SFO 'pleased' by Devoy fraud sentence over $9.2m fraud
Five, including Mrs Eli Devoy, receive sentences.
Following a guilty charge in mid-June, businesswoman Eli Devoy has been sentenced to five years imprisonment with a minimum period of imprisonment of two years six months.
Mrs Devoy, 47, was the principal defendant in a $9.2 million mortgage fraud scheme prosecuted by the Serious Fraud Office (SFO). The five defendants, including a number of her relatives and associates, were found guilty of Crimes Act charges.
A 10-week trial was held in the Auckland District Court from February to June this year. She pleaded guilty to four charges while the court found her guilty of 20 more charges.
The additional defendants who participated in Mrs Devoy’s scheme are Mehrdad Ghorbani (aka Mohammad Ghorbani Sarsangi), who was sentenced to two years and seven months imprisonment, Mehrzad Ghorbani (aka Mehdi Ghorbani) sentenced to 10 months home detention and Mehran Ghorbani (aka Massoud Ghorbani, or Ken Williams) who received seven months home detention.
A further defendant, Nasrin Kardani, has been remanded on bail until 9 September 2016 for sentencing.
Mrs Devoy, who is also known as Ellie Stone, Eli Ghorbani and Elaheh Ghorbani Sar Sangi, is of Iranian descent and was first charged by the SFO in 2013.
SFO director Julie Read says the office is pleased with the sentencing because of the negative downstream effects on the cost of borrowing for law-abiding citizens.
“We welcome the decisions of His Honour Judge Gibson today which demonstrates there are significant penalties for those who do not provide truthful information to banks and lenders.
“Every lender should be monitoring this risk,” she says.
Staff Reporter
Wed, 17 Aug 2016
Wed, 17 Aug 2016
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SFO 'pleased' by Devoy fraud sentence over $9.2m fraud
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