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A veteran solicitor has had her practising certificate immediately suspended after being charged with multiple serious offences linked to an alleged $1 million fraud scheme.
NSW lawyer Despina Bakis has had her practising certificate immediately suspended by the Council of the Law Society of NSW following allegations linking her to a large-scale fraud scheme.
The Office of the NSW Legal Services Commissioner’s (OLSC) Register of Disciplinary Action states that the suspension was imposed after Bakis was “charged with a number of serious offences”.
The charges relate to allegations that Bakis prepared false contractual documents between two parties she represented – Gows and the Awabakal Local Aboriginal Land Council (ALALC) – according to The Sydney Morning Herald.
However, Gows was allegedly secretly controlled by Bakis’ client, former assistant tax commissioner Nick Petroulias, who held an option to purchase five ALALC-owned properties across Newcastle and Lake Macquarie.
Petroulias is also alleged to have improperly altered the land council’s board meeting minutes and played a role in preparing the sham agreements.
Those rights were later on-sold to a third party, Sunshine Property Investment Group (Sunshine).
As a result, more than $1 million was allegedly transferred from Sunshine to Petroulias’ company, Gows, rather than to the ALALC, despite Gows having no entitlement to the funds.
Bakis is also alleged to have benefited financially from the arrangement, receiving a portion of the funds linked to the alleged scheme.
The allegations prompted a lengthy inquiry by the Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) in 2022, which found that Bakis, Petroulias and others had engaged in serious corrupt conduct, including obtaining money by deception.
The then-acting ICAC commissioner, Peter Hall KC, found that a complex money trail passed through 63 bank accounts in an effort to “disguise the source and ultimate use” of the funds.
The commission also alleged Bakis had “falsely secured” a passport under the name Daphne Diomedes, which she used to “improperly secure” a Tasmanian driver’s licence and establish bank accounts and credit cards under the false identity.
In its final report, ICAC found that Petroulias received $1,023,934 for his role in the scheme, including funds transferred into bank accounts opened under the alias Nicholas Peterson.
At the time her name appeared on the Law Society’s register, Bakis was listed as the principal of Point Law in Enfield and had been practising as a lawyer for nearly three decades.
The OLSC’s Register of Disciplinary Action also states that Bakis’ practising certificate for the practice year 1 July 2026 to 30 June 2027 has been cancelled.
Both Bakis and Petroulias are expected to appear before the courts later this month.
