Former Chartwell Enterprises director Graeme Hoy has been sentenced to jail for 13 years and nine months following an ASIC investigation into the collapse of the Geelong-based company.
ASICs investigation uncovered that the collapse of Chartwell in April 2008 was a direct result of Hoy operating one of Australia's largest ponzi schemes with investors owed in excess of $82 million.
Hoy, who is required to serve a minimum term of nine years, appeared in the Supreme Court of Victoria yesterday after pleading guilty in December 2010 to 44 deception charges totalling almost $22 million.
He was convicted of 34 charges of dishonestly obtaining $13.3 million by deception from investors, 10 charges of obtaining property by deception from investors that totalled $2.5 million, and one charge of dishonestly obtaining property in excess of $5.8 million by deception on behalf of Black Swan Holdings from the Commonwealth Bank of Australia.
Hoy was also convicted of one charge of dishonestly using his position as a director, one charge of carrying on a financial services business without a licence, and one charge of engaging in dishonest conduct in carrying on a financial services business by giving false information to investors about how their investments were performing.
In sentencing Hoy, Justice Terry Forrest commented that the fraud had caused incalculable damage for vulnerable people, and that Hoy was responsible for fraud on a grand scale.
Regarding Hoy's failure to hold an Australian financial services licence in sentencing Justice Forrest said the law was designed to protect the public from unscrupulous and unskilled financial advisers, of which he said Hoy was both of those things.
