‘I was shocked’: Forum’s last man standing Vince Tesoriero

Forum Finance helped fund a multimillion-dollar lifestyle for one of its principals, Vince Tesoriero, but he claims to have had no knowledge of the alleged fraud underpinning his lavish spending on race horses, fast cars and private jets.

Westpac’s barrister, top silk Jeremy Soljar, SC, laid out the bank’s claim that, while Forum Finance founder and alleged fraudster Bill Papas was the orchestrator of the scheme, Tesoriero was a key player.

Vince  Tesoriero leaving the Federal Court, Sydney, this week.
Vince Tesoriero leaving the Federal Court, Sydney, this week.Credit:Rhett Wyman

The dealings involving Tesoriero and Papas are at the heart of Westpac’s legal action in the Federal Court accusing Papas of orchestrating one of the biggest frauds in Australian history — allegedly swindling more than $500 million from the Australian bank and the local branches of two global lenders, Sumitomo and Societe Generale.

Papas remains unrepresented in the case and is yet to file a defence to the allegations, which means Tesoriero is the most central figure to the alleged scheme to appear before the court.

Tesoriero, the business partner Papas, was a director of key Forum entities, which was made up of more than a dozen companies. Tesoriero received regular updates on the payments being made by the business, which brokered equipment finance deals for corporate customers such as Westfield owner Scentre.

Tesoriero allegedly instructed Forum executives to make payments towards various expenses including “a whole cavalcade of luxury items” as detailed in more than 500 pages of transactions presented to the court.

‘As we’ve seen, Mr Tesoriero lived extravagantly, lived in a luxury home, leased racing cars and other luxury cars.’

Jeremy Soljar, SC

“As we’ve seen, Mr Tesoriero lived extravagantly, lived in a luxury home, leased racing cars and other luxury cars,” Soljar told the court.

“It was sufficient to indicate to any honest and reasonable person in that position that something inappropriate was going on.”

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There was no doubting Tesoriero’s awareness of the flood of cash being harvested from what should have been a modest office equipment finance group.

The court heard how, in October 2019, a payment of $200,000 was made to Tesoriero with reference to a farm. The farm popped up in an email to Papas the following year when Tesoriero proposed a trip to Perth on a private jet.

“You’re suggesting a weekend in Perth, ‘Go check out our farm and our gold mine’,” Soljar told the court with reference to the email.

Tesoriero agreed.

“So by this stage, you’re really just – fair to say – helping yourself to as much money as you can take out of those companies. That right?”

“It was just in jest, Mr Soljar, and the gold mine never went ahead, and the farm never went ahead,” Tesoriero replied.

What did go ahead was millions of dollars spent by Forum entities, at Tesoriero’s behest. This included a race horse called Bartender Blues, various properties and luxury cars – including a $239,000 Mustang Big Boy for Tesoriero’s girlfriend.

Vince Tesoriero was driving the Forum Finance-sponsored Audi when it crashed out at Phillip Island in 2018.
Vince Tesoriero was driving the Forum Finance-sponsored Audi when it crashed out at Phillip Island in 2018.

“Payment made today,” Forum finance executives replied to Tesoriero in response to a request he had made that very morning to pay for the Mustang.

Tesoriero denied that this demonstrated he had complete freedom to order Forum executives to pay anything he wished.

He told the court that Papas first had to agree to these transactions.

“It wasn’t just a free-for-all,” Tesoriero told the court.

“The process would be that I would speak to Mr Papas, and then he would say to email Tony [Bouchahine] or Mr [Brandon] Chin after he’d spoken to them.”

Bouchahine was Forum’s chief financial officer and Chin an offsider.

Tesoriero regularly received spreadsheets tracking payments across the group, but said he was not aware of transactions that – according to Westpac – should have alerted him to the fact something was wrong.

Soljar drew Tesoriero’s attention to one of the spreadsheets on expenditure he received. It recorded $15.5 million worth of payments between July and October 2020 to one of the group’s funders – identified in court as Westpac itself.

“Why would Forum be making payments … when Westpac’s loan agreements are with the customers?” Soljar asked.

“I have no idea,” said Tesoriero.

“Well, the explanation is that Forum itself was repaying false equipment loans that have been purportedly incurred by customers of Westpac. Correct?” queried Soljar.

“I have no idea about that.”

Tesoriero claimed he was not aware he had been made a director of Forum Finance, one of the core companies in the group, until after the collapse, despite email chains indicating he had been made a director years earlier.

The life of luxury has not ended just yet for Tesoriero.

He confirmed to the court he was still living at a house that Forum helped to finance. The Hawthorn mansion comes with a pool, wine cellar, tennis court and eight-car garage.

The court was told that FGFS, a Forum subsidiary, provided the $400,000 deposit and a $1 million settlement on the property, which was acquired for $7.95 million in 2020. It also met the mortgage payments.

But the corporate undertakers are catching up with Tesoriero’s life of luxury.

The liquidators appointed to salvage what they can from the Forum Finance group, Jason Preston and Jason Ireland of McGrathNicol, have secured court orders to sell the mansion. It is expected to hit the market in the coming months.

Alleged fraudster Bill Papas  in Greece.
Alleged fraudster Bill Papas in Greece.Credit:60 Minutes

While Tesoriero claims to have been in the dark about the alleged fraud at Forum, he was able to provide details of Papas’ last days in Australia as the banks closed in.

He recalls a conversation with Papas ahead of his flight to Greece in June 2021. Something was clearly wrong.

“He [Papas] wasn’t his usual self, he was stressed,” Tesoriero told the court.

“He just said that there was some issues with contracts … He didn’t elaborate.”

Soon after, with Papas already in Greece, Tesoriero flew to Sydney and stayed at Papas’ Rozelle home and attended Forum’s North Sydney office.

He described it as a shambles with no one having a clear idea of what was going on – until an executive told him there were contracts that, he thought, were not genuine.

“I was shocked,” Tesoriero told the court.

He was then in Papas’ Rozelle home when it was raided under a Federal Court order for evidence of the alleged fraud.

“They searched the house, they even went into the fridge … And they left, I think, with an iPad and laptop.”

Tesoriero’s barrister, Jesse Rudd, asked him if, prior to these proceedings, had he ever suspected that Papas was involved in fraud.

“Never once, no,” he said.

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