Former Billabong Ceo Matthew Perrin Sentenced To 8 Years For Fraud

Perrin was found guilty of his crimes back in December, when an Australian court determined that he forged his then-wife Nicole Bricknell’s signature in order to fraudulently mortgage their $8 million home, which was in her name alone. Through these means, he is reported to have defrauded the Commonwealth Bank of $13 million Australian, which comes to almost $10 million in American currency. As the story goes, Perrin turned to this embarrassing crime after years of bad business deals left him broke and in debt – a particularly bad state of affairs given that in 2000 he and Bricknell were riding strong on the $60 million from Billabong’s IPO. But none of that was enough to arouse much sympathy in the court for Perrin, as evidenced by the presiding judge’s statement: Perrin plead not guilty to the charges of fraud, claiming he had his wife’s permission to forge her signature. The court obviously thought otherwise, and now Perrin is looking at least to nearly four years in jail, since he’s scheduled to be eligible for parole sometime in late 2020.