David Murray, Thomas Chamberlin, The Sunday
Mail (Qld)
Subscriber only
DUPED investors watched profits soar
on fake online accounts while their money was really being plunged
into a luxury motor yacht.
A pensioner and a young bikie are
among those accused of being behind the alleged $3 million “cold call”
operation, which operated out of rented offices in the heart of the Gold
Coast.
Police charged 74-year-old Robert
Gordon Stewart on Wednesday with offences including fraud and money
laundering and seized a BMW convertible from his upmarket home in
Clayfield, in Brisbane’s inner north.
Detective Senior Sergeant Jason Gough,
of the Organised Crime Gangs Group, said victims believed they were
trading in markets such as commodities and foreign exchange rates.
“When you became a member you were
given a user ID and a password and you were allowed to log on to a
website,” Sgt Gough told The Sunday Mail. “People would look at
these and usually see the trading on their account was showing it to be
very successful.
Jacob Stanes.
Robert Stewart’s Clayfield home.
“That sometimes induced people to put even
more money into the scheme, thinking the promises of healthy profits were coming
through. But we say what they were actually seeing when they were looking at
those computer screens was just fiction; it was just being created by people
with IT skills who were connected to the syndicate.
“In reality, what we say is … that money was
just withdrawn in cash and no trading took place. Instead of being traded as
they believed, the money was simply withdrawn and used to pay off a very
expensive boat.”
Police say Stewart operated out of an office
in Tedder Ave, Main Beach.
He allegedly spent money from the scheme to
buy and renovate a $750,000, 70-foot motor launch, “Montage”,
before hastily selling it at a loss at auction with no reserve just months after
police searched it.
Former Finks outlaw motorcycle gang member
Jacob Stanes, 24, has been charged with fraud for allegedly being part of the
same syndicate.
A BMW
convertible seized by police at a Clayfield.
Stanes was a director of telemarketing companies
Keystone Finance Pty Ltd and Prestige Capital Australia Pty Ltd when they
allegedly defrauded investors between 2014 and 2015 from offices in Cavill Ave
and Ferny Ave, Surfers Paradise.
“We’ve been speaking to people Australia-wide
and they all tell the same story,” Sgt Gough said.
“At some point they’re all going about their
daily business and they get a telephone call on their home landline or their
mobile from somebody who simply says, ‘is that so and so, my name is, and I work
for a company’.
“I’m sure we’ve all been at home and copped
those kinds of phone calls.”
He added: “There are so many different
variations to this type of scheme, but essentially the schemes are all the same.
They will, through a series of conversations with victims, convince them to part
with their money.
“Ultimately, the money is lost because
whatever people are led to believe they are buying or investing in, it either
doesn’t work or it doesn’t exist.”
