It was the beginning of 2015 when Michael Goldstein came off his motorbike while riding through Sydney's north-west.
He smashed the bones in his shoulder and foot and was "basically incapacitated" for weeks.
![Businessman Michael Goldstein was one of many victim of fraudster Lemuel Page.](http://web.archive.org./web/20170731152313im_/https://www.fairfaxstatic.com.au/content/dam/images/g/x/k/6/n/1/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gxi7qn.png/1501360265952.jpg)
The Sydney property developer couldn't hold a phone to his ear let alone make sound business decisions.
Despite his vulnerability, fellow developer and shares trader Lemuel Page increased the pressure on him to invest in one of his bogus ventures.
![Lemuel Page.](http://web.archive.org./web/20170731152313im_/https://www.fairfaxstatic.com.au/content/dam/images/g/x/g/0/h/g/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gxi7qn.png/1501360265952.jpg)
"He saw the opportunity to really press me for investments that I would have been able to check on more easily if I was more mobile," Mr Goldstein told Fairfax Media this week.
By the end of July, 2015 Mr Goldstein had lost about $2 million to Page by investing in a unit development that never eventuated and a motor dealers business that never saw a return.
Mr Goldstein was one of nine people who contacted Fairfax Media about their dealings with Page after his fraudulent behaviour and lavish lifestyle was revealed last week.
Page, a Newcastle-based developer, was sentenced to at least eight months jail on July 6 after he sold a friend a cubic zirconia that was meant to be a $85,000 diamond engagement ring.
![Renay Bull aka Renay Paige is the girlfriend of Newcastle fraudster Lemuel Page.](http://web.archive.org./web/20170731152313im_/https://www.fairfaxstatic.com.au/content/dam/images/g/x/k/p/l/g/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gxi7qn.png/1501360265952.jpg)
His lengthy history of leaving investors short-changed was exposed after a number of people coming forward to claim they too were gazumped by the 48-year-old.
"We are all clever and intelligent people," as one former investor put it. "We understand business and investment yet we all got done the same way."
![Newcastle developer Lemuel Page with his girlfriend Renay Bull.](http://web.archive.org./web/20170731152313im_/https://www.fairfaxstatic.com.au/content/dam/images/g/x/g/g/y/k/image.related.articleLeadNarrow.300x0.gxi7qn.png/1501360265952.jpg)
A majority of the people Fairfax Media spoke to last week explained how Page would drop references to his supposed association to the well-known Ibrahim family in the form of a veiled threat.
Sam Ibrahim, the older brother of nightclub boss John Ibrahim, was a shareholder in Silver City Drilling, with Page, a trustee report shows.
Ibrahim's wife Karen is listed as a current shareholder – and former director – of Page's company Elefteria Pty Ltd.
Court documents and trustee reports showed Page claimed to be linked to another Sydney businessman who made the BRW Rich 200 List in 2001.
This man lent slain businessman Michael McGurk up to $300,000 before he was shot dead outside his Cremorne home in 2009
Page clocked up an impressive debt of his own by the end of 2016 – owing creditors, many former friends and business associates $17 million.
As the bankruptcy proceedings came to a head last year, properties owned by one of Page's companies were swiftly transferred to a company his girlfriend controlled.
A home at The Junction in Newcastle was sold by Elefteria Properties Pty Ltd for $770,000 to Pegasus Corporation Pty Ltd in March 2016.
The director of Pegasus is listed as Renay Bull, a body builder, podiatrist and Page's long-term partner. Last August, Elefteria Properties sold a property for $1.2 million to Yipeeo Pty Ltd, which also lists Ms Bull as a director.
Page avoided sinking into bankruptcy in November, 2016 after telling a trustee he had no real estate interests and offered to pay $180,000.
Mr Goldstein was one of the fortunate few who managed to get most of his money back from Page after placing caveats on his properties.
After a working relationship blossomed between the pair over a couple of months, Mr Goldstein and Page took out options on purchases of properties in 2015.
He alleged Page presented him with fraudulent option papers, which he suspected Page later stole back when he was left alone in Mr Goldstein's Sydney office.
The pair also set up a motor dealer's licence, with Page's estranged wife Fiona. There is no suggestion of any wrongdoing by Fiona. The deal was that the trio would purchase cars at a good price before on-selling them for a profit.
"We never on-sold them, we purchased them with my money," Mr Goldstein explained.
"He then went off to some not-so-honest broker who then allowed him to completely finance loans on the cars – unbeknown to me."
Like other investors, Mr Goldstein's wife Dorothy likened Page's treatment of her husband to "grooming".
"The way he grooms people is he comes across the poor person that has been very hard done by," she said.
"He tells everybody that he has all these properties but I'm buying them out and this is the opportunity to come in. He was very, very clever."
Another investor from the Hunter region said he loaned Page $150,000 in 2013 and never saw a cent of it again.
The man said Page kept coming up with excuses about why he couldn't pay the money back, including delays in property settlement.
"It was one excuse after another," he said.
A Sydney woman told of how she met Page at Sydney's upmarket Establishment restaurant, where he would throw money around three times a week.
The woman gave Page $70,000, most of which was a loan from her mother, to invest in an initial public offering for the Community Life Limited venture. It was development plan for a low-budget retirement village.
"When we approached him about getting our money back he said 'I promise I'll get it for you'," she explained.
"We didn't have it in writing and thought there was zero chance we would get anything back."
Page is appealing his sentence for the fraud conviction and is due to appear in court in September.
His lawyer did not respond to calls from Fairfax Media on Friday.