Guy Sebastian’s long-time manager has been found guilty of embezzling money from the Australian Idol winner.
A jury found Titus Day guilty on Thursday of some of the 47 charges he faced at a New South Wales District Court trial after deliberating for almost a week.
Day had previously been found not guilty of three charges after being accused of stealing almost $900,000 from the pop star.
The trial had been beset by woes, including the death of original judge Peter Zahra, the dismissal of five jurors from a panel of 15 and Sebastian contracting Covid-19.
Jurors heard of the astronomical figures Sebastian was paid for performances, including $494,360 to support Swift during the four-city Australian leg of her ‘The Red Tour’ in December 2013.
Guy Sebastian (pictured with his wife Jules) accused his former manager of stealing almost $900,000 between 2013 and 2020. Titus Day was found guilty of some of 47 embezzlement charges on Thursday afternoon
Titus Day (pictured) has been found guilty of embezzling money from his former star client Guy Sebastian. He was previously acquitted by a NSW District Court jury of three counts of embezzlement at the direction of the presiding judge
Sebastian charged $54,341 to sing at a wedding in Jakarta in July 2017 and McDonald’s paid the entertainer $66,000 to appear at a conference in September that year.
Day managed Sebastian for about a decade until November 2017 when the singer terminated their arrangement in an acrimonious break-up.
The court heard Sebastian subsequently found ‘anomalies’ in financial records suggesting he was still owed payments by Day and in July 2018 the performer launched a civil claim against him.
The amounts of money Day was alleged to have embezzled ranged from $361.34 in royalties to $187,524 in performance fees. One charge concerned a $21,000 ambassadorship.
Guy Sebastian (pictured) insists everything he did was by the book, the District court has heard
Judge Tim Gartelmann ordered the jury to return not guilty verdicts for three charges of embezzlement on June 9 after prosecutors admitted Day had no case to answer.
Day managed Sebastian via 6 Degrees between 2009 and 2017 and is accused of embezzling the musician out of almost $900,000 between 2013 and 2020.
The 49-year-old had pleaded not guilty to 50 charges including fraudulently embezzling royalties and performance fees allegedly owed to Sebastian.
Judge Gartelmann said the prosecution had not proven Day stole a combined $14,600 on three counts and those charges must be thrown out.
Those charges related to Day allegedly embezzling royalty payments of $13,380.60, $936 and $361.34 between 2014 and 2020.
Defence barrister Dominic Toomey SC made the application for acquittal after the prosecution case ended, which Crown prosecutor David Morters SC agreed to after admitting there was no evidence.
‘There was simply no evidence at all that the accused did the act alleged to constitute any of these offences,’ Judge Gartelmann said.
Jules Sebastian arrives at the Downing Centre District Court in Sydney to give evidence against Day during the embezzlement trial of her husband’s former manager
Judge Gartelmann also told the jury that if they found Day not guilty on any of the 47 remaining charges, he must also be acquitted of the corresponding back-up charge of the lesser crime of larceny.
‘I am telling you this… so you can ignore, from now on, the alternative counts and concentrate on the principal counts,’ he said.
Judge Gartelmann stressed that did not mean he had any view of the strength of the Crown case, saying his decision only related to matters of law.
Day did not give evidence at the trial.
‘The accused exercised a right to silence in declining to do so,’ Judge Gartelmann told the jury. ‘He had no obligation to give evidence or to call any at all.
‘The accused need not prove anything at all… the fact he did not call or give any evidence cannot be used against him in any way at all. No inference can be drawn from it.’
Mr Morters told the jury that Day, who was due a 20 per cent commission on Sebastian’s earnings, kept money paid into his account which should have been forwarded to the singer.
‘It’s clear from the financial records that you have that he dispersed these funds in a way which was inconsistent with the interests of Mr Sebastian,’ Mr Morters said in his closing address.
‘He, in effect, embezzled that money from Mr Sebastian. He never paid it through as he was obliged to, he used it for other purposes.’
But Mr Toomey submitted his client had an answer to every single charge and suggested the authorities were perhaps seduced by Sebastian’s high profile.
Day told police the chart-topper owed him $1.2million in outstanding commissions.
‘Why isn’t he being picked up for fraud, for not paying me commissions?’ Day said in the July 2020 interview played to the jury. ‘I don’t understand it.’
The inaugural Australian Idol winner completed his cross-examination on May 24 but was recalled to the witness box last week after another witness revealed the pair had exchanged text messages about disputed evidence.
In 2016, Christian Bugno arranged for the entertainer to perform at his Venice wedding, and says his father paid for the business-class flights of Sebastian and Day.
The witness revealed Sebastian texted him on May 23 at 12.27am local time in Las Vegas, where Mr Bugno lives, saying: ‘Brother sorry but this is so urgent cause I’m in court’.
The exchange of texts between Guy Sebastian and Christian Bugno while the Australian Idol winner was in the witness stand
Mr Toomey asked for Sebastian to be recalled so he could question him about that exchange.
While Sebastian was ordered by Judge Gartelmann not to discuss his evidence ‘you are to give,’ he was given an exemption on May 23 to meet with the Crown about past testimony.
‘Did you think you were not in breach of that direction?’ Mr Toomey said.
‘Everything I did was by the book,’ Sebastian replied.
After he was presented with an ‘incorrect invoice’ in court, Sebastian knew Mr Bugno would have the records of paying for the flights so he thought it obvious to ask him for them.
Guy Sebastian (pictured with wife Jules) was called back to the witness box in the trial of his former manager in the NSW District Court
Mr Bugno testified he had repeatedly contacted a company called Vogue Entertainment to arrange for Sebastian to perform at his wedding.
When he had no response, he directly contacted Sebastian, who had performed at his 21st birthday.
Mr Bugno said he did not receive any invoice from Vogue but paid the performance fee to Day’s company, 6 Degrees.
Mr Toomey quizzed Sebastian about a meeting he had with Mr Morters and his junior counsel about Mr Bugno’s evidence.
‘I said to the Crown I know I can text him directly,’ Sebastian said. ‘I know Mr Day didn’t pay for the flights, so I got the information that I know they would need, not just my word for it.’
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