A former contractor to and promoter of Courtenay Home investments has been sentenced to 2 years’ imprisonment and was ordered to finish 120 hours of neighborhood service for his function within the unlicensed monetary providers enterprise.
Athan Papoulias, of Brighton Le Sands, NSW, will serve his jail time period by the use of an intensive corrections, after pleading responsible to 1 cost of carrying on an unlicensed monetary providers enterprise, reckless in regards to the enterprise not having the required license, and one cost of dealing within the proceeds of crime price $100,000 or extra, reckless as to it being derived from working an unlicensed monetary providers enterprise.
Papoulias engaged within the criminality from Nov. 2, 2016 to April 21, 2017, pocketing a complete of $670,860 in commissions from selling investments in Courtenay Home.
In Could 2017, liquidators have been appointed to the Courtenay Home firms and the director, Tony Iervasi, was restricted from leaving Australia. On Nov. 8, 2022, Iervasi pleaded responsible to 5 prison costs, 4 of which included participating in dishonest conduct from Dec. 13, 2010 to April 21, 2017 in relation to $180 million raised by the Courtenay Home firms from round 585 buyers.
“The Courtenay Home firms represented to buyers that their funds can be traded within the Foreign exchange and Futures markets when solely a small proportion of funds have been traded,” ASIC stated. “As a substitute, a Ponzi scheme was being run, with month-to-month quantities paid to buyers from the capital invested by different buyers, with Courtenay Home falsely representing that these quantities have been returns from buying and selling. Mr Papoulias was not conscious that the funds have been used to gasoline a Ponzi scheme.”
Sarah Court docket, ASIC deputy chair, the company watchdog has taken civil motion to freeze belongings, assisted liquidators, and is now seeing justice for buyers by means of the prison court docket.
“To make sure a good and robust monetary system, and to guard customers, monetary providers companies have to be licenced,” Court docket stated. “These selling unlicenced companies shouldn’t assume they’re immune from prison penalties.”
Choose Michael McHugh stated Papoulias’ actions had undermined public confidence within the regulatory regime of the monetary providers trade. McHugh additionally took into consideration Papoulias’ responsible plea.
The matter was prosecuted by the Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions after an investigation and referral by ASIC.