The head of a “reprehensible” Ponzi scheme has learned his fate over a $180 million plot that cost many victims more than the value of their life savings.
Tony Iervasi was sentenced today to 11 years in prison with a non-parole period of seven years, making him first eligible for release in 2031.
The 58-year-old earlier pleaded guilty to five charges relating to the deception as well as operating an unlicensed financial services company.
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In handing down the sentence, NSW Supreme Court Justice Deborah Sweeney said the impact of Iervasi’s crime went beyond financial losses to, in many cases, the breakdowns of marriages and family relationships.
“The sum of the total loss is large, the impact on investors is severe, and the offender’s dishonesty is undoubtedly reprehensible,” she said.
Iervasi paid himself more than $9 million over the course of the scheme, funds he used for gambling, to lease luxury cars and properties, and to fund holidays, the court was told.
He also spent $2.5 million from the company’s bank account for his own benefit.
Iervasi operated the scheme as director of Courtenay House, telling investors their funds would be traded in foreign exchange and futures markets.
Only about three per cent of investor funds was actually traded, with Iervasi instead using money paid to him to pay other clients, which he claimed to be returns from trading.
Between 2010 and 2107, more than $180 million was raised from around 585 investors.
More than $114 million was paid back as purported profits and $40 million was returned to investors, but almost $26 million has never been recovered.
Investors were also offered two “special” investment opportunities said to exist due to market volatility surrounding the election of Donald Trump as president of the United States.
In December 2016, Iervasi invited clients to invest in a “US Election Special Trade” to coincide with the former president’s inauguration.
The Australian Securities and Investments Commission froze the company’s assets in 2017 and engaged in an investigation with which Iervasi has largely cooperated.
In 2019, Iervasi reported to police that he had been kidnapped and bashed, and admitted to running the Ponzi scheme.
Former Courtenay House contractor Athan Papoulias was paid more than $670,000 for his role in promoting investments in the business and was sentenced in 2023 to two years’ jail to be served as an intensive corrections order, as well as 120 hours of community service.
David Sipina also pleaded guilty to two criminal charges over his role with Courtenay House, which included referring new investors and marketing the business.
It is not alleged either Papoulias or Sipina knew the business was a Ponzi scheme.
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