Introduction

Ian Williamson and Julian Bulman are the co-founders and executive officers of Leybourne Holdings, also known as LHL Concepts. Ian Williamson is the Chief Financial Officer and Julian Bulman is the Executive Chairman. No-one else is mentioned on their LHL Concepts website besides vague “sister” companies that circle the globe. As CFO, Ian Williamson promised their client they would produce $40 million USD to fund the purchase of a commercial building after an initial deposit of $1.5 million USD from their client. Several months later, the client had lost $250,000 USD to Ian Williamson and his partner and had nothing to show for it. Below is a brief outline of how this transpired.

The Business Deal

• Ian Williamson’s associate in Perth, Western Australia is LHL Concepts’ project recruiter Anthony McIlwain of Last Pixel. Mr McIlwain garners an introduction to a businessman who is looking for financing to buy a new skyscraper in one of Australia’s major cities. Mr McIlwain tells the prospective buyer that he has done several big development projects around the world with Ian Williamson and Julian Bulman, some worth up to $100 million USD. For a fee, he offers to introduce him to Ian Williamson’s partner, Julian Bulman. The prospective buyer agrees and after a rigorous appraisal, he becomes LHL Concepts’ client.
• Leybourne Holdings lawyer in the US, Marshal Shichtman draws up a contract of sale, confirming that the client will deposit $1.5 million USD and in exchange, Ian Williamson and Julian Bulman will raise funding in the amount of $40 million USD and transfer it directly to the building owner’s bank. After a request from Mr Williamson for an extension, they agree on 30^th April 2010 as a closing date for the sale.
• From April through to August 2010, both Julian Bulman and Ian Williamson write to their client, the building owner and their respective banks and solicitors, assuring everyone that the money is on the way. Meanwhile, Ian Williamson’s purported friends and custodians of the client’s secured deposit at Barclays Wealth Bank, Geneva, (James Persse and Oliver Grinn) lend Leybourne Holdings $250,000 USD of their client’s secured deposit. Neither Barclays Bank nor the CFO, Ian Williamson, tell the client or ask his permission.
• Mr Bulman, when asked by his client where his $250,000 USD is, confirms it was a loan and assures him it will be returned. He and Ian Williamson write to him in May 2010 confirming this, and they also state the same to multiple people.
• In July 2010, Ian Williamson writes to one party stating he is categorically against the transaction and that they will not honour the contract. Julian Bulman writes to their Australian solicitors, HWL Ebsworth, stating that he would prefer to transfer the funds, then “find a way out” of the contract, and he asks if they will help him. They decline.
• In August 2010, the building goes into Administration and is now considered a distressed sale. The owner loses everything and is forced to file for bankruptcy. The contract, despite being legally enforceable, is not honoured by Ian Williamson and Julian Bulman, operating as LHL Concepts/Leybourne Holdings. They disappear, leaving no forwarding address, responding to no emails and without paying their legal bill. They take the $250,000 USD with them, although as recently as December 2010, Mr Williamson tells a journalist that he intends to return the full amount to their client immediately. It hasn’t materialised.

Summary

Did Ian Williamson, along with his associates, scam his client out of a property deal that could have benefited both his client and the seller, and then abscond with a substantial chunk of the client’s deposit? His ex-client certainly believes that is the case. He feels that Williamson and his company, LHL Concepts, never intended to honour the contract but were always in it for the deposit money. He points to the absence of any completed project LHL Concepts has been involved in, and he’s not alone in thinking it was a fraud. The building’s ex-owner is also convinced that they were scammed and so, they state do their banks and solicitors, which is why they didn’t pursue either of them to settle the contract of sale. The matter has now been referred to the Australian Federal Police and to Interpol as Williamson and Bulman have decamped overseas.

In the words of Leybourne Holdings’ US lawyer, Marshal Shichtman, “This is the most fucked up deal I have ever seen.”