Win for Banks Over Fugitive’s ‘Audacious’ $500 Million Fraud

Published on October 12, 2024

Disgraced entrepreneur and prominent soccer identity Bill Papas was on a plane to Greece soon after Westpac and two other banks discovered a more than half-billion-dollar fraudulent scheme. Associates from the Forum group of companies, which were headed by Papas, were left to clean up the mess he left after the firms used falsified equipment finance invoices to rip off the lenders. The fraud on Westpac, SMBC, and Societe Generale lasted from August 2018 until June 2021, when it was finally uncovered. The former Sydney Olympic chair and Xanthi Football Club (FC) owner left for Greece around this time. On Oct. 11, Federal Court Justice Elizabeth Cheeseman found an “audacious” fraud against the duped financiers had been comprehensively established....

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