Michael Pryde, a 31-year-old man from Sydney, Australia, is facing a number of lawsuits in New South Wales (NSW) after allegedly defrauding investors of millions of dollars in a scheme involving a sports betting platform known as Simply the Bets.
According to a report from the Daily Telegraph, Pryde created a network of connections in recent years, most of whom were classmates or friends of his from St. Joseph’s College, an affluent all-boys boarding school.
He then approached a number of these acquaintances with the intention of getting them to invest in Simply the Bets, which he touted as being backed by state-of-the-art statistical models and other such technologies.
The exact number of investors and the total amount of money that was invested in the company are unknown, but the amount of lawsuits piling up would indicate that it is at least several million dollars.
As it turned out, everything about the business, from its operations to its address, were falsified. According to the Telegraph, the unit number listed for the business does not even exist.
Additionally, Pryde never obtained a gambling license of any kind, which was confirmed by the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA).
According to court filings, Pryde also tried to alleviate investors’ concerns about his financial standing by presenting them with doctored bank statements that made it seem as though he had US$1.8 million in his personal accounts, when in reality he had just $1,800.
So far, the NSW Supreme Court has ordered that Pryde’s bank accounts be frozen while his other lawsuits remain pending. A lower court has already ruled in favor of one investor, ordering Pryde to pay back some $51,000 in restitution.
