iscover Former accountant pleads guilty to stealing from clients
BusinessDamien Luscombe pled guilty to making fraudulent transactions from client accounts at the Victorian County Court last week.
The former partner and manager at accounting firm White Sky pled guilty at the Victorian County Court to 12 charges on Friday.
During 11 years between September 2011 and September 2022, Luscombe allegedly made at least 337 false documents to facilitate 239 fraudulent transactions, as reported by Nine News.
Accountants Daily reported in October 2022 that Luscombe had been stood down from White Sky over the alleged misuse of client funds.
White Sky is a niche accounting and business management services firm for some of Australia’s top artists including Tame Impala, Amy Shark, Vance Joy, and Peking Duk.
Discrepancies emerged in some of the accounts managed by Luscombe following an internal investigation, with several high-profile clients in the music industry affected.
Victoria Police investigated the matter with the assistance of the financial crime squad.
A spokesperson for White Sky said the firm was in absolute shock at the uncovered actions.
“We have an incredible team here and we are all united in continuing to support our clients,” the firm stated following earlier reports about the alleged fraud.
“We would like to assure our clients that we are committed to working through this with their interests at heart.”
Miranda Brownlee
Miranda Brownlee is the deputy editor of SMSF Adviser, which is the leading source of news, strategy and educational content for professionals working in the SMSF sector.
Since joining the team in 2014, Miranda has been responsible for breaking some of the biggest superannuation stories in Australia, and has reported extensively on technical strategy and legislative updates.
Miranda also has broad business and financial services reporting experience, having written for titles including Investor Daily, ifa and Accountants Daily.
