The Sydney Morning Herald has detailed contempt of court charges which have been brought against Tony Senese, his son Cameron Senese, and their former lawyers Kalus Kenny Intelex for violating a court ordered asset freeze.
First, some background…
In May 2016, ASIC commenced Federal Court proceedings against various entities including Eustace “Tony” Senese, his son Cameron Senese, and associated companies Allianz Metro Pty Ltd, Transcomm Global Pty Ltd and Bianco Pty Ltd, in relation to the Binary Options websites titantrade.com and tradettn.com.
TitanTrade has been the subject of several ASIC warnings, as well as from other financial regulators around the world, including Canada, Cyprus and Belize.
ASIC alleges that Mr. Senese, along with Israel based associate Yoav Ida, own and operate TitanTrade alongside a list of other associated companies. And, that more than $4 million deposited to TitanTrade by customers, including many Australians, were actually deposited into a bank account held in the name of Tony Senese’s business Allianz Metro Pty Ltd., from which they were distributed to other associated companies around the world.
Mr. Senese (and Mr. Ida) have continually denied any involvement in the operation of TitanTrade, claiming that they are operating a payment platform business used by visitors to the website.
ASIC has yet to formally make any allegations against the companies, or the Seneses, or Mr. Ida.
However in July 2016, following an ASIC request, the Court made freezing orders prohibiting Tony Senese, his wife Sandy Senese, their son Cameron Senese, and Mr. Ida from dealing with their assets. On various occasions the Court has allowed the defendants to use some of the frozen funds to cover living and legal expenses.
Citing a recent court judgement, the SMH has reported that soon after the asset freezes were first issued, Tony Senese entered into a loan agreement with a company called Edge Premium Funding and made a a series of drawdowns to pay his mortgage, his legal fees, credit cards and to make several transactions between family businesses.
His son Cameron Senese also allegedly flouted the freezing orders by withdrawing funds from two new bank accounts set up during ASIC’s investigation.
And in a rare move, ASIC also alleges that their former lawyers Kalus Kenny Intelex was in contempt of court through its involvement in certain transactions by which legal expenses were paid in excess of the carve-outs provided for in the various Court orders. A Kalus Kenny spokesperson told the SMH that there had not been any contempt, and that the matter had been opposed. He also added that the firm was no longer representing the Senese family or the family businesses allegedly linked to the TitanTrade website.