Source: Sydney Morning Herald
Failed dotcom entrepreneur Karl Suleman has been sentenced by a Sydney judge to a minimum five-and-a-half years’ jail on 26 fraud charges. The former director of Karl Suleman Enterprises (KSE) pleaded guilty to the fraud offences relating to more than $3 million he obtained from public investors for his supermarket trolley collection businesses.
The former director of the failed Froggy group was charged with 15 counts of making false statements and 11 counts of using false documents between April 2000 and July 2001, following an investigation by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission. The false statements were used to obtain $3.185 million from 15 investors. The Downing Centre District Court was told the investors had sunk amounts ranging from $95,000 to $1 million into the business, but only two investors got their money back. The other 13 lost a total of $828,915.
Sentencing Suleman today, Judge John Nield said he had taken advantage of “commercially naive” investors so that he could live a lifestyle beyond his legitimate income. “It is obvious … that the offender was using the money that he had obtained from later investors to pay the guaranteed payments to earlier investors,” he said.
Judge Nield sentenced Suleman to seven years and four months behind bars, ordering him to serve at least five and half years. With time already served, Suleman will be eligible for parole in 2011. Suleman had previously served a 12-month jail term for four unrelated fraud offences, after he made false statements to obtain loans to buy two Ferraris and a luxury yacht.