Instead of pocketing a commission and then forwarding the money on after it was received on February 2, the “mule” allegedly transferred hundreds of thousands of dollars to various companies and bank accounts, including $50,000 to an exclusive private school, in 11 separate payments on February 3, court documents obtained by the Herald show.
He later told police he thought the money that appeared in his account was a pre-arranged loan that he always intended to pay back.
The former lawyer was charged in May with 11 counts of money laundering. After an initial court appearance, he was due to reappear in Auckland District Court for a case review hearing on November 2 but failed to appear.
The hearing was rescheduled for November 10 but again the accused did not show.
The Herald has learned that although the man was on bail, he was not required to surrender his passport. The victim is furious and fears the alleged mule may try to flee the country to avoid court proceedings.
“I can’t believe he didn’t have restrictions to not leave the country. How many charges do you have to be up for before police take it seriously?”
Detective Senior Sergeant Craig Bolton of Auckland City CIB told the Herald there were now multiple warrants issued for the man’s arrest.
“The male had previously been remanded on bail with conditions not to associate with the victim in the matter, not to engage in online banking, and not to use the internet.
“Police will be making inquiries to locate him, however, at this stage, we do not believe the male has left the country.”
Police had not contacted Interpol about the matter but a border alert had now been entered due to the warrants for arrest.
‘Like losing a child’
The victim earlier told the Herald learning he had lost his life savings to scammers was devastating.
“That’s when my life fell apart.
“It’s like losing a child in a way. Just the feeling of guilt, shame and absolute frustration that no one can do anything about it, and burning hot anger that there’s a person in Auckland who’s willing to take advantage of people like this.”
It was late on the storm-lashed Sunday night of Cyclone Gabrielle on February 12 that the victim realised a band of professional criminals had duped him into investing his and his wife’s savings in a fake HSBC-branded term deposit, then stolen the cash after he willingly wired it to a Kiwibank “cooling off” account which he believed had been set up under his own name.
He turned amateur detective after realising the money was gone, using “burner phones” in a bid to obtain evidence and catch the crooks in the act, and spending countless hours online building a dossier of clues about those responsible for the crime.
There were months-long delays in collaring the alleged mule despite the victim handing police evidence of the alleged launderer’s name after Kiwibank inadvertently outed the accused when it froze their account and refunded half the stolen money on February 16.
Multiple investigations have been carried out by various agencies but - apart from an additional $14,000 payment on March 27 - the remaining money is presumed lost.
The duped man, along with a group of other investment scam victims, have been campaigning for banks to implement better security systems to protect consumers and for more proactive policing of scam cases.
