David RichardsNSW Distributor Ngat Doan the man at the centre of the AMD false invoicing scam has declared bankruptcy following a judgment made against him in the NSW Supreme Court for $3.2 million.
J McDougall in the NSW Supreme Court Equity Division has said that evidence presented to him, although voluminous, makes it plain that the invoices submitted by Mr Doan to AMD for co-op dollar rebates in 2001, were completely fictitious. He said in a ruling that went against Doan that In Mr Doan’s own words, taken from his statement dated 9 May 2003, the invoices and the marketing proposals referred to in them “are a complete fantasy and fabrication and have no basis in fact”. Doan who did not appeared to contest the proceedings is rumoured to own property worth more than $30million dollars. He still operates a distributor business from the old APD International offices in Silverwater NSW.
Justice McDougall said that the claim for damages against APD International arises out of a marketing programme administered by the cross-claimants (AMD). The essence was that the cross-claimant (AMD) would pay contributions in respect of invoices submitted by among others Mr Doan. These invoices he ruled were a complete fantasy and fabrication and have no basis in fact.He said “Accordingly, both on the admissions made by Mr Doan in his statement and by reason of his failure to respond to a notice to admit facts, and by reason of the documents that are summarised in the cross-claimant’s written submissions dated 5 July 2005, I am satisfied that the cross-claimants have made out their claim.
The cross-claimants have caused interest to be calculated at the rate applicable to US dollars. The total of the claim together with interest as at today’s date is US$2,493,149.10 (A$3.32M). The original case bought by AMD against Ngat Doan cost millions to bring to court. It centred on allegations that Doan had falsely claimed co-op dollars for advertising in IT publications. It was alleged by AMD that Doan had changed invoices from the amount invoiced by publishers to a higher amount and over a number of years claimed more than $3.000,000 million in advertising co-op dollars, which AMD executives told police were not approved.
Earlier this year the NSW DPP dramatically dropped the case against Doan, who had been charged with 47 criminal offences under section 176a of the crimes act relating to direct cheat and fraud. He was also charged with using a false instrument to obtain benefit.
During the investigation Doan told investigators that his defence was based on the fact that executives at AMD knew about the “changed invoices” at the centre of the case. AMD denies this allegation. However, key AMD witnesses are now not available to present evidence before an Australian court that could disprove Doan’s allegations, as several have since left the employment of AMD.