About Me
Matthew Joyce is widely known as a hard working and dedicated family man with a successful career in the property industry. This web site was created and was independently maintained to provide accurate information regarding two court cases that Matt Joyce comprehensively won and emphatically cleared his name. It is an interactive medium so please feel free to forward comments for inclusion.
The site also contains weblinks to recent news articles, comments from friends and colleagues and attachments to relevant information.
Matt was detained in Dubai in January 2009 and released in October 2009 based on false and fabricated evidence which resulted in two court cases. The Australian proceeding concluded on June 8, 2012 when the Supreme Court of Victoria ruled that the case against Matthew ‘failed in all respects’. The judgment cites that evidence of bribery allegations by the prosecution’s witnesses were ‘utterly unreliable, increasingly nonsensical’ and ‘the witnesses (Abedian and Brown) cannot be taken as reliable witnesses of truth’. The court established that there was an “invention” by Abedian and Brown (Sunland) of a story, which “falsely implicated Matt Joyce in a non-existent fraud”. The court added that the case also failed because no fraudulent intent or knowledge ever existed.
The judge also ordered Sunland to withdraw their civil claim against Matthew in Dubai as it was found to be an “abuse of process and completely vexatious and oppressive”.
Elements of the claims against Matt were judged as “a complete fabrication”. Matt has therefore been cleared of any wrongdoing and the case against him has been dismissed. See a full transcript of the judgment here.
Further, on the 14th September 2012 the Supreme Court also found that Sunland proceeded with the action in order to gain advantage and to influence the Dubai Prosecutor. The court condemned “Sunland’s willingness to implicate Joyce ‘unjustifiably'” and ordered indemnity costs against Sunland. The judgment states “”Sunland commenced and continued the present proceeding in willful disregard of known facts and law and also for an ulterior purpose”. See a full transcript of the indemnity costs judgment here.
On the 8th September 2013 the Court of Appeal emphatically upheld the earlier judgement. The Court of Appeal also ruled that aspects of the evidence David Brown gave to the Authorities in Dubai was “fundamentally misleading”, that he made a “series of untrue statements”, and engaged in “untruthful exaggerations and that his witness statement in Australia was “directly contrary to a number of statements he made to the procecutors in Dubai”. The Court of Appeal up held that Soheil Abedian, Sunland’s Chairman and David Brown, its COO are “unreliable witnesses of the truth” (legal term for liars).
The Court of Appeal also ruled that Sunland’s “proceedings must be presumed to have been commenced and continued for a collateral purpose and ulterior motive”, including defending its commercial reputation and protecting the position of David Brown in Dubai.
In addition, during the Appeal hearing, Sunland and it lawyer’s Thompsons (of which Sunland Director Ron Eames is a partner) were exposed for making a secret deal with a material witness who is also a defendant in the Dubai matter, and trying to hide the existence of this secret deal from the courts. So serious is this matter of witness tampering by Sunland that it was tabled before Parliament on the 30th May 2013. Sunland also remain under investigation by ASIC, the Australian Securities Investments Commission. A full copy of the appeal judgment is attached here.
On 26th September 2013 the Appeal Court ordered yet further costs against Sunland on an indemnity basis, citing “……….Sunland ought to have known its appeal was hopeless”.” Sunland ought to have realised that it would fail at the first hurdle”.”Sunland’s argument that Justice Croft should have considered evidence of a “serious allegation of a covert payment of money” was “hopeless”.” Sunland failed to establish……..any of the essential elements necessary to prove its claim. The reasons for this were various but fundamentally Sunland could not make good a case based upon the inconsistent and inadequate evidence of its own witnesses”.”……..Sunland’s appeal againt the costs judgement of the trial judge had no chance of success”.
Download judgment transcript – PDF 1 PDF 2
On October 16th 2013 Sunland abandoned any further rights to appeal – the Australian matter is now over. This welcome move followed two scathing rulings against Sunland, judgements which called into question the ulterior motives, intergrity and honesty of its Chairman, Soheil Abedian and COO, David Brown. A copy of Sunland’s notice discontinuance is attached here.
In Dubai the Court of First Instance subpoenaed Soheil Abedian and David Brown three times in order for them to recant the lies and fabrication’s they intentionally made to the Dubai Authorities. On each occassion they ignored the subpoena’s and failed to appear.
The Dubai trial took 5 years. The Court of First Instances referred the case back to the prosecutor stating that “the facts didn’t match the evidence” and with no adverse findings. The prosecutor then re-filed the same charges in a different court. Then on the 10th November 2013, three judges, including Dubai’s Chief Justice aquitted Matt Joyce of all charges with similar findings to the Victorian Supreme Court.” The judgement states the case ” lacked any genuine evidence” and that the court did “not accept as credible the testimony of David Brown” and that the ” prosecution built its case on the sole evidence of David Brown, which the court was unable to accept because it contained contradictions, and is contrary to the facts and investigations.” The Dubai Court was emphatic in ruling that Joyce’s employer had also not been defrauded and that it sufferred no damage or loss and that Joyce did NOT personally benefit or profit from the transaction. The Dubai matter is now also over. Both the Arabic and English translation of the judgement is attached here.
On 20th September 2012 is was revealed before the Australian Parliament that Soheil Abedian was part of an Australian corruption investigation when he was called before the Queensland Crime and Corruption Commission in 2006 for the accusation of bribing public officials. Refer attached report.
Matt has now returned to Australia and is reunited with his family.
At the time friends and colleagues of Matt’s launched an e-petition to support an appeal to the Australian government to actively pursue the immediate release of Matt with utmost vigour. A copy of that e-petition can be found at http://www.bringmatthome.com/.
Audio
ABC Radio National Background Briefing, by Wendy Carlisle on 774 ABC Radio – October 13, 2013
ABC Radio National – February 28, 2013
Government not helping families stuck in Dubai
ABC Radio National Breakfast – February 27, 2013
AUSTRALIANS UNDER HOUSE ARREST IN DUBAI
ABC Radio National PM – July 23, 2012
Jack Rush QC, interviewed by Jon Faine on 774 ABC Radio – June 12, 2012
Featured Contributions
“I held a high opinion of Matthew as an executive and as a person to the extent that I acted as a referee for Matthew when the opportunity arose for him to take a senior role with Nakheel Corporation in Dubai. Matthew is a very competent executive with high personal standards and a very well developed sense of morality and ethics.”
“I had the pleasure of working with Matthew for four years at Australand – where we were both Executive General Managers of our respective Divisions. Matthew was always capable, talented and hardworking and had a very good understanding of the markets in which he operated.”
“Mathew has played senior and pivotal roles for major development companies throughout Australia and around the world. It has certainly been a privilege and a pleasure working with him towards great architectural and urban design outcomes.”
“I first met Matthew Joyce when he worked with Australand with whom Landcom had a number of partnering arrangements.We at Landcom were pleased to work with Matthew because, of all our private sector partners at the time, he demonstrated the most genuine commitment to the principles of sustainability.”
“We have followed the life of Matthew Joyce with great interest. Not only have we been close friends with Matthew’s parents, Rob and Janet, our own son’s have gone through school together and remain close friends. This friendship extended to the coincidence that the three boys were all living in the UAE at the same time.”
“1978 was the first time I met Matthew. For the next 15 years he was what I would describe as one of those ‘stalwart’ friends. One of a group of 3-4 that shepherd each other through the vagaries of adolescence and young adulthood. We worked together, lived together, played sport together and took holidays together. They were formative years and for my part it was a privilege to have someone like Matthew alongside me.”
“I have always known Matthew as “Joycey” and he is one of my oldest friends. Our families lived in the same rural community and have shared friendships that now span several generations. Joycey and I went to school together, shared a house in Melbourne for a short time after leaving University and then both ended up in Sydney where we started our families.”
“I got to know Matt in Dubai when the family moved into the villa behind us. In fact, I was stood on my balcony half-dressed when Ange yelled over “how’s it living here?” as she was being shown around for the first time. The answer was that once the Joyces had moved in, living there was fabulous. ”
“I was the former colleague in Waterfront of Nakheel, and that time I was the construction manager for Omran and I was under Shehad and Conrade group. I meet Matt in the ceremony for the completion of Omran Labour accomodation. Matt is very kindly and warn to the staff.”
“I first met Matthew in the late 1990’s when he joined Australand in Perth, as General Manager of Australand Holdings, Western Australia. Matthew always demonstated excellent leadership characteristics, high integrity and gained an excellent reputation within the land development and housing industries.”
“Matt is my friend and I want him to come home now, enough is enough. As you can see by the many important people who have contributed, this bloke is of decent moral fabric and anyone who cannot recognise that has rocks in their head.”
“I was one of Matthew’s direct reports at Australand. He is a man of the highest integrity and I found that he applied that standard to all of his business dealings and expected nothing less from those around him. The recent decision by the Victorian Supreme Court demonstrates that he could only find himself in this situation as a result of the deceit of others who have made a bad business decision and tried to cover it up.”
“The interview by Jon Faine of Jack Rush QC should be listened to by all. It shows the difficulties and the complexities of the legal system and the world we live in today. Matt and his family have maintained an extraordinary ability to maintain sane and positive throughout this ordeal, due to the differences in opinions of state, legalities, governments and judicial systems in foreign countries, contributions from all walks of life need to realise, innocence, honesty, and loyalty will always prevail.”