Craig Baills didn’t wait until he got home from work to tell his son the bad news.
Instead, inside the garage north of Toowoomba where Baills has built his mechanics business, the 52-year-old father of two held the phone to his ear and waited for the ringing to stop.
On that call, Baills told his 17-year-old son Angus, a budding race car driver, that the company which had offered him $3.5 million in sponsorship over three years and with which he’d spent months corresponding, exchanging letters of intent, proposals and contracts overseen by lawyers, and had flown to Italy to meet, was a scam.
“It was like there was a death in the family,” Baills said.
Craig and Angus Baills are just two of seven individuals from five countries identified by this masthead to have made complaints about Swiss investment firm GLP Gestion Sarl. Five of the complaints concerned race car drivers, either in Australia or abroad, who were offered life-changing sponsorship deals in a sport where money can prove the difference between success and failure.
“They’re playing on your vulnerabilities,” Baills said. “They’re preying on hardworking, genuine people that want to succeed in life [who] need an opportunity, and they’re just trying to screw you over for whatever you’ve got left to help you succeed.”
When Baills tried to warn other drivers and their families of the scam, he faced something far worse than the loss of a sponsorship deal for his son. Instead, he received a chilling threat.
“Still haven’t deleted the [social media] post?” The email from the company’s chief executive and founder began. “I would advise you to delete it if you don’t want to be sad and something happens to your son during his next races. It would be better for you and your son if you delete the post.”
Undeterred, Baills hopes that speaking out will stop others from falling for similar scams.
Looking for an opportunity to become great
Months earlier, in May last year, a then 16-year-old Angus Baills was at home when he received the first email from GLP Gestion Sarl. The inquiry had come via the teenager’s website, set up to attract sponsors. Here was a company reaching out, it seemed.
Dad Craig, a mechanic and motor sport fan, got a job teaching kids to drive race cars when Angus was 14 and the teenager, who already loved riding motorbikes on their family property, tagged along.
“I think it’s born into you,” Craig Baills said. “When you’re in the car, that’s all you’re thinking about is driving that car.”
By 15, Angus had his own race car and a desire to go professional. But a significantly large hurdle stood in his way.
“Motor sport is expensive,” Craig explained. “There’s a lot of kids that want to achieve in motor sports and go on and do great things in motor sports. And my son is one of those kids. You need a lot of money, and if you haven’t got a lot of money, you need a great ability and a great brand behind you that can hopefully bring some money in.”
At 16, Angus began promoting his racing online and soon after, received the inquiry from a business consultant at GLP Gestion Sarl. The email included the company’s postal address and legitimate French and Swiss registered business numbers. Repeated efforts to contact GLP Gestion Sarl for this story were unsuccessful.
“We are delighted to offer you a sponsorship partnership that could be mutually beneficial and contribute to your success as a driver,” the email read. “As your sponsor, we are committed to supporting your career and helping you reach new heights in the world of motor racing.”
Though it didn’t disclose how much would be offered, the email promised financial support in exchange for the company’s logo on Angus’ car, racing suit and equipment. He would also be obliged to do promotional activities for the company including attending promotional events. Angus, excited, called his dad.
“In the back of my mind right from the outset, I wanted to know if it was a scam,” Baills said. Even though he was already sceptical, they agreed to respond – the opportunity was just too good not to explore.
Baills began corresponding with the consultant over WhatsApp, and the pair arranged a Zoom call. On the call, Baills was offered a three-year deal purportedly worth more than $3.5 million over three-and-a-half years. The consultant also suggested a meeting in person and told Baills this was how they weeded out unserious partners.
“I assure you that we’re not inviting you to come and waste your time, but to do business,” the consultant wrote in a message to Baills. “You’ll see once the meeting is over how serious we are.”
Baills flew to Italy and met the company’s chief financial officer for dinner in Milan. The meeting went well, and the pair agreed to proceed through signing a contract. Nothing seemed amiss until the company requested a $300,000 “commission” fee from Baills, to be paid in cryptocurrency.
When Baills expressed his scepticism, the threats started coming: “You want to put your son through that?” A message from one consultant read. “To have given him hope of a golden opportunity, only to tell him that you’re quitting at such an advanced stage? … You have no business sense, you don’t know how to be a businessman, and it’s probably your fault for ruining Angus’ career, I hope your son will be happy.”
Although Baills did not transfer the commission fee to the company, he was never reimbursed for the trip to Italy as had been promised. Having lost more than $10,000 – and been close to losing far more – he wrote a post on social media to warn other drivers. When he did, the company threatened his son’s life.
“He would do anything for me to race, and that’s happened. It’s just devastating,” Angus said.
Preying on vulnerable people
Supercars driver Todd Hazelwood, who himself has been the target of sponsorship scams, said the amount of wealth required to be successful in motorsports makes drivers particularly vulnerable.
“I look at all the people that promote themselves, they’re on the way to greatness. They just need essentially the next capital raise to do it. That’s the thing with these scammers – it’s out there who’s vulnerable and who’s not,” he said.
A spokesperson for the National Anti-Scam Centre said: “Australians should be alert to cryptocurrency scams, with criminals using digital currencies to move and hide stolen funds quickly. Scammers use crypto-asset (virtual currency) investments because they are hard to track… Any scam resulting in financial loss can have devastating and long-lasting impacts on victims.”
After Baills posted the threat online, the company shut down its website, closed their email accounts and deleted all but one of its WhatsApp numbers.
“Perhaps at the end of the day, we’ve cost them more than what they’ve cost us, right?” Baills said. “Hopefully we’ve stopped nine, ten, 12 people or more from getting caught up in this scheme. If that’s cost them a million dollars or whatever, that’s awesome. If they get upset at me over it, well, so be it.”
