By Lucy Kent,Michael Atkin

Copyright abc

In the heart of Melbourne’s business district, office blocks rise into the gloomy sky.

The buildings are full of bankers and investment advisers from Australia’s best-known institutions trusted to handle vast sums.

It’s also where Global Investment Marketing (GIM), a company accused of defrauding millions of dollars from investors, had its corporate headquarters listed on Level 10 of 440 Collins Street.

But GIM didn’t have a large workforce in the building — instead, paying for what’s known as a “virtual office,” according to clients of the company who claim they’ve been stolen from.

Coming replete with a real office — including a receptionist and a mail service — the virtual office allowed the company to claim its head office was based there, without any physical presence, and at a fraction of the cost of real office space.

The illusion was part of what one investor claimed were “very serious, very well done efforts … to swindle people”.

New information about the company’s offshore links raised questions about whether an overseas criminal syndicate was involved, according a private firm investigating the case.

Last week, the former public face of the company, Stephen Cubis, told the ABC he believed GIM Trading was operating a fraudulent scheme, with some Australians also saying they had lost hundreds of thousands of dollars each.

Financial crime expert Neil Jeans works on Collins Street, as a partner for advisory firm Grant Thornton.

Until he was contacted by the ABC, he had never heard of GIM Trading, which he said was surprising given they claimed to be such heavy hitters in finance.

He expressed concern GIM Trading had misrepresented its virtual office to mislead investors.

“This location clearly would give credibility to a company that was providing financial services,” he said.

‘They have created a veneer’

The office network was part of a convincing package sent to Western Australian retiree Ron Renton.

“It was part of due diligence that I thought I was doing on that company,” he said.

“It had never occurred to me that these offices, in fact, were virtual offices.”

Mr Renton used GIM Trading to invest more than three-quarters of a million dollars in corporate bonds, which he now suspects were never purchased, and his money was stolen.

The National Anti-Scam Centre has received reports of almost $8 million in losses related to the company since the beginning of last year.

Mr Renton said he was given the impression GIM Trading staff were based on Collins Street and at other offices.

“It was all part obviously of the very serious, very well done, efforts by these people to swindle people,” he said.

“Somebody was making payments to the owners of the virtual office system and that needs to be followed up.”

According to the website for Virtual Headquarters, for as little as $100 a month, a company like GIM can pay for a “virtual address” at the Collins Street location to create “immediate credibility, impressing clients and partners,” including receptionist and mail services.

GIM Trading bragged in a press release, it was also opening three new offices in Sydney, Brisbane and Adelaide to “attract top financial professionals who prefer to work locally,” and give “deeper engagement with the communities they serve”.

Potential customers like Mr Renton were told by the self-described “leading force in the financial services sector” that it had more than 140 employees managing a whopping $52 billion in assets.

Crucially, it also listed one of the best credentials available — a financial services licence or AFSL.

Last December, Mr Renton asked someone to check out the Sydney office.

After visiting, she emailed him to say reception had told her no one from GIM was based in the office and they only communicated with the company via email.

Mr Jeans reviewed material about the company and said its claims of a large workforce that managed huge sums didn’t stack up.

“That is the essence of a scam that I think has occurred,” he said.

“They have created a veneer, a veneer that instils confidence in the investor and as a result the investor has been happy to invest the money.”

Virtual Headquarters did not answer the ABC’s questions about the arrangement citing client confidentiality. It said in a statement it conducted detailed customer checks and had serviced more than 15,000 businesses.

“Our screening processes are comprehensive, including government certification, ID and security checks,” the statement said.

“If we receive an adverse report, we refund any payments to the company immediately.”

Mr Jeans said virtual offices were common and used by legitimate businesses to cut the costs associated with being based in prestigious locations but they were also “vulnerable to abuse by criminals”.

The Albanese government has recently passed anti-money laundering laws, which come into effect midway through next year, which Mr Jeans said would make a difference.

Companies that provide a registered office address will be required to register with money-laundering regulator AUSTRAC, have an anti-money laundering program as well as collect and verify customer details including who the beneficial owner is.

Failing to do so could result in stiff penalties or other sanctions.

Following the money trail

Cybercrime investigator Ken Gamble has been hired by seven clients to investigate where the millions they paid to GIM went.

He said in most frauds, multiple bank accounts were used to shift stolen funds.

Bank records show that between October and December 2024, customers including Ron Renton paid their life savings to a Commonwealth Bank (CBA) account operated by GIM Trading.

But CBA received credible information GIM may not be a genuine financial services business, and by Friday December 13 it stopped the account.

Two days later CBA wrote to other banks warning them about suspicious transactions and asking them to investigate.

It wasn’t the only warning.

Finance giant Macquarie also posted on its website in December accusing GIM Trading of running a bond scam.

Despite those warnings, payments to GIM were also flowing into another company account with National Australia Bank (NAB).

One of Mr Gamble’s clients lost more than $200,000 to GIM Trading after paying it into the NAB account in early January.

Mr Gamble questioned whether NAB had acted fast enough to protect his client and possibly others.

“There needs to be an investigation into when they were notified and if they were notified by another bank that there’s a potential fraud and if money continued to flow across that account,” he said.

NAB did not answer the ABC’s questions but maintained it did act as required.

Executive, Group Investigations at NAB, Chris Sheehan said in a statement, “NAB’s taken appropriate steps at the appropriate time, noting NAB received the AFCX’s (Australian Financial Crimes Exchange) FRX report on 6 March, 2025.”

“We do whatever we can to try to recover stolen money, cooperate with other banks’ investigations, block accounts and report activities in line with our financial crime obligations.”

According to former director Stephen Cubis, GIM Trading was also using a money exchange based at Surfers Paradise on the Gold Coast called TorFx.

The TorFx website states that funds sent to an account are turned into foreign currency before being sent on to another bank account.

TorFx declined to answer the ABC’s questions citing “legal and regulatory requirements”.

Mr Cubis said he was paid to operate a company bank account and move money on instructions from two men, including one based overseas who he knew only by the man’s initials.

Records show he was a director for six months ending in late October 2024 and was the sole shareholder during this period.

He claimed the instructions came via the encrypted messaging app, Signal, and the money was moved using TorFx.

He has not supplied evidence of the conversations with the two men, despite promising to do so.

When pressed by the ABC about whether he had played a larger role in the suspected fraud than he was letting on, Mr Cubis denied it saying that “would be suicide” and he thought the operation was “legitimate” in the beginning.

However, he also admitted he had, “not been a saint” and had “previous minor convictions” which one of the men giving him instructions was aware of.

Court records show Mr Cubis is also facing nine criminal charges on unrelated matters including driving offences.

He was arrested in Brisbane last month for failing to appear in court.

GIM Trading and its current director, 57-year-old Gold Coast man Darren Geddes, have not responded to attempts to contact them.

The Hong Kong company with a Chinese director

New information about GIM Trading has raised serious questions about whether an offshore criminal syndicate was involved in buying the company and impersonating a company director during the sale process, according to a private investigation firm.

GIM Trading’s then owner Hilton Wood said together with his business partner, they advertised the company and agreed to sell it to Mr Cubis for $220,000 after communicating over phone and email.

He was even emailed Mr Cubis’s resume, which falsely claimed he had a commerce degree from Sydney University and had worked as an analyst at Macquarie.

However, he was told to expect payment from an overseas company.

The payment arrived in his lawyer’s trust account from a Hong Kong company called Aoding Trade Limited with a Chinese director from Hunan Province.

The ABC’s attempts to reach the company and the director were unsuccessful.

Mr Gamble, from firm IFW Global, has seen the payment receipts and obtained the Hong Kong company records.

He believed this, together with other evidence suggested the involvement of an offshore criminal syndicate which required urgent investigation from authorities.

However, he added the Chinese company director and others involved with the company may have no knowledge of the alleged fraud and that required further investigation.

Mr Cubis has repeatedly denied he was involved in purchasing the company and admitted he had no background in finance.

He has also rejected suggestions he put forward the fraudulent resume or dealt with Mr Wood.

Mr Wood said when he watched the ABC interview with Mr Cubis he realised his voice was different to the man he’d been dealing with over the sale — raising questions about that person’s identity.

“That was certainly not the person that I spoke to,” Mr Wood said.

“The person who I spoke to on the phone, who said he was Stephen Cubis, was an educated businessman who had the etiquette or business etiquette to be able to run a fund or a business that he said he was trying to set up.”

Mr Wood said he was worried about the allegations GIM Trading had operated a fraudulent scheme after he sold the business.

Mr Wood said it was unacceptable that Mr Cubis had agreed to be paid as the sole director and the public face of GIM Trading if he didn’t understand what was happening in the business.

Mr Renton agreed and said as a company director, Mr Cubis was legally responsible for what happened on his watch.

“He can hardly claim that he was made director by somebody out there that he ran across in a bar. It was his company.

“He did not have to follow instructions from people that he did not know and moving money that he claims, presumably, that he did not know the source of.”

The corporate watchdog, ASIC, has been conducting a covert investigation into GIM Trading and other parties.

After the ABC broke news of the serious allegations, ASIC was forced to act, securing a Federal Court order preventing the current director, Darren Geddes from leaving the country.

This week Mr Geddes appeared in the Federal Court via video link.

News Corp papers reported him telling the court he believed he was a “fall guy” or “patsy”.

“I don’t believe I have done anything wrong, I am probably a fall guy or a patsy here,” Mr Geddes is quoted in the Courier Mail as telling Justice O’Bryan.

“There’s no point really in me making any comments when I don’t understand the law and I am not a lawyer,” he said.

Mr Gamble said he was frustrated at the slow pace of the investigation by ASIC and other authorities, given suspicions of serious fraudulent activity became clear nine months ago.

“Clearly ASIC are not in a position to take action promptly in relation to these types of frauds. So if ASIC is not in position, well, who the hell is in a position to do it?”

That frustration is shared by Liberal Senator Andrew Bragg who chaired an inquiry last year which was highly critical of ASIC’s record of investigating and prosecuting serious misconduct.

Mr Bragg said at the very least ASIC should have taken action against GIM Trading for being unlicensed, after it lost access to its previous licence.

The regulator published an investor warning in February stating the company was operating without a licence.

“This is really a question of law enforcement, you’re not allowed to do business without a licence,” Mr Bragg said.

In a statement ASIC said its investigation had been underway for “some time”.

‘ASIC is currently investigating GIM, and its current and former directors, for their roles in the alleged misappropriation of funds deposited by customers for investment purposes,” it said.

“These investigations are complex and generally require the gathering of admissible evidence, witness interviews, expert advice and legal assessment. This process may include covert and ongoing surveillance and significant gathering of evidence and information before consideration can be given to any commencement of action.”

The regulator said in the first six months of this year it commenced 132 new investigations and 23 new court actions — which was a substantial increase compared to the previous year.

While GIM’s customers wait to see what authorities will do, they continue to pursue any avenue they can to get their money back.

Mr Renton and 20 others have lodged complaints with the financial ombudsman, AFCA about being misled by GIM.

He’s received a recommendation for the company to repay him $780,000 plus interest because AFCA “received no evidence to show the financial firm actually arranged the purchase of any of the bonds”.

The company did not respond to the ombudsman’s requests for information and the case will proceed to the final stage for a determination.

However, Mr Renton isn’t hopeful he will get paid.

AFCA said if a firm refuses or fails to comply with its determination it reports it to the corporate watchdog ASIC.

Australia passed new scam laws in February which will make tech giants, telcos, and sending and receiving banks, liable to repay victims’ losses.

However, the government is still consulting with key sectors on how this will be implemented.

Mr Gamble said that’s why it was essential authorities acted quickly.

Mr Jeans said Australia was seeing a rise in scams but without more resourcing of the financial regulator, he couldn’t see that stopping anytime soon.

“Unfortunately, it is left to the investor to not only make the investment decisions but also to make sure that their money is safe.”