Ritchie Okesene – Professional Conman & All Round Village Idiot

On 15 May 2019 Okesene asked me for two loans (in AUD and IDR), which he promised to repay within 45 days out of the sale of a project he purportedly owned in Parramatta, for which Okesene claimed that a AUD 2,500,000 non refundable deposit had been paid by the purchaser. The relevant parts of our discussion via Whatsapp are attached as a PDF document.

I transferred AUD 25,000 to Okesene’s ANZ account, and IDR 100,000,000 to a third party in accordance with Okesene’s instructions. Copies of my AUD bank transfer to Okesene is attached.

As can be seen from our Whatsapp correspondence, in August 2019 Okesene asked me for a further loan, and on 25 August 2019 I transferred a further AUD 15,000 to Okesene’s ANZ account.

On 30 August 2019 Okesene asked me whether I could receive USD 5,000 in one of my US dollar accounts from a friend of his, Valeriya Kudryashova, and pay the Australian dollar equivalent to him, because “She wants me to make some transactions for her”.

Following the arrival of the US dollars, on 19 September 2019 I transferred AUD 7,350 to Okesene’s ANZ account, however according to Ms. Kudryashova, Okesene never remitted the Australian dollars to her.

On 20 September 2019 Okesene advised me that his father in New Zealand did not have long to live, and he asked me for a further loan. On 21 September 2019 I transferred AUD 10,000 to his ANZ account.

It was well understood by Okesene that I would be starting construction of Bali Beach Glamping (www.balibeachglamping.com) in January 2020, and that he must repay the loans by then at the latest.

In January 2020 Okesene asked to stay at Villa Vedas again, and between 18 to 20 January 2020 he stayed at the villa, running up a bill of IDR 33,857,123, of which IDR 16,800,000 was represented by 12 bottles of Moet & Chandon champagne.

When I upbraided him for ordering champagne without my prior agreement at a time when he already owed me about $60,000, he took me aside to remonstrate with me for “embarrassing” him in front of his guests!   

Okesene signed the guest folio (copy attached), but he checked out without settling it, after promising to settle it, together with all the loans and accrued interest thereon, the following week (his Parramatta project was about to settle etc etc).

On 1 March 2020 Okesene asked me to lend him another Euro 3,500, which he wanted me to send to his new lady friend in Moscow, who apparently needed it to obtain a travel visa. I transferred the money to a Sberbank account on 2 March 2020 (copy attached).

By May 2020 Bali Beach Glamping was well underway, Covid 19 was making it hard to secure funds for the project, we were IDR 5 billion short, and I needed to recover my loans to Okesene, who had promised to repay them by January 2020 at the latest.

The final straw came in mid May 2020 when Okesene asked me to allow one of his Russian model friends to do a photoshoot at Villa Vedas, and after I arranged this for him at considerable difficulty (owing to Covid 19 access permits needed to be secured from the banjar), he told me that his friends had gone to Ubud instead.

Exacerbated by Okesene’s failure to repay the loans, tempers flared, and I compared notes with (among others) Ms. Kudryashova, who advised me that Okesene had not released the AUD 7,350 I had transferred to him on 19 September 2019, apparently using multiple excuses, one of which was apparently that the money had been transferred to a trust account that he was unable to access, notwithstanding the fact that I had followed his funds transfer instructions when I transferred Ms. Kudryashova’s money to him.

It quickly became apparent that Okesene had borrowed money from at least one other person in Bali, that he had also retained the proceeds of the sale of a villa that had belonged to his ex wife.

Worst still, it became apparent that Okesene had no project in Parramatta, that he had no land in Labuan Bajo, that he had no flat in Coogee, and that he had no restaurant in Bondi Junction, all of which he had touted since May 2019 as possible sources of repayment. In summary, it became apparent that Okesene had never had either the means or the intention of repaying any of my loans to him.

On 21 May 2020 I submitted a Statement of Claim to the NSW Local Court, claiming a total of AUD 79,786.44 (copy attached), and the court made a final order on 7 July 2020 requiring Okesene to pay me AUD 80,268.76 (copy attached).

On 10 July 2020 the Official Receiver issued a Bankruptcy Notice against Okesene, requiring him either to settle the debt, or to make arrangements with me, to my satisfaction, to settle the debt, within 6 months (ie. by 10 January 2021), or he will have committed an act of bankruptcy.  

I have made repeated offers to Okesene to settle this matter, but he has not even offered to pay for the 12 bottles of champagne he and his Russian lady friends drank during their ultimately free stay at Villa Vedas between 18 and 20 January 2020.

After Okesene’s bankruptcy notice was issued, to which Okesene did not respond within the stipulated 6 month period (or, indeed, at all), I assumed that Okesene would be automatically bankrupted.

However, I could not find Okesene’s name on the register of bankrupts, and when I asked the Federal Court of Australia why Okesene was not registered as a bankrupt, the court advised me that, in order finalise a debtor’s bankruptcy, the creditor is required to submit a Creditor’s Petition at a cost of additional AUD 1,600 in court fees.

After spending about AUD 500 on getting Okesene’s Bankruptcy Notice issued, I was reluctant to spend an additional AUD 1,600 in court fees to submit the Creditor’s Notice that would formalise Okesene’s bankruptcy.

I reasoned to myself that this website probably achieves a similar effect to bankruptcy from Okesene’s perspective, and furthermore if I bankrupted him, Okesene would be released from his debt when he emerged from bankruptcy. By contrast, the debt exists forever if Okesene is not bankrupted.

If Okesene pays me what he owes me in full, or alternatively he makes me an offer that I find acceptable, this website will be taken down forthwith.

Unfortunately, Okesene shows no contrition at all for scamming me and many others, and even less interest in repaying his debts. Furthermore, he posts images on his Instagram account of himself cruising around Sydney in his BMW, and flying to exotic destinations, all to the soothing tones of “Smooth Operator”!

Indeed, in an attempt to exact revenge for the existence of this website, in late May 2022 Okesene wrote anonymously to several wedding planners in Bali, claiming that “people involved in Vida Vedas (sic) and Bali Beach Glamping are involved in child sex activities. These alleged paedophiles are persons of interest with Indonesian police, Australian Federal Police, Singapore Police & Scotland Yard”. A copy of his anonymous note is shown below.

When challenged Okesene denied all knowledge of what is clearly criminal defamation under Section 529(3) of the Crimes Act 1900 (NSW), however a password reset request on the DailyOm88, the Instagram account from which the defamatory messages were being sent, stated that an email had been sent to r*******e@i*****.com, which, lo and behold, matched rhokesene@icloud.com, Okesene’s email address. Pathetic is the only word that fits.

In act 1, scene 3 of Hamlet, Polonius said to Laertes “neither a borrower nor a lender be, for loan oft loses both itself and friend, and borrowing dulls the edge of husbandry.” Wise words indeed.