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Craig Gore (pictured), a former high-flying rich lister who crashed into bankruptcy in 2012 owing creditors $282 million, has been sentenced to a minimum of two years in jail on charges of defrauding self-managed super funds of $350,000.
The disgraced businessman, son of Sanctuary Cove developer Mike Gore, was convicted of the charges last month and has been in custody since then.
The charges were brought by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) in 2017 relating to a scheme involving Arion Financial Pty Ltd on the Gold Coast and promoted by Gore over five months in 2013 and 2014. The funds obtained totalled about $800,000, but the charges specifically related to $350,000 of that sum.
The Courier Mail reports that, in his sentencing, Judge Michael Byrne blasted Gore for his lack of remorse and for his "deliberate and targeted" offences committed over the five months.
Evidence presented to the court revealed Gore had personally contacted the directors of self-managed super funds urging them to invest in what he called debentures but what were identified by the judge as nothing more than "unsecured loans".
"In essence the sales pitch was that you offered a higher rate of interest to be paid on the debentures than the comps could obtain on their bank interest," Judge Byrne said.
"On the findings I have made, it was in December 2013 you knew at the time you made the representations to the respective director or directors that there was no real prospect of Arion Financial or Arion Property having the capacity to repay the money invested by them or the money invested together with the accrued interest at the end of the respective investment periods."
Gore, who last year was denied permission by the court to temporarily return to Sweden where his wife and children now live, will remain in custody until the end of 2022.
The latest court ruling caps off a dogged pursuit of Gore by ASIC since 2012.
ASIC brought civil charges against Gore in 2013 in Federal Court alleging he was involved in an offshore scheme that misused more than $4 million raised from small investors to buy distressed residential assets in the US.
Federal Court Justice Richard White handed down his judgement in 2015, finding that Gore, while bankrupt, was the architect of the scheme that channelled the funds raised from self-managed super funds to companies registered in the British Virgin Islands.
Gore was banned for life from dealing in financial services for his part in the scheme.
Justice White, in handing down his orders then, said it was appropriate to characterise Gore's conduct as 'dishonest'.
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