This article is from the Australian Property Journal archive
FORMER KPMG advisor and property developer Demetrios “James” Charisiou has been sentenced to jail for up to 12 years after committing a “breathtaking” National Disability Insurance Scheme scam.
In 2019, Charisiou conned two Korean firms, JB Asset Management and KB Securities, into providing nearly $395 million in credit to his company LBA Capital on behalf of pension funds, after claiming the funds were being invested in Melbourne NDIS properties.
However, in reality these properties were not purchases and the funds were left accounts and used in part by Charisiou to pay off his mortgages.
Charisiou has pled guilty to two counts of using false documents and two counts of obtaining financial advantage by deception, after meeting with representatives of the Korea-based companies in Melbourne and faking documents to secure the fraudulent funds.
Of the almost $395 million, around $38 million was the subject of charges against him, with the later transaction not proved by the prosecutors.
The Korean investors discovered the fraud in August 2019, leading Charisiou to pay back $245 million of the funds and a further $91 million the next month, with $360 million of the total sum now returned.
The Korean firms have now entered a civil case in the Victorian Supreme Court to see the outstanding sum of around $50 million returned, including funds that Charisiou spent on around 28 properties and the money used to pay his own mortgage off.
Victorian Supreme Court judge John Champion has sentenced Charisiou to 12 years in jail with a non-parole period of eight years, which he has already served more than 190 days of.
“To your own folly, you have lost much that underpinned your way of life. The scale of your fraudulent activity was breathtaking, however must be kept in perspective,” said Justice Champion.
“The victim companies were taken advantage of and misled. The documents that they were presented with looked legitimate. You kept up the charade for months.”
