Shark Attacks Shark

Battlers, millionaires, stars or crooks are all bait.

An article from the Jenman website.

The story of how a real estate agent ripped off wealthy Gold Coast home owners reads like an American TV soap opera.

The agent, Heather Filippini, drove a Ferrari and specialised in selling mansions on an exclusive island estate. She was in cahoots with her daughter, who had numerous aliases and was married to a Russian businessman.

Filippini arranged for her daughter or son-in-law to buy properties below their true value and on-sold them, thus pocketing some movie-star sized profits in a series of million-dollar deals.

As well as ripping off her clients by under-selling their properties, Heather Filippini also charged them thousands of dollars in commission for the privilege of being fleeced.

Most property sharks make their millions ripping off ordinary consumers, the battlers who are too scared or too poor to fight back. Sharks such as Jason Paris, Dudley Quinlivan and Christopher Bilborough who prey on the battlers or the soon-to-be-retirees.

But agent Heather Filippini made the mistake of conning the wealthy and they had the resources to fight for justice.

The result was five charges brought before Queensland’s Commercial and Consumer Tribunal by the Office of Fair Trading and civil action by victims who are now suing for compensation.

Filippini, also known as Heather Penney, was found guilty on two insider trading charges. The tribunal is yet to hand down its penalty, which may include fines and stripping her of her real estate licence. Incredibly, she is still selling property today.

Like all agents who are involved in insider trading, she should be behind bars.

Filippini arranged for daughter Sarah – variously known as Sarah Fedotov, Sarah Penney, Sarah Filippini and Sarah Fedotova – and her husband Alexei Fedotov to buy a home on the prestigious Sovereign Islands for $1.185 million. They re-sold soon after for $1.450 million.

The sellers of that property are lodging a civil claim for $331,000 against her.

In another case, Filippini sold the home of an elderly widow for $1.3 million. Later the property was transferred into one of Filippini’s names, Heather Isobel Penney. She then on-sold the property for $1.5 million. How to steal a quick $200,000 (plus commission of course).

The tribunal found that Filippini illegally obtained a beneficial interest in both sales.

Ironically, though, one of Filippini’s victims was the investment shark Christopher Bilborough notorious for his involvement in the Gold Coast’s two-tier marketing scams.

Bilborough, himself a former associate of the infamous King Con Dudley Quinlivan, claimed that Filippini sold his property to her daughter for $775,000 and within four months had re-sold it for $950,000. What a rip-off. [Ed note: I must confess this is the only time I have ever smiled when someone got ripped off].

Christopher Bilborough reportedly has launched legal action, claiming $200,000. If he gets his money back, maybe he might share it with some of the battlers he fleeced. As if.

No matter who you are – a battler, a millionaire or a shark – on the Gold Coast, no one is safe from sharks.

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Postscript:

In March this year solicitor Tim O’Dwyer reported on the incredible connection between agent Heather Filippini and marketeer Christopher Bilborough for The Australian Real Estate Blog. His article was entitled “Notorious Gold Coast Marketeer Sues Controversial Agent”.

Then earlier this month Tim took part in a TODAY TONIGHT story about Filippini’s conduct and her convictions on national television (where he was described as a “property industry watchdog”), and growled, “It’s disgraceful, it’s dishonest and too many real estate agents are engaged in this sort of insider trading right across Australia.”

“It appals me,” he added, “that this total breach of trust really isn’t prevented as well as it should be.”

Finally Tim said Filippini needed to be made an example of: “If stockbrokers go to jail for insider trading, so should real estate agents.”

Don’t hold your breath, however, on Filippini’s being punished severely for her outrageous offences. Tim O’Dwyer tells us that only last month the same Tribunal which ruled against Filippini and reserved its decision on a suitable penalty, found a licensed agent, Doreen Finlay, and her registered salesperson husband, Brian Finlay, guilty of similar insider trading offences .

In that case sellers of a property listed for sale with the Finlays’ Gold Coast real estate agency were not told that Brian Finlay and Doreen Finlay were shareholders in a company which contracted to buy the property. Nor was it disclosed that Mrs Finlay was a director of their family trust company.

Although the sale fortunately did not proceed (because finance failed) the Tribunal recognised as “serious matters” these breaches of laws “designed to deter licensed and registered persons from acting in their own interests to the detriment of persons who entrusted property with them.” But wait for it – the Finlays each copped a piddling fine of $1125, and were ordered to pay Fair Trading’s mega-costs of $3000!

Oh yes, there was more. Would you believe that the venerable Tribunal directed the records show that the Finlays were also “formally reprimanded”?

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