Man charged over alleged multi-million-dollar bogus property investment scheme
A Gold Coast guy who allegedly ran an international investment rip-off worth nearly $12 million has been charged with 25 fraud offenses.
Anthony David Gray, fifty-four, from Paradise Point, was arrested in New Zealand and deported to Australia in a single day.
Mr. Gray has appeared inside the Brisbane Magistrates Court on 25 counts of fraud and did not follow for bail.
His arrest follows a year-long investigation, dubbed Operation Quebec Kid Back, following a couple of complaints from humans in Australia and other places.
Mr. Gray’s alleged sufferers depended on his legal and financial advice, turning in masses of lots of greenbacks in what they notion was a legitimate belonging funding scheme.
Police have alleged that between May 2007 and November 2016, Mr. Gray — a solicitor and financial planner — ran a bogus assets investment scheme based totally on quick-term bridging loans below some of the organizations supposedly based in New Zealand, Singapore, and Hong Kong.
Mr. Gray, whose organization was Synergy Gray Professional Services, allegedly promised investors that builders would pay high hobby for the price range borrowed over a short duration until the banks funded the builders’ projects.
Police said the scheme did not exist.
Mr. Gray’s co-accused, a seventy-two-12 months-antique female, was arrested at a domestic on Dornoch Terrace in Highgate Hill on January 31.
She appeared in the courtroom on February 25, charged with nine counts of fraud.
To date, 21 alleged sufferers from Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria, the United Kingdom, the USA, and Europe have come ahead with losses totaling $eleven 960,000.
One couple misplaced $2,814,416, and another lady misplaced $2,1/2,000.
Detective Acting Senior Sergeant Steve Paskin said police had acquired six similar proceedings about the scheme and believed additional alleged sufferers might nevertheless come forward.
When asked about Mr. Gray’s relationship with his co-accused, Detective Senior Sergeant Paskin stated they were business partners.
He stated the alleged victims, who had been recognized to the pair or referred through others, had invested their private financial savings.
“People have potentially lost their entire superannuation financial savings due to this funding scheme,” he stated.
It has been alleged that Mr. Gray had a historical past in regulation and finance but did not hold qualifications then.
“We’ll allege that the offenders had been now not certified to act as solicitors or financial planners, and this highlights the importance of questioning broadly every element of a proposed investment,” Detective Senior Sergeant Paskin stated.
Detective Senior Sergeant Paskin alleged the fifty-four-12 months-antique left Australia in February 2017 to flee lenders.
The case will go back to court on April 1.
