Ex-Jirsch partner faked order to thaw frozen funds

A former salary partner in Jirsch Sutherland’s Melbourne office has been gaoled almost two years after pleading guilty to charges of deception and perverting the course of justice.

Mateusz (Matt) Ujma, 46 of Melbourne was last week sentenced in the County Court of Victoria to two years and 10 months prison with a non-parole period of 20 months.

The conviction does not relate to Ujma’s employment at Jirsch, which he joined in 2014 after working for several years in relationship manager roles at ANZ and NAB. Prior to that he spent five years at Hall Chadwick.

Jirsch Sutherland managing partner Bradd Morelli confirmed last night that Ujma left the firm around February 2017. Ujma moved to Mackay Goodwin in 2019 and worked there until last year.

According to court documents, in early 2016 Ujma dishonestly obtained $350,000 in mezzanine financing for himself by falsely representing to the lender that he was making the application on behalf of a couple who operated childcare centres.

Ujma knew the lender through borrowers he’d previously referred and was a friend of the couple for whom he purported to act as broker.

He had also borrowed a total of $127,500 from the couple the previous year and their agreement stipulated that the principal and interest would be repaid by July 2015.

In September of that year the couple received an unexpected bill from the Victorian office of state revenue and asked Ujma to repay the borrowings. This set in train the machinations which ultimately led to Ujma’s incarceration.

Ujma drafted bogus documents and forged signatures to induce the unwitting lender to loan $350,000 purportedly to the childcare operators, who had no idea their properties were being used to secure loan funds which Ujma intended to utilise in part by discharging the debt he owed them.

On March 23, 2016 $245,090 of the $350,000 loan facility landed in the account of the childcare operators. Ujma explained that $150,000 of it was theirs’ as repayment of his loan. The rest he asked to be refunded to an account controlled by Ujma’s company, Consilium Group Pty Ltd.

Approximately one month later Ujma instructed staff at the lender to drawdown the remainder of the loan funds including $68,936 he requested be transferred to a company called Skyelands Pty Ltd.

Trouble reared its head for Ujma after the lender asked for a copy of an invoice to show how the drawdown related to the purported borrowers. Ujma responded by providing a falsified invoice from a concreting company formerly owned by one of his gambling mates.

Neither his mate or the couple operating the childcare centres had ever heard of each other.

The dominos were finally tripped though when Ujma and the lender fell out.

Contacting the childcare couple directly, the lender informed them that they should no longer forward their repayments to Ujma. From now on they should pay directly.

As can be surmised, this came as a shock to the childcare operators.

On December 13, 2016 the couple advised the lender that they had no knowledge of any loan. On the same day the lender texted Ujma telling him the police were being alerted.

According to the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) summary Ujma replied: “please don’t. I’m fully
responsible and accountable, Just let me finish it off. It’s getting refinanced.”

A little later he reiterated his plea: “Has it affected you ever??? ….. let me just
finalise it. I will even compensate you. I have it all covered. Please”.

To no avail. On December 2016 the lender initiated civil proceedings in the County Court of
Victoria naming Ujma as a defendant and obtained orders freezing Uma’s assets.

But incredibly, Ujma wasn’t done. The freezing order prevented him from disposing with, dealing with or diminishing the value of any of his assets within Australia, up to the value of $348,936 and it also applied to his wife and to Consilium Group.

Three months after the lender won judgment in August 2017 its lawyers and Ujma returned to court proposing a by-consent amendment discharging the freezing order as it applied to Ujma’s
interest in his home in the inner Melbourne suburb of Maribyrnong. The amendment was granted.

Despite attending an interview with police in December Ujma on February 19, 2018 altered the consent orders made by the judge so that the discharge appeared to relate to his and his company’s interest in his Westpac bank account.

Ujma then attended a Westpac bank branch at 114 William Street Melbourne, persuaded the bank teller and the Westpac Legal Notices team that the discharge was genuine and subsequently withdrew more than $9,000 from the unfrozen account over the course of the following week. By the time the chicanery was discovered $2.50 remained.

In late 2022 Ujma entered guilty pleas on one charge of obtaining a financial advantage by deception, one charge of using a false document and one charge of attempting to pervert the course of justice.

The deceit reaped in excess of $170,000 and according to the prosecution documents more than $100,000 in cash withdrawals remains unaccounted for.

For Jirsch and for Mackay Goodwin, Ujma’s offending seems an unwelcome coincidence. As iNO readers will be aware, in late 2018 Jirsch’s Sydney office was roiled by revelations that Amanda Young, the sister of senior partner Sule Arnautovic had misappropriated almost $240,000 from liquidation accounts either under her control as sole liquidator or under the control of her brother without his knowledge.

Young was sacked by the firm in late 2018 and received a suspended gaol sentence in February 2022 after pleading guilty to one count of fraud and one count of dishonesty.

Mackay Goodwin founder and chief executive Domenic Calabretta told iNO yesterday that Ujma’s employment with the firm ceased on April 9, 2023.

At least Calabretta can be thankful that Ujma wasn’t a registered liquidator or trustee in bankruptcy who would be covered by Mackay Goodwin’s professional indemnity and fidelity insurance policies, unlike former trustee Paul Leroy.

Leroy, who joined Mackay Goodwin in the middle of last year is believed to have fled the country after stealing almost $2 million from the estate of former Health Services Union (HSU) secretary Katherine Jackson.