Tycoon at the center of allegations never seen since mid-June

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The potential fraud was linked to a portfolio of equipment rentals with Westpac customers which were arranged by Forum and referred to Westpacs institutional bank.

Although lawsuits in Federal Court have been brought against Forum Finance, the sole director of the company, Basile Papadimitriou, also known as Bill Papas, is also named as the respondent. Vince Tesoriero was added as a third defendant in the Westpac proceedings on Friday.

In late May 2021, via a routine call with WesTrac, Westpac identified an anomaly with a leasing loan on behalf of the company owned by the Seven Group.

WesTrac, owned by the Seven Group, told the Australian Financial Review on Friday that it was informed that funds had been obtained from a loan facility on its behalf with Westpac,

WesTrac has no record of accessing the funds and informed the bank accordingly, the spokesperson said.

The bank said on June 10 it identified equipment contracts, supplied to Westpac, between Forum Finance and WestTrac worth around $ 9 million, the veracity of which was questionable.

Mr. Basil Papadimitriou in one of his last communications with Westpac provided an explanation which, upon investigation, may be considered false.

Spurred on by the WesTrac anomaly, Westpac opened investigations into six other clients who apparently had contracts with Forum for which the bank had funded the company.

Between June 15 and June 27, four of the seven clients told Westpac that none (or almost one) of the contract documents provided to them by Westpac appeared genuine and that the underlying assets allegedly funded did not exist. .

Three clients are continuing their investigations.

Westpac said the Forum’s energy and waste management company Veolia had entered into more than $ 200 million facilities that were funded by the bank.

That is, Westpac advanced around $ 211 million in equipment financing transactions, in which Veolia was represented as the borrower.

Veolia has informed Westpac that it has not requested or obtained this financing, that the documents provided to it are forged and that it has not made payments to Westpac as required, state court documents from the bank.

Veolia is the only customer supposed to be at the origin of the 9 million dollars of receivables bought by Societe Generale, between March and May 2021.

The funds were to buy waste digesters which the French bank now claims do not exist because it is separately pursuing a fraud action in the Federal Court against Forum and Mr Papas.

Westpac paid more than $ 254.5 million1 to Forum Finance in Australia under equipment contracts with the seven clients: the bulk of these have now been identified by the affected client as fake.

Westpac said the results of its investigations revealed 100 different contracts involving the seven clients and the Forum.

The limit on the loan facilities is $ 287 million, of which $ 254.5 million remains owed to Westpac.

Neither Mr. Papas nor Forum responded to requests for comment or filed a defense in this case. A case management hearing is scheduled for Friday July 9

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