Serial Newcastle con man Lemuel Page has lost control of a property portfolio worth about $15 million and a $1 million Ferrari after failing in a bid against his former long-term friend and business partner, Theo Baker, to keep two companies out of receivership.
The Federal Court heard that Page and former dotcom rich lister Baker were great mates and had done business deals together for decades, along with Page's ex-wife, Fiona.
But in a scathing judgment Justice Elizabeth Cheeseman detailed how, after falling out, Baker appointed receivers, via his company CL Asset Holdings Pty Ltd, to three companies controlled by the Pages, claiming to be owed more than $8 million.
The forensic gaze that Justice Cheeseman applied to the long-running dispute leaves none of the three main characters walking away unscathed.
Detailed reasons for the judgment delivered a stinging rebuke of the trio, as Justice Cheeseman said they repeatedly lied, engaged in financial deception, and tampered with evidence in a previous NSW Supreme Court trial.
She detailed being left in the "unsatisfactory position" of trying to determine the facts in a case based on a "limited body of reliable evidence".
"The evidence of the three protagonists is unreliable," she said. "None of them presented as witnesses of truth."
Justice Cheeseman ruled the appointment of receivers to two Page-related companies, Shyzi Pty Ltd and Ohmut Pty Ltd, was valid, but not for a third company, Tallywalker Pty Ltd.
The decision paves the way for receivers, Kate Conneely and Rahul Goyal, of KordaMentha, to sell assets and distribute the spoils to settle any debts.
The case also reveals the mountain of assets held by the Page-controlled companies.
Ohmut owns a 32-room boarding house in Harriet Street, Waratah, and Shyzi owns a 2015 Ferrari 458 Speciale worth $1 million, a Mercedes-Benz SL55K, two properties in Sydney, one in Wickham, and a waterfront property at Port Douglas where Page and Fiona Page live.
Shyzi also owns a three-digit NSW number plate '779' and a two-digit NSW number plate '85', believed to be worth more than $200,000 each.
Page was convicted of fraud in July 2017 for selling a friend a fake diamond ring for $85,000, and the Newcastle Herald revealed how dozens of Hunter investors and tradespeople lost money to the scam artist.
The fraudster's web of deceit, stretching back decades, involved failed investments and property scams that left him owing friends, former associates, and the family of his former de facto more than $17 million.
But in November 2016, Page signed a $180,000 personal insolvency agreement that saved him from bankruptcy and wiped the debt.
Baker was on the BRW Rich 200 list in 2001 with an estimated wealth of $130 million before being released from bankruptcy in 2017.
He appointed receivers to the three Page companies in 2020, claiming he was owed millions of dollars that had been provided as loans. Still, the Pages denied that any money was owed.
They claimed the loan agreements were a front designed to help Baker, who was an undischarged bankrupt at the time, "shepherd" a series of financial transactions past the board and auditors of the then publicly listed CL Asset Holdings.
According to Justice Cheeseman, the three were "not constrained by truth when it came to documenting commercial arrangements in which they were involved".
"The taint of the dishonest dealings involving Mr Baker, Mr Page, and Ms Page permeates the whole of the proceedings," she said.
While not determining the exact amount owed to CL Asset Holdings, the court found that when the receivers were appointed in September 2020, Shyzi owed $435,763.
Justice Cheeseman ordered in March that a court registrar conduct a formal "taking of accounts" to determine how much Shyzi and Ohmut owe, including interest and receivership fees.
As previously reported by the Newcastle Herald, Baker was one of nine people to supply character references to Judge Julia Baly, SC, in the Sydney District Court in 2018, which were instrumental in helping her form the opinion that Page was of "good character" and selling the fake diamond ring to a close friend was "out of character".
Baker's reference detailed how the pair met in 1996 and became good friends.
"During the 20 years that I have known and had business dealings with Lemuel Page, I have found him to be honest and reliable and have never had any reason to question his integrity or motives," Baker wrote.
But Justice Cheeseman did not agree.
In her 536-page judgment, she detailed how the Pages and Baker used "whatever means necessary" to mislead the NSW Supreme Court in a previous case in a failed bid to keep control of $6 million worth of assets, including an apartment on Newcastle beach.
She said they used false documents and lied in an attempt to get a liquidator removed from Parkway One Pty Ltd, which collapsed in 2020.
The issue, she said, "weighed heavily against" the credibility of all three.
"Of significant concern is the fact that misleading and untrue documents of this kind were deployed not only in their commercial dealings as between each other, and with third parties, but also in court proceedings in which they were involved at different times."
Justice Cheeseman found that the trio not only lied to the court, but also lied to each other, and detailed the difficulty in determining "which of them is telling the truth".
Page was branded a liar in multiple respects, his evidence "coloured by his motivation", according to Justice Cheeseman, to have the receivers removed.
She described how Page "crafted" his evidence when confronted with documents he didn't anticipate.
"Mr Page, although calm and deliberate in his initial responses to lines of questions, was prone to changing his answers and contradicting himself as the lines of enquiry were developed by the cross-examiner ...," she said.
"There were a number of occasions in his cross-examination when he was pressed on matters which he initially denied and then came up with implausible responses when he was confronted with documents that he did not remember, and which undermined the position he had adopted in the witness box."
She also branded Fiona Page an unreliable witness, detailing being "repeatedly struck by how evasive her answers were".
"Another feature of Ms Page's evidence to which I have already alluded was her recourse to defensive stock phrases when she did not wish to answer a question," she said.
"Her evidence, given in this way, was manifestly shaped by self-interest and was not informed by telling the truth."
And while she endorsed some of Fiona Page's evidence over parts of Baker's, Justice Cheeseman found that "she is a person ready to either make, or join in, false representations to obtain a benefit for herself and her companies".
Baker, who was granted immunity from prosecution because the evidence he gave was likely to incriminate him, did not emerge well either.
Justice Cheeseman found that he had given false evidence in a previous Supreme Court of Victoria trial by saying that a doctored email was "a true email".
"Mr Baker's conduct, which has been exposed by the evidence in these proceedings, demonstrates that he was not an honest witness and was not honest in his commercial dealings with others," she said.
The Herald reported in August last year that police were investigating after a shocking video of Page that emerged, where he is seen yelling abuse and threatening to kill someone before smashing up a campervan parked near his luxurious north Queensland home.
Page can be heard yelling "I'm gonna f---ing kill you", "I'm gonna rip your f---ing heart out" and "Run. Run you f---ing dog c---s" at people parked in campervans at Four Mile Beach Park, at Port Douglas.
The incident occurred in June, just metres from where Page lives with Fiona Page in a luxurious gated community on the beachfront.
