Liquidator probes transfer of Queensland government funds to bank account of Cryptoloc Holdings founder Jamie Wilson
The funds transfer to Cryptoloc Holdings founder Jamie Wilson, who once wooed the state's top politicians and pop stars, is under investigation as a potential "fraudulent" transaction, according to a liquidator's report.
The move is the latest shock from a disastrous cybersecurity tender won just before last year's state election by Cryptoloc Holdings.
The government contract dissolved within months and the state has pursued $1.5 million paid in an initial sum.
The ABC can also reveal Mr Wilson has just filed for personal bankruptcy. He declared having repaid $1 million to a family member in the months before his company failed, but only having $120 in cash on him now.
Mr Wilson's entities donated more than $320,000 to both sides of politics over four years. He was a networker who was repeatedly nominated for the LNP Brisbane Lord Mayor Adrian Schrinner's businessperson of the year award and scored face time with then-Labor deputy premier Steven Miles.
The 45-year-old accountant turned tech entrepreneur rubbed shoulders with celebrities, including pop star Ronan Keating at company-sponsored parties and appeared on video podcasts with influencers.
His Cryptoloc Holdings won a tender last September to provide a $15 million cybersecurity program, hailed by the then-Labor government as helping "protect Queensland's small businesses".
But after an ABC investigation in November uncovered financial problems, the state government alleged it could not get sufficient answers from Cryptoloc Holdings and tipped it into liquidation.
Now liquidator Nick Combis of Vincents has zeroed in on the state funds.
Cryptoloc Holdings "never had any assets of significance until the funds it received … from the Queensland state government", his report said.
Creditors seek $2.4 million, including $1.51 million for the state and $44,000 for a subcontractor.
"My investigations have revealed several uncommercial transactions, including the removal of funds from the company's bank account and paid directly to the director's bank account within twenty-four hours of funds being received from the Queensland state government," Mr Combis wrote.
He noted management accounts had recorded expenses last year of $1.55 million and these were "amounts transferred primarily from the company's account to the director's bank account (I have traced) which I consider to be voidable and or fraudulent transactions".
Mr Combis wrote Mr Wilson has "indicated that he has no assets [to] repay the funds".
Mr Wilson has not answered ABC requests for comment.
But in an email filed in earlier state litigation, Mr Wilson had maintained money advanced by the government had been spent on the cybersecurity program and his company was working to "successfully deliver" the project.
His own records for bankruptcy, filed last month, said he is living rent-free with family.
He listed $4.6 million in debts, including $1 million owed to the Australian Taxation Office, $2.62 million to Cryptoloc Holdings, $260,000 to two businessmen and $600,000 to a family member.
That family member received $1 million in October for a personal loan repayment, the filings state.
They also said Mr Wilson paid former conservative politician Santo Santoro, a lobbyist for Mr Wilson's business, $150,000 in the month before state money flowed.
Mr Wilson wrote that the reason for the payment was "debt collector".
Mr Wilson wrote another of his failed companies, Your Digital File (Aust), owed him $1 million for a business loan. He also had $110,312 in superannuation, but only $120 in cash.
The rapid contract failure has raised questions about tendering — but bureaucrats have refused to hand over more than 180 pages of related documents the ABC has sought via right to information laws.
Mr Wilson's Cryptoloc Technology paid $23,040 for Labor events a few months before the contract was awarded, including a Queensland Labor Business Roundtable membership, and political lunches hosted by then-premier Steven Miles and Energy Minister Mick de Brenni.
A Queensland Labor spokesman said Cryptoloc donations did not influence the tender process, which the department ran independently. Neither Mr Miles, Mr de Brenni or then small business minister Lance McCallum, who announced Cryptoloc's win in September, intervened in the tenders, the spokesman said.
A spokesman for Steve Minnikin, minister for customer services and open data in the new LNP administration, said an audit underway into the cybersecurity tender "aims to identify potential process improvements".
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