Mr Kovelan Bangaru, has been sentenced to 8 years and 6 months imprisonment in the Sydney District Court following an ASIC investigation. He will not be eligible for parole until he has served 6 years and 4 months of his sentence.

Bangaru, 43, was found guilty on 24 August 2010 on 13 charges of fraud under the NSW Crimes Act.

A summary of the charges follows:

4 offences of obtaining a financial advantage for his companies by making a false statement with reckless disregard as to whether it was false or misleading in a material particular in contravention of s178BB of the NSW Crimes Act; and
9 offences of obtaining a financial advantage for his companies by deception in contravention of s178BA of the NSW Crimes Act.

ASIC alleged that between January 2004 and May 2005, Bangaru fraudulently obtained over AUD19.8 million from a number of financial institutions by providing false financial statements in support of various loan applications from companies of which he was a director. ASIC also alleged that between November 2001 and July 2005, Bangaru induced a number of people to invest in Streetwise property developments by making false representations to them about how their funds would be used. ASIC alleged that during this period, Mr Bangaru fraudulently obtained approximately AUD3.7 million of investors’ funds.