ASIC v. Courtenay House (ponzi schemes, 2021)

Judgment entered

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In November 2021 ASIC announced criminal charges against Courtenay House director Tony Iervasi and contractor Athan Papoulias over an alleged Ponzi scheme. ASIC reports that both pleaded guilty: Papoulias received a two-year intensive correction order in May 2023 and Iervasi 11 years' imprisonment in September 2024.

The record

What was ordered

Civil penalty

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Disgorgement

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Prejudgment interest

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Total relief

—

Alleged gain

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Penalty as published

A$270k

A dash means the release did not state a figure we could extract, not that the figure is zero. Penalty and disgorgement are stored separately so aggregates across the library do not double-count the same dollars. This regulator states penalties in AUD. The figure is recorded as published and is not converted, so it does not appear in the USD totals or medians used elsewhere on this site.

What is alleged to have happened

In November 2021 ASIC announced criminal charges against Tony Iervasi, former director of Courtenay House, and contractor Athan Papoulias over an alleged Ponzi scheme into which about 590 investors paid over A$196 million. The charges were allegations at that date. The record listed the company as the defendant; the persons charged are the two individuals. This library tags the matter as ponzi schemes because ASIC or the sentencing court describes new investors' money being used to pay earlier investors; the tag is ours.

Outcome: ASIC release 23-118MR (May 8, 2023) says Papoulias pleaded guilty to carrying on an unlicensed financial services business and dealing in proceeds of crime, and was sentenced to two years' imprisonment served as an intensive correction order, with 120 hours of community service; it says he received A$670,860 in commissions. ASIC release 24-193MR (September 2, 2024) says Iervasi was sentenced in the NSW Supreme Court to 11 years' imprisonment with a seven-year non-parole period after pleading guilty to four dishonest-conduct offences and one unlicensed-business offence. The sentencing judge is quoted as noting net victim losses of about A$54 million. The date recorded is the release date of the later sentence, and the sentence recorded is Iervasi's. A third person, David Sipina, was separately sentenced (release 24-288MR, opened) but is not a respondent in this record.

What technique is this, and how does it work?

This action is tagged with one technique in our taxonomy. The tagging is ours: regulators charge statutory provisions, not technique names, so the mapping is an editorial judgement described in our editorial policy.

• Ponzi schemes — see how it works, what statute it engages, and every other action tagged the same way.

Timeline

1. 2021-11-30 ASIC media release
2. 2023-05-08 ASIC release 23-118MR: Papoulias sentenced to two years by intensive correction order
3. 2024-09-02 ASIC release 24-193MR: Iervasi sentenced to 11 years

Primary documents

Everything on this page derives from the documents below. Where our summary and the primary document disagree, the primary document is right.

• ASIC media release
• ASIC media release 23-118MR (Papoulias sentence)
• ASIC media release 24-193MR (Iervasi sentence)

The linked release is published by the issuing regulator under its own terms. Our summary and narrative above are our own writing.

Same matter

The library links these 5 records because they appear to concern one matter: the same lead defendant, an overlapping technique tag and close filing dates, or a shared court docket or a release that cites the other. Records are listed by date filed.

This grouping is the library's, made by matching names, techniques, dates and citations when the site is built. It is not the regulator's or a court's determination that the records are one case, and it errs towards missing a link rather than making a false one.

Related actions

Other actions in the library sharing at least one technique tag with this one.

Record added September 10, 2026. submit a correction.