Money lender Mark Toma struggled to remember many things during the first day of his public examination yesterday, but one thing he was certain about was that he didn’t buy $5 million worth of gold from the ABC Bullion outlet in Martin Place in December last year.
ERA Legal director Blake O’Neill, who was conducting Toma’s examination for liquidators Peter Krejci, Andrew Cummins and John Keenan, opened by asking Toma if he bought the gold.
Prefacing his response with the word “Privilege” Toma replied: “No I didn’t”.
Toma was shown a letter from his lawyer, Jim Kekatos addressed to ABC Bullion and dated December 17, 2024.
O’Neill then asked if he drove a Range Rover Sport to ABC Bullion at Martin Place on December 17, 2024?
“No I didn’t” Toma said.
It doesn’t get more definite than that. But it was as if in responding to the questions about the mystery bullion buy, Toma exhausted whatever store of short term recollection he possessed.
He was asked about a $4 million transfer out of a company called Virtical Pty Ltd which occurred during his tenure as a director but he couldn’t recall what it related to.
Virtical is at the centre of a major ATO investigation into alleged GST rorts. That investigation is running concurrently with public examinations of individuals associated with Virticalm, various legal and accounting advisors and related entities being undertaken by the BRI Ferrier trio with funding from the ATO.
Asked where the books and records of Virtical were kept at the time he resigned as a director Toma did not remember.
When asked what business Vitriol conducted Toma replied “Development”.
O’Neill followed through, asking what it developed.
“Privilege I don’t remember”, replied Toma.
O’Neill turned to bank statements for Toma’s company Bond Global Capital (BGC), an entity which is not in liquidation but to which Krejci and Keenan were appointed receivers on February 19.
Referring Toma to an entry showing $970,000 paid to ABC Bullion on May 8, 2023 he asked Toma if he recalled buying any bullion then?
“Privilege no, I don’t remember” Toma replied.
When asked about the existence of management accounts for BGC Toma said he didn’t understand what O’Neill meant.
When asked if he knew if anyone had purchased gold from ABC Bullion on behalf of BGC Toma couldn’t remember.
Toma also told the court that BGC doesn’t maintain a ledger of outstanding loans “because we just started and we don’t have that many clients”.
When asked how borrowers’ contact details were recorded Toma said there were included in the loan contract.
“So if the loan contract was lost you’d have no way of contacting them,” O’Neill asked?
“Privilege I don’t know the answer to this question,” Toma said.
As the examination continued it became clear that many questions relating to the affairs of Virtical and BGC weren’t going to elicit the information sought, prompting O’Neill to ask Toma if he was suffering from any illness or condition that was interfering with his capacity to recollect events.
Immediately objecting to the question was Toma’s barrister Damien Allen of State Chambers who said it was no more than an attempt to intimidate his client.
Registrar Susan O’Connor disagreed, observing that there did seem to be an issue with Toma’s “short term” recall.
“Privilege yes I am. Stress”, Toma said without hesitation.
“Any other conditions,” O’Neill inquired.
“Lots of conditions. Anxiety, can’t sleep, poor general health”, Toma confirmed, as a man whose assets are frozen and is facing allegations of GST refund rorts totalling more than $50 million might.
But if O’Neill and Krejci thought this prescience in respect of ailments represented a sudden improvement in the examinee’s capacity to recall details there were to be disappointed.
When asked if he had ever bought a Rolls Royce from Chiadac Motor Group at Burwood, NSW, Allen objected, saying the question should be if a specific company in liquidation bought the Roller.
Toma said “no, I don’t believe so.”
When asked of BGC had ever used funds to purchase a motor vehicle he said he didn’t know.
Further questions followed about loans to entities and individuals, and about the role of alleged scheme architect Sam Cassaniti in assisting BGC with accounting services – though Toma insisted he had not made a final decision about whether to retain Cassaniti, who is also an examinee in these proceedings.
The examination wrapped up for the day with Toma confirming that BGC had retained the services of Mackay Goodwin in September last year for the purpose of assisting BGC recover debts.
Toma’s examination is scheduled to continue today.
Further reading:
Cassaniti-linked lender funded fraudster’s defence
11th hour bid by ex-Virtical director to unwind ProvLiqs
ATO swoop sees another liquidator replaced
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