billabong
A Billabong employee arranges a flag in the main company store in central Sydney August 27, 2012. Australian surfwear company Billabong International outlined a turnaround strategy to help it fend off a A$694 million ($723 million) private equity bid, even as it posted a collapse in second-half profit on Monday. Reuters/Daniel Munoz

Billabong's former CEO Matthew Perrin was sentenced to jail for eight years on Friday for foging his wife's signature to get an approval for the $13 million loan he applied in 2008. He needed to mortgage his family's $15 million property in Surfers Paradise that let him decide to fake his wife's signature. Nicole Bricknell, Perrin's ex-wife, owned the home.

Bricknell said that she never gave Perrin the authority to sign on her behalf. She said during her evidence in 2016 that her ex-husband's act was worse than having an affair.

Judge Julie Dick handed the sentence down to Perrin, stating he would stay in jail for eight years to three counts of fraud. He was also sentenced six years for four counts of forgery and seven years for two further counts of forgery but he would serve fraud and forgery sentences concurrently.

Dick came up with the decision considering factors such as Perrin's clean criminal record and character references. She also considered his charitable deeds in the community and public shame he suffered due to the trial. Dick said that small and large businesses need to operate with the trust of their clients and the crime that Perrin committed strike at the heart of commercial integrity.

Perrin could be eligible for parole in four years where he could walk free from prison in late 2020. Lawyer Nathan Hounsell said that an appeal was already filed on Jan. 13.

Perrin was declared bankrupt in 2009 after his fortune has evaporated in a Chinese supermarket franchise investment. He ended up owing tens of millions of dollars to creditors. He started growing his fortune when he was 26 years old. He convinced former Qantas chairman Gary Pemberton to buy a 49 percent stake in Billabong but left the company offloading a 49 percent stake netting him and his ex-wife $66 million.

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