Following an investigation, Mr Michael Samra, a former mortgage broker, has today been sentenced in the Adelaide District Court to 8 years and 9 months imprisonment, with a minimum of 4 years and 6 months to be served before becoming eligible for parole.

ASIC alleged that between 1 January 2009 and 31 July 2009, Mr Samra through ALC Group Pty Ltd deceived investors to lend money to be on-lent to builders and property developers, when in fact the monies were not on-lent and dishonestly benefited the ALC Group Pty Ltd or another party (refer 15-126MR and 17-104MR).

Mr Samra pleaded guilty to six charges of deception totalling $1.902 million.

ASIC Deputy Chairman, Peter Kell said, 'This is a significant penalty reflecting the seriousness of the criminal conduct. ASIC will continue to investigate where investors are deceived and refer criminal conduct to the CDPP for prosecution.'

Mr Samra has 21 days to appeal his sentence.

Background

ASIC's alleged Mr Samra induced investors to loan his company, ALC Group Pty Ltd, money on the basis that it would be on-lent to unnamed builders or property developers on a short term basis. 

The Norwood-based, ALC Group Pty Ltd, collapsed in 2009 with liabilities of approximately $40 million.

ASIC investigations found that approximately $66 million came into the ALC Group Pty Ltd bank account over a seven month period with the majority of funds paid to investors.

Twelve charges were laid in 2015 for 12 counts of deception totalling over $12 million.  Mr Samra has pleaded guilty to six charges and the remaining six charges have been entered to the court as discontinued.

The matter was prosecuted by the Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions.  

Editor's note 1:

On 31 August 2017, Mr Samra filed an Application for Permission to Appeal his sentence in the Supreme Court of South Australia. The Permission Hearing has been set down for Monday 25 September 2017 at 10am.

Editor's note 2:

On 15 September 2017, Mr Samra discontinued his appeal against sentence.