A former professional poker player will spend at least nine years in a Victorian jail after scamming the Commonwealth Bank of millions of dollars in a fraud of "breathtaking proportions".
William Jordanou, 60, was slammed by County Court of Victoria Judge Paul Lacava on Thursday for causing delay in the proceedings with a "frankly embarrassing" cross-examination, leading to "a complete waste of the court's time".
Jordanou finally pleaded guilty to two charges of conspiracy to defraud in February, after fraudulently obtaining $58 million in loans from the Commonwealth Bank using false documents between 2010 and 2014.
He also scammed $18 million out of Westpac, Bank of Queensland, La Trobe Financial Services, Rhino Money and Mercedes-Benz Financial Services using the same "modus operandi".
He was sentenced to 12 years' imprisonment with a non-parole period of nine years.
The court was told Jordanou, along with accountants Robert Zaia and Scott Arthur, falsified documents to the Commonwealth Bank "for the purpose of obtaining 23 separate loans on behalf of clients", with plans to share in the profits.
"By this means, you fraudulently obtained nearly $58 million from the CBA, making this one of the largest frauds to come before a court in this state," Judge Lacava said.
"The actual loss to the CBA is said to be approximately $21.8 million ... the prosecution has been unable to calculate the amount of gain that you received from this offending."
Jordanou finally pleaded guilty to conspiracy four years after he was charged, just before the matter was to proceed to trial.
Zaia, an undischarged bankrupt, was sentenced separately on Thursday after also pleading guilty to two counts of conspiracy, defrauding the Commonwealth Bank of $48.5 million and other finance institutions of $10.5 million.
The 54-year-old was sentenced to 10 years in jail, with a non-parole period of seven-and-a-half years.
Arthur, who was described as subordinate to Jordanou and Zaia, was previously sentenced to six years in jail, with a non-parole period of four years.
"The CBA conspiracy was a prolonged fraud of breathtaking proportions," Judge Lacava said.
"The level of falsifications and some of the documentation supplied to the CBA was high and the action of giving it to the bank audacious."
Judge Lacava said the bank did not exercise due diligence and placed a high level of trust in a mobile lender named Epps, who had since died.
"It was a true criminal conspiracy, a meeting of minds between you (Zaia) and Jordanou."
Australian Associated Press
