Perth lawyer Nathan Ebbs claims betting whiz-kid Chris Brown used fake email to make $6.7 million claim

A Perth lawyer has accused betting whiz-kid Chris Brown of creating a false email using high-profile law firm Bennett & Co’s letterhead and using it to claim that more than $6.7 million was heading into one of his bank accounts. Bennett & Co. managing principal Nathan Ebbs yesterday told The West Australian he had confronted Mr Brown over the email which the betting scheme promoter had admitted creating in March 2019. Mr Ebbs said Mr Brown, a former cricketing teammate, had apologised to him and admitted he had “made a big mistake under duress”. But despite then reporting the false email to WA Police in May 2019, Mr Ebbs said he heard nothing back from fraud investigators. The email was created around the time that family, sporting and schoolfriends, who provided early backing of Mr Brown’s betting arbitrage schemes, were putting him under pressure to pay millions of dollars in early reported winnings. Those early backers claimed this week that Mr Brown, 27, came up with a variety of excuses for being unable to hand over the money. They included that banks and betting agencies were refusing to release the winnings and federal agency Austrac had put clamps on the payouts. The Federal Court has appointed receivers from KPMG to hunt down more than $126 million that Mr Brown has admitted owing to wealthy investors who began to fund his betting activities from mid-2019. Investigations by The West have revealed a similar amount could be claimed by dozens of backers from Perth and Northam who began bankrolling the Aquinas College old boy and University of WA commerce graduate five years ago. And the business and social networker is facing a backlash from people who believe they could be up for a share of the fortune KPMG is searching for at betting agencies and in banking and stockbroking accounts. Police confirmed this week that the fraud squad received a report about Mr Brown in 2019. A spokesman said inquiries were carried out but a full investigation did not happen because investors police spoke to “didn’t want to proceed with the matter”. The police statement has been hotly disputed by two of Mr Brown’s highest profile early backers — property developer John Norup and racing caller Darren McAullay. Both say they provided detailed information to fraud detectives in 2019 and had made it clear they wanted them to push ahead with investigations. Mr McAullay said yesterday he handed over copies of documents and emails that he believed were forgeries. “They just completely disconnected and never bothered to communicate with us and let us know what they found,” Mr McAullay said. Mr Norup said fraud detectives had told him they were very busy and would need six months or more before they could examine the complaints about Mr Brown. “Never did Macca or I say we don’t want to proceed,” he said. “We could have stopped people being hurt two years ago if the police had acted.” Supt. Rob Anderson, who set up a new WA Police financial crimes division last August, said he could not discuss what might have been done by his predecessors. But he vowed to call Mr Norup and Mr McAullay next week. “I am going to reinvestigate this matter and talk to these people,” he said. A bankruptcy application against Mr Brown is due in the Federal Court on May 10.