australia’s Central Irrigation Trust CEO says the authorisation water broker Bill Koufalas emailed to an irrigator “is not consistent with our records”.

Adelaide water broker Bill Koufalas has denied falsifying a Central Irrigation Trust authorisation on an $82,000 temporary trade to the winegrape growing Proud family, at Loxton.

Glenys Proud said her family paid Mr Koufalas $82,000 on February 5 for the water, but by early March had grown anxious when the 500-megalitre parcel had still not been transferred to their account.

“We needed to balance our account by the end of March, to avoid significant fines,” Mrs Proud said.

The family contacted Mr Koufalas on March 4, who Mrs Proud said reassured them the paperwork had been lodged in early February, emailing the family a copy of an authorisation signed by CIT water trading officer Jodie Clark and dated February 7.

Mrs Proud then contacted Ms Clark to verify the authorisation, but was told the signature on the document was not hers.

When Mrs Proud challenged Mr Koufalas on the validity of the authorisation, she said he admitted changing the date from the 27-2-2025 to the 7-2-2025, but not the signature.

The Weekly Times emailed a copy of the authorisation to CIT chief executive Greg McCarron asking if he could verify Ms Clarke’s signature on the authorisation.

Mr McCarron said “the CIT authorisation in the document you emailed to me is not consistent with our records”.

When contacted by The Weekly Times Mr Koufalas said “there was a clerical error in relation to the date.

“Unfortunately when I printed the CIT authorisation certain parts were faint and I traced over them before scanning them to email so it was readable. I must’ve missed the 2(two) due to the faintness.

“I did receive an authorisation from CIT for this trade and stating otherwise will be considered defamatory and will be treated as such going forward. I have attached the original electronic copy of the CIT (Authorisation) as well as the proof of payment from CIT.”

Closer examination of the documents shows it is not only the dates that differ between them.

The CIT original shows Ms Clark filled out the section of the authorisation detailing the reason for the trade as: “Standard Commercial”.

The same section on the copy Mr Koufalas emailed to the Prouds was left blank.

Ms Clark’s signature also differs markedly between the documents.

The Prouds finally received their 500ML on March 25.

Original Central Irrigation Trust authorisation - dated February 27.

Copy of Central Irrigation Trust authorisation Mr Koufalas emailed to the Proud family - dated February 2 and missing reason for trade information and differing signature.

It is not the first time irrigators have faced critical delays in deals with Mr Koufalas, whose Trading Water Australia firm operates under the slogan “Looking after you and your water”.

The Weekly Times has spoken to a Victorian irrigator 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.

In 2020 Mr Koufalas took six months to pay retired Murray River irrigators Trevor and Chris Hage $1.038 million on the sale of 150 megalitres in February of that year, but only after gaining a South Australian Supreme Court order to freeze $1.038m of Mr Koufalas’ assets.

At the time Mr Hage said that when it came to payment “he (Koufalas) had so many excuses, blaming “everything from COVID to computers not coping”.

In October 2019 Mr Koufalas was caught trying to speculate on the Victorian water market, offering $200,000 of Victorian entitlements without disclosing he owned the water.