A businessman has been sentenced to 12 years in prison for duping two Korean firms into giving him over tens of millions of dollars as part of a National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) charade.
In 2019, Demotrios “James” Charisiou, 63, conned two Korean-based companies into giving his company, LBA Capital, $394.7 million (US$261 million) in credit, under the guise of investing the money into NDIS-supported properties in Melbourne.
None of the properties were purchased and most of the money sat in an account.
The businessman pleaded guilty to two counts of falsifying documents and two counts of obtaining financial advantage by deception in November 2023.
Announcing the verdict at the Supreme Court of Victoria on May 24, Justice John Champion said the 2019 ruse was sophisticated and complex, with Mr. Charisiou fabricating documents to carry out his ploy.
Justice Champion said that Mr. Charisiou met with representatives from the Korean companies—JB Asset Management and KB Securities—when they flew out to Melbourne.
The judge described Mr. Charisiou’s fraudulent act as “breathtaking.”
“To your own folly, you have lost much that underpinned your way of life,” the judge told Mr. Charisiou.
“The scale of your fraudulent activity was breathtaking, however, must be kept in perspective.”
Justice Champion said there was a risk that Mr. Charisiou’s skills and experiences would enable him to perpetrate his fraudulent behaviour, adding that the businessman could be driven by his ego and “illusions of grandiosity.”
“As a successful businessman with an inflated sense of ego arising out of your hypomanic state, the prospect of recanting on the deal or publicly failing yourself was likely an unattractive prospect,” the judge said.
NDIS A Target Of Fraudsters
The $42 billion disability scheme has become the target of fraudsters and scammers, with over 100 cases of alleged fraud in the NDIS having gone before courts in April.According to the 2024-25 federal budget documents released on May 14, the government would splash a further $468.7 million (US$310 million) on the taxpayer-funded scheme to get it “back on track.”
The funding includes $268.1 million to “better protect NDIS participants and prevent fraud” and $200.6 million to “design and consult” based on the key recommendations of the independent NDIS review.
In August 2023, NDIS Minister Bill Shorten said the number of criminal investigations linked to payments from the scheme had risen to 46 percent—up from 38 percent in April.
“When there is government money, sometimes people—opportunists, criminals, others—become attracted to trying to siphon that money off for their own good rather than the best interests of participants,” Mr. Shorten said at the time.
“There is an element in the Australian community who were basically taking money from participants, robbing people on the scheme, and sometimes not only in an unethical manner but indeed in a criminal manner.”
