The Australian high-flyer grounded by Singapore embezzlement charges

Singapore: Seated inside one of his company’s luxury charter aircraft, Geoffery Cassidy spruiked its appeal to the rich and famous, from Hollywood and Silicon Valley to China.

“[We are] targeting ultra-uber high-net-worth individuals for ultra-long haul travel,” the young Australian businessman told industry publication Aviation International News in a video interview in 2016.

Dwayne Johnson – aka “the Rock” – photographed taking a Zetta Jet flight.Credit:Facebook

Actors Chris Hemsworth, Vin Diesel and Dwayne “the Rock” Johnson would be among those to travel with Zetta Jet, whose average price was $US10,000 ($14,350) per hour, as did singer Mariah Carey and sports stars Lewis Hamilton, Michael Phelps, Conor McGregor and Floyd Mayweather jnr.

Within 12 months, however, the nascent operator had collapsed, and managing director Cassidy was fingered for the blame, accused of swindling millions from the company and splurging seven-figure sums on properties, yachts and cars.

In the years that followed there has been an FBI investigation in the United States and a global recovery effort on behalf of creditors in which a $4.5 million yacht on the Gold Coast was frozen by a Queensland court.

Now, Cassidy is facing the possibility of a lengthy prison sentence in Singapore, where he lives and where the failed charter venture was headquartered.

Geoffery Cassidy, front right, pictured at a signing ceremony in Orlando, Florida in 2016 to mark Zetta Jet adding four Bombardier Challenger 650 aircraft to its fleet.Credit:Facebook

He has been charged with 34 offences by Singapore police, who allege he embezzled $SGD11 million ($11.9 million) from Zetta Jet in the two years from when it was set up in 2015.

Police have alleged he spent $SGD1.4 million of misappropriated money on property and cheated another company into sending his aircraft management consulting firm Asia Aviation $US400,000 on five occasions between 2014 and 2015.

The 34-year-old is further accused by Singapore police of having his employees forge invoices and falsify accounts.

If found guilty he faces seven years’ jail or a fine on each of six counts of criminal breach of trust, and up to 10 years imprisonment or a fine for multiple other charges including using the benefits of criminal conduct.

Singer Mariah Carey thanked the charter provider for taking care of her on her social media accounts.Credit:Facebook

His 46-year-old wife, June Tang Kim Choo, was also charged in Singapore with breaching her duties as a Zetta Jet director, having allegedly authorised payments of more than $SGD5 million without due diligence.

Cassidy, though, is the focus of prosecutors’ attention in the Asian financial hub, where his case was briefly mentioned in court in January and set for a pre-trial conference in March.

Born in Michigan but raised in Australia since he was three, the dual Australian-US citizen founded Zetta Jet in 2015 as a joint venture with the owners of established charter operator, US-based Advanced Air Management.

The new entity hit the skies with more than a dozen Bombadier jets and quickly became a favoured option for flyers with very deep pockets and big profiles. “Thank you Zetta Jet for taking such good care of me,” singer Carey posted to her social media accounts on April 5, 2016, accompanied by a photo of her boarding one of its aircraft.

That year Cassidy also brought a big-name business figure into the fold. Li Qi, a former chief operating officer of Chinese technology giant Alibaba, took a 10 per cent stake in Zetta through an offshore company in the British Virgin Islands in return for a cash injection to partly cover deposits for seven new jets.

The business enjoyed phenomenal growth over two years, according to US bankruptcy court documents, with its popularity attributed to customer satisfaction, word of mouth and an advertising campaign that culminated in having its logo on the ropes of the ring for the super fight between boxing world champion Mayweather jnr and mixed martial arts superstar McGregor in Las Vegas in August 2017.

Zetta Jet also flew the two athletes between the US and Britain as they promoted what was billed as “The Money Fight”, which became the second highest-grossing bout in combat sports history.

Amid the hype around the fight and spotlight on the company, though, Zetta Jet was unravelling and Cassidy’s American business partners were taking aim at him.

According to a lawsuit brought by Zetta Jet co-founders James Seagrim and Matthew Walter in the US District Court Central District of California, they and Li Qi voted at a directors’ meeting in Hong Kong on August 17, 2017 to remove Cassidy as managing director after discovering he allegedly fleeced company money.

Floyd Mayweather Jr and Conor McGregor flew on Zetta Jet while promoting their cross-sport fight in 2017. Credit:AP

Just weeks later Zetta filed for bankruptcy and in November that year it closed down, with creditors owed tens of millions of dollars. Li Qi, who had increased his stake to 30 per cent with more financing, was owed $US70 million alone, according to bankruptcy court documents.

Seagrim and Walter’s lawsuit, filed in September 2017, claimed Cassidy had “misrepresented himself as a high-wealth individual with business leadership experience who could provide capital and leadership” to transform their company into a top-line international charter operator.

Instead, they alleged, he “enriched himself without the knowledge or consent” of other directors to the tune of $US20 million to $US30 million over two years.

Seagrim and Walter claimed he used company funds to purchase and renovate properties in France and Singapore and to pay for two yachts and three luxury vehicles in Singapore that had a total value of $US2 million to $US3 million. One of the yachts, a $4.5 million Maritimo M70 cruising vessel called Dragon Pearl that was moored on the Gold Coast, became the subject of a legal standoff in Australia after Zetta’s demise. A freezing order was placed on the vessel by a Brisbane judge following a court order in the US.

Actor Chris Hemsworth, left, was among Zetta Jet’s A-list passengers, according to its Facebook pageCredit:Facebook

Cassidy was further accused by his former partners of blowing hundreds of thousands of dollars in restaurants and bars from Los Angeles to Macao and Monaco and using the Zetta aircraft for his own use at a cost of $US3 million.

He was also alleged in filing to have received kickbacks on jet purchases of between $US14 million and $USD18 million.

Cassidy’s lawyers at K&L Gates in Singapore did not respond to repeated requests for comment from the Australian or indicate whether he would contest the charges in the city-state.

But he has previously rejected allegations of misappropriation including in a 2018 declaration to the court in California where the lawsuit was brought against him.

Cassidy said he bought a Bentley Flying Spur as a company car in Singapore.Credit:Bloomberg

“I have reviewed the allegations of wrongdoing made against me in the complaint, which I vigorously deny,” he said in that statement, adding that “virtually all of those allegations are based on events or matters in Singapore, not California”.

He admitted he had bought the Dragon Pearl yacht “as a set-off to company debt owed to me” but said it was disclosed as such and that he had not purchased, as claimed, another multi-million dollar yacht with company money in Nice.

In the US court declaration, he said he had bought a Bentley Flying Spur in Singapore, but it was for company use and known to his ex-partners, adding that his personal vehicle, a BMW X5, was purchased before he set up Zetta Jet.

While the charter business had paid for some renovation of his condominium apartment in Singapore, the costs were disclosed and reconciled and he didn’t have property interests in France, he said.

Cassidy at the time also disputed the allegations of lavish entertainment spending and taking personal flights on company jets.

On the claims of receiving kickbacks from aircraft purchases, he said: “All of the sales or lease agreements relating to these aircraft were negotiated and executed in Singapore (as well as in China, Dubai and Montreal), transacted through bank accounts located in Singapore, China and Canada and have nothing to do with California.”

The charges against Cassidy in Singapore are not his first run-in with the law there. In 2019, he was fined $SGD4000 over a drunken tirade he delivered to a female police officer who had been called to his residence to settle a dispute with a guest.

“I f—ing pay more tax than you ever will. Let’s fix the problem and get the f— out of my house,” he was reported as telling the officer.

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