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The business partner of Bill Papas who received some of the proceeds of an alleged $500 million fraud on banking giant Westpac and two other lenders has hit back at suggestions he tried to hide assets from the court.
Vince Tesoriero, a 40-year-old race-car driving cafe owner from Melbourne, was cross-examined at the Federal Court in Sydney on Tuesday after Westpac raised concerns he had not properly disclosed to the court his assets and income as a part of proceedings.
Vince Tesoriero leaves court on Tuesday evening. Credit:Rhett Wyman
Tesoriero was dressed in a tailored dark suit and attended court with his girlfriend for his first appearance in the case brought against Papas and his associates in June last year.
Westpac has alleged Tesoriero, who was a former director of Forum Finance and friend of Papas, has received more than $28 million in cash from Papas that was the proceeds of fraud allegedly orchestrated by Papas against the bank.
The bank has also alleged that Tesoriero made significant property investments with Papas using the proceeds of fraud. Westpac alleges Tesoriero was aware, or should have been aware, of Papas’s fraud and is seeking to claw back tens of millions in cash and property allegedly acquired with the bank’s money.
Westpac used Tuesday’s hearing to pick apart disclosures Tesoriero, who is subject to freezing orders as part of the civil proceeding, had made to the court as part of the pre-trial procedures for the case.
This included why he had failed to report the $150,841.76 in cash that was held in an account that was receiving rent payments for a portfolio of petrol stations in country Victoria. The court heard that this income had been received in July this year but had not been included in his disclosures.
The Age and Sydney Morning Herald previously revealed Tesoriero and Papas had built up a $60 million-plus property portfolio that included several country petrol stations. The duo also allegedly used money taken from Westpac to buy Tesoriero’s $10 million-plus stately residence in Hawthorn and two high-end holiday homes in Wagstaffe, in greater Sydney.