Former poker pro William Jordanou has been sent to jail after illegally obtaining a massive amount of money from the Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA).
The 60-year-old Jordanou is set to spend at least nine years in a jail in the state of Victoria, after swindling the CBA in a fraud of what was called “breathtaking proportions”, which had ended up with him obtaining almost AU$58 million.
Today, Paul Lacava, the Country Court of Victoria Judge, severely criticised the former Australian professional poker player for obstructing the legal proceedings against him with cross-examination which he called “embarrassing”, which above all, were only wasting the court’s time.
Jordanou has been facing two charges of conspiracy to defraud, following his fraudulent actions to illegally obtain loans amounting about AU$58 million from the Commonwealth Bank in the period from 2010 to 2014. Allegedly, the poker ace had been using false documents to get the money. In February 2018, Jordanou finally pleaded guilty to these charges.
The ex poker pro is also accused of using the same fraudulent actions to illegally obtain AU$18 million out of Mercedes-Benz Financial Services, Bank of Queensland, Westpac, Rhino Money and La Trobe Financial Services.
One of the Largest Frauds Ever Taken the Victorian Court
Allegedly, William Jordanou, along with accountants Scott Arthur and Robert Zaia, had forged documents to the CBA in order to get 23 separate loans on behalf of clients. The trio was also accused of planning to share the illegally obtained profits. As mentioned above, he managed to obtain an amount of AU$58 million by using such fraudulent actions, succeeding in carrying out one of the largest frauds in the state of Victoria.
Both accountants have pleaded guilty to similar charges, with Zaia’s sentence still remaining unknown, while Arthur is to spend at least four years in jail.
As Judge Lacava explained, the actual loss to the Commonwealth Bank was estimated to be about AU$21.8 million. He further noted that the prosecution office did not succeed to calculate the exact amount gained by the offence carried out by the poker player. In any case, the fraud, which went undiscovered for four years, is currently one of the largest frauds ever taken to the court in the state of Victoria.
The judge further shared that the level of falsifications was high, so the action of providing the bank with such documentation showed no respect to the institution of the CBA. Still, Judge Lacava said that the bank had not exercised due diligence and had not taken the reasonable steps necessary to avoid the criminal offence because of the high level of trust in a mobile lender named Epps, who later passed away.
As mentioned above, Jordanou finally pleaded guilty to conspiracy charges four years after such charges were filed. He got a 12-year imprisonment sentence, with a non-parole period of nine years due to the extremely large scale of the fraud. The former poker ace has already served pre-sentence detention for 198 days.
- Author
Harry Evans
