My family and I fell victim to the Gerain Group, a company that shattered our dreams. For ten years, we planned and saved for our dream renovation. We paid them the majority of our total contract, before they went missing and into administration. We were subjected to constant pressure from Gerain Group to pay more for less than satisfactory work, pushing our progress payments despite there being minimal work done. The Friday before they claimed insolvency, they called all their clients and asked for $10,000 and said we needed to pay them for the next progress payment and said they had cashflow issues. Many of the clients paid them. One that didn’t got hit with a much bigger and threatening bill that had no grounds. Georgio and Lorraine were aggressive in seeking money before disappearing (not answering emails and phones, moved house, deregistered their personal cars) a few days later. 

Many clients affected by their insolvent trading came together, connecting through a WhatsApp group. What we found was shocking and reinforced our worst fears: a trail of theft, fraud, destruction and damage to property,  insolvent trading and a last-minute money grab before the Gerain Group became insolvent and disappeared. They also bought a designer puppy and a brand new RAM (over 200k) 2 months before disappearing on their clients. They were practicing insolvent trading, had huge debts but were greedy and splurged on an opulent lifestyle with designer handbags, a luxury Bondi pad and luxury cars. 

Georgio and Lorraine Racheh sold their house, moved out of their splashy Bondi unit, deregistered their vehicles and we were all gutted and crushed.

One client lost thousands of dollars worth of personal and sentimental items due to water damage including irreplaceable photographs, books out of print and their entire collection of children’s books.

Gerain Group also didn’t pay their subcontractors for months including their close friend from high school and had over 1 millions dollars in debt. They reported they owed “$0.00” to all their clients in the liquidators report, when they stole hundreds of thousands from us collectively. Georgio lied and told his clients he took our insurance when he never lodged the paperwork but charged clients for insurance. Overall, all the clients had an extensive amount of defective works as Georgio was rarely onsite to manage all the projects and he took many short cuts and did minimal work before claiming more payment. Gerain Group had 11 projects with only Georgio as the sole builder. He never got his hands dirty and it was very difficult to get him onsite. His subcontractors kept asking us for directions. Gerain Group failed all their critical inspections with building certifiers.

This is why we need your support to petition for the immediate investigation into the Gerain Group's widespread fraudulent activities. We urge the appropriate legal and financial authorities to take action and bring justice for the countless victims who placed their trust and hard-earned money into the hands of this rogue company. The police have said it’s a civil matter. The liquidators are still investigating. Meanwhile Georgio and Lorraine are hiding somewhere and could flee interstate or overseas, setting up more businesses (we uncovered quite a few under different names already). Innocent lives have been destroyed during difficult financial times and we want justice for the crimes.

Your signatures will show the authorities and liquidator that such business practices will not be tolerated. Please, sign this petition and stand with the clients and subcontractors of Gerain Group.