The quality of judicial appointments across Australia can be measured by a recent chain of outrages at the Supreme Court of Queensland and the High Court of Australia.
Dyson Heydon, a former justice of the High Court of Australia succumbed to a finding that he sexually molested 6 of his associates in 2020. Notably, the finding against him was made, not by a court, but by an independent panel of inquiry. And there was good reason for this. Former Chief Justice of the High Court, Murray Gleeson, and another High Court judge, Michael McHugh SC when confronted with the complaint ignored it.
In 2021 two Family Court judges, both from Queensland, were suspended over complaints of grievous misconduct. One of the two, Judge Andrew Guy, rather than face the ignominy of an open inquiry into his misconduct, committed suicide.
There appears to be an incestuous and stygian culture of privilege, incompetence, bullying, and partisanship at the highest levels of the legal system in Queensland. The Mango Hill Litigation (BS1714-2011) and its aftermath at the hands of former Chief Justice of Queensland Catherine Holmes is a case study of the problem.
THE HEGEMONY OF PRIVILEGE AND PEDIGREE
Heydon has a companion he met regularly for lunch in Sydney during the investigation into allegations of his misconduct. That companion turned out to be the colorful Sydney barrister, Francis Maxwell Douglas KC. Douglas, Heydon’s legal advisor, epitomizes the character of the “untouchables” in the legal profession, at the center of corruption and crime in the justice system.
A native of Queensland, Douglas has managed to pull off one of the biggest heists in modern legal history. The audacious theft of $20,000,000.00, owed to his instructing solicitor Delta Law “Delta”, and creditors of his client Mio Art was diverted to Douglas and his associates instead.
Deep in debt at the time, Douglas conspired with his client Mio Art, junior barristers David Keane (son of High Court judge Patrick Keane) Stephen Colditz, Edmund Galea, (a banned and disqualified finance broker), and solicitor James Nicholas Conomos, to divert the award of $20,000,000.00 away from its rightful beneficiaries into their collective hands.
The award, a settlement from the arbitration of the Mango Hill Litigation, was deposited in the trust account of, twice ‘Queensland lawyer of the year’, James Nicholas Conomos -The Society’s ‘eminence gris’, and by other accounts a ‘judge whisperer’.
A CRIMINAL BREACH OF TRUST
Conomos distributed that award of $20,000,000.00 at the behest of Mio Art, bypassing Mio Art’s lawyer Delta, who claimed a lien on those monies. Ignoring the lien, Conomos distributed the award in breach of the Legal Profession Act, rules that govern the handling of trust money, on the written instructions of one Silvana Perovich.
Perovich was an administrative assistant at Delta, a person with no legal interest in the money, with no legal authority or right to instruct Conomos on its distribution. Conomos was aware of Perovich’s status. Regardless, he breached his duty as trustee of those funds. The Queensland Law Society has refused to sanction his actions.
Conomos’s complicity in offenses relating to his dealing with trust money all $20,000,000.00 of it is captured in emails between he, Mio Art, Silvana Perovich and his client Robert Whitton. Whitton was trustee of the bankrupt estate of Silvana Perovich. Conomos’s breaches were reinforced by his own inculpatory testimony in court.
Instructions on the distribution of the award was conveyed to Conomos in a series of emails from Silvana Perovich, ending with a cryptic “Thanks and can we have some more……see you in the Bahamas“.
Triangulation of communications between Perovich, Conomos and Francis Douglas is reinforced by the embedded metadata in emails and phone calls. The evidence was available but ignored by Catherine Holmes CJ, The Queensland Law Society, and the Legal Services Commission of Queensland.
Perovich explicitly outlined Her’s and Mio Art’s intentions to seize all of the award money, in a letter she wrote to Alan Thompson of Blackstone, a legal firm specializing in costing files in legal matters. James Conomos brazenly helped Perovich to give effect to her plans over the award money. He was trustee of the awarded money and was acutely aware of the liens over them. Conomos also knew Perovich had no authority or interest in the award funds. A four years investigation has unearthed a treasure trove evidence of what must be the largest money heist by a group of lawyers in Australia.
The audacity and extent of Douglas’s and Conomos’s criminality and misconduct spanning decades in practice, protected by the shield of their reputations, and the willful blindness of the bench and regulators was flagrant.
THE LIENS
Douglas’s genial eccentricity appears to have charmed a fawning bench in Brisbane, sufficient for them to have ignored clear signs of his breaches of professional conduct, the Legal Profession Act, and the criminality concealed in his advocacy.
Douglas pleaded a salvage and a solicitor’s lien in the Mango Hill matter which in simple terms means, that his client and his instructor, Delta, would, in priority to all other claims, be entitled to their fees, charges, costs, and other entitlements from out of the award first ahead of any other creditor. The remainder after Delta’s entitlements were satisfied in legal fees, would then be divided between the other creditors of Mio Art, principally, TVM Pty Ltd and Earnings Ltd, the latter 2 being Mio Art’s biggest creditors, who were collectively owed $40,000,000.
The Queensland Law Society-The QLS- and Legal Services Commission- The LSC-are aware of James Conomos’s breaches of the LPA (Legal Profession Act 2007) and ASCR (Australian Solicitors Conduct Rules) in his dealing with trust monies. Yet, both regulators have refused to act against Conomos. Conomos continues to hold a current practicing certificate to practice law in Queensland.
FRANCIS MAXWELL DOUGLAS KC
Douglas has a long history of misleading the courts, concealing, and manufacturing evidence with his structured eloquence.
Correspondence, between Douglas and his former spouse Sigrun Baldvinsdottir, in their matrimonial dispute, alleges threats of violence, theft, unlawful transfer of joint assets, bullying and manipulation of financial records by Douglas throughout their marriage. Sigrun even accused Douglas of stealing money from their children’s trusts and wedging her with legal costs and dubious tax reduction schemes to discourage her from proceeding with an open hearing in the family court.
In his dispute with Sigrun, Douglas impersonated the same solicitor Delta, instructing him in the Mango Hill Litigation -when in fact Douglas was self-represented. He used the solicitor’s letterhead, forging his signature in the correspondence without the solicitor’s approval, consent or knowledge. Douglas had the assistance of his now confidante, Silvana Perovich.
The metadata embedded in emails in each of the matters involving Douglas, clearly evidences a trajectory of correspondence and triangulates a conspiracy between Perovich, Douglas, his junior barristers, Keeaane and Colditz, solicitor Conomos, and Galea in the Mango Hill Litigation, and in his dispute with the NAB, CBA and the ATO.
Douglas owed several millions of dollars to the ATO which he attempted to burden his former spouse with. The forensic evidence of Douglas and Perovich’s unauthorized use of Delta’s letterhead and its principal’s signatures (forged) on correspondence was available for the court to examine. Yet no one called for it in evidence. The QLS, the supreme court of Queensland nor the QLSC.
Douglas has been financially distressed for some time now. His problems began in 2015 when ensnared in a Nigerian type scam over fictitious diamonds from Namibia. He lost $500,000.00 in that scam and was forced to borrow $50,000.00 from his instructing solicitor, who he threatened with withdrawal of his services in the Mango Hill arbitration if the loan was not forthcoming.
Douglas lost his waterfront home in Sydney, began drinking heavily and was evicted from his prestigious 7th-floor chambers in the Deutsch Bank building in Sydney’s CBD in 2016. He is now a door tenant at 10th floor chambers in Sydney.
A complaint filed against Douglas with the LSC and Bar Councils of NSW and Queensland was summarily dismissed as being late and without merit.
THE ROLE OF CATHERINE HOLMES CJ
There isn’t a more clear-cut example of judicial incompetence, negligence, and intellectual dishonesty than that which Holmes CJ displayed in her handling of BS8866 & BS8867/2019 (“The Emperor Application”). Her judgment delivered in January of 2020, was flawed and lacked any convincing legal basis. In short, she vandalized the proceedings.
Holmes CJ used words like “sham” “fake” and “false “to describe invoices and other documentary evidence presented to her by Conomos and Richard Spencer, solicitor, two key witnesses who Douglas had previously represented and joined in the Emperor Application. Although she clearly understood the gravity of the evidence before her, she was unresponsive.
The Emperor Application was an unsuccessful attempt by parties aligned with Douglas to end the administration of Delta. A liquidator would have had very wide powers to investigate issues leading to the theft of the $20,000,000 had Holmes CJ intervened. But she was clearly unwilling to go there. Holmes CJ instead shielded Douglas and Conomos from that bullet and allowed Delta to remain in the hands of the administrator William Cotter.
The testimony of witness, solicitor Richard Spencer in the Emperor Application, described in detail his involvement in extensive forgery and impersonation, leading to the theft of $20,000,000.00. Holmes CJ failed to act.
WILFUL BLINDNESS
A vital player in the scheme to defraud beneficiaries of the award from the Mango Hill Litigation was Edmund Galea. Guided by Douglas, Galea brazenly lied to the court in the Emperor Application. He lied to the former trustees of Silvana Perovich and Richard Spencer in bankruptcy, SV Partners and in the mediation of BS17114 of 2011. He lied about having funded Douglas and the Mango Hill Litigation to the tune of several millions of dollars. Galea produced no evidence to corroborate his claims, yet Holmes CJ accepted his testimony at face value.
Galea’s Westpac banking records are at variance with his testimony in court. At the time, Galea was being investigated by the Queensland Police Service for identity theft over a sham $2,000,000 property deal in Brisbane.
Holmes CJ, ignored the admissions of criminality by Galea including his receipt of secret commissions from Douglas and Richard Spencer.
WILLIAM COTTER-THE ADMINISTRATOR
Threatened with a damages claim if he got it wrong, William Cotter, the administrator, capitulated and was drawn into the vortex of Douglas, Perovich, and Conomos conspiracy. Ostensibly and out of fear, he allowed the second creditors meeting of Delta to be stacked by Conomos, Perovich, Spencer, 4 barristers, Douglas, Keane, Colditz and a Sydney barrister Anthony Hopkins.
Desperately in need of money himself following the Covid pandemic, Cotter accepted $375,000.00 in 2023 from James Conomos on behalf of “Creditors” to scuttle a $7,000,000.00 debt owed to Delta by Mio Art.
A condition of the $375,000.00 payment was that Cotter would refrain from disclosing to other creditors, details of various settlements he entered into with Conomos and his clients in the administration of Delta. Cotter would also agree not to pursue claims against Mio Art for the $7,000,000.00 debt to Delta.
“Creditors”, in this context are those individuals Cotter had erroneously and willfully admitted into the administration of Delta, intimidated. Few if any of them qualified as creditors of Delta under the Corporations Act. They include Douglas, Keane and Colditz. Each f Colditz, Keane and Douglas failed to disclose receipt of clandestine payments each had received for services rendered to Delta from Galea, Spencer and Perovich. Cotter has refused numerous requests to produce attendance records and proxies of Creditors as well as other vital information in the administration Delta.
In a letter written by his solicitors, Rose Litigation lawyers, to a creditor of Delta, Cotter, offered what was essentially a bribe to the creditor, to settle a debt Douglas, Spencer and Perovich incurred through Edmund Galea (Galea still then posing as a financial services entity under the name of ALF- Award Litigation Funding). Galea was banned and disqualified by ASIC at the time of the debt and the ban remains on ASIC’s records.
A condition was attached to Cotter’s offer to the creditor; the creditor should not use the bribe to contribute to the administration of Delta.
Footnote:
In December of 2019 around the time of the Emperor hearing, Catherine Holmes CJ, was by implication, in a newspaper article, identified by a former president of the Queensland Law Society, as being one of a number of judges laboring under the stress of their workloads who sought refuge in self-medication and alcohol for relief.
Peter James Wilton and Meredith Hicks