FALLEN racing tycoon Bill Vlahos used an account linked to his gambling club for “winnings” and “household expenses” to pay his wife almost $3.5 million, a bankruptcy report reveals.
A further $1 million was handed over for a New South Wales house just three months before the notorious punter’s “Edge” betting club collapsed, revealing what may have been part of a potential escape plan.
Vlahos also paid back $3.8 million of personal credit card debt from punting club money.
Vlahos’s dodgy punting club turned over $155 million over eight years, a 26-page bankruptcy report obtained by the Herald Sun reveals.
A club member said: “It’s an excellent report — his whole story goes to pieces. He can’t even lie straight to his bankruptcy trustee; he says one thing one day and another the next.”
Victoria Police are expected to use the report for their fraud probe into Vlahos’s affairs.
Vlahos’s punting scam, which collapsed in December last year, was sold as an “exclusive system” that allegedly beat the odds of horse races in Melbourne and Sydney each Saturday by betting on overseas markets.
But bets were never placed in the amounts claimed and the money went on personal gambling or paying out existing club members to create an illusion of success.
The classic Ponzi scheme ensnared more than 1500 people across the globe, including some of the AFL’s elite, high-profile businessmen, and factory workers who took out second mortgages to invest in the club, which claimed returns of 25 per cent a year.
PCI Partners director Clyde White, who compiled the 12-month bankruptcy investigation, could not find mystery Dubai-based punter Daniel Maxwell, who supposedly lay bets on overseas markets.
“In view of the information, it would appear that Mr Maxwell does not exist,” Mr White wrote.
“The non-existence of Mr Maxwell supports my investigations that it appears the punting club did not operate.”
The investigation probed 12,000 transactions from Vlahos’s NAB accounts.
Punting club members are now owed $118 million, with total debts adding up to $150 million.
Mr White said he would pursue some members who had taken more than $40 million in winnings as he tries to claw back money for Vlahos’s creditors.
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Victoria Police are expected to use the report for their fraud probe into Vlahos’s affairs.
Vlahos’s punting scam, which collapsed in December last year, was sold as an “exclusive system” that allegedly beat the odds of horse races in Melbourne and Sydney each Saturday by betting on overseas markets.
But bets were never placed in the amounts claimed and the money went on personal gambling or paying out existing club members to create an illusion of success.
The classic Ponzi scheme ensnared more than 1500 people across the globe, including some of the AFL’s elite, high-profile businessmen, and factory workers who took out second mortgages to invest in the club, which claimed returns of 25 per cent a year.
PCI Partners director Clyde White, who compiled the 12-month bankruptcy investigation, could not find mystery Dubai-based punter Daniel Maxwell, who supposedly lay bets on overseas markets.
“In view of the information, it would appear that Mr Maxwell does not exist,” Mr White wrote.
“The non-existence of Mr Maxwell supports my investigations that it appears the punting club did not operate.”
The investigation probed 12,000 transactions from Vlahos’s NAB accounts.
Punting club members are now owed $118 million, with total debts adding up to $150 million.
Mr White said he would pursue some members who had taken more than $40 million in winnings as he tries to claw back money for Vlahos’s creditors.
stephen.drill@news.com.au
Twitter: @steveheraldsun
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THE VLAHOS FILES
WHERE THE MONEY WENT
* Joanne Vlahos - $3.48 million, which included $2.134 million in bank transfers and cheques of $385,000 and $960,000
* Credit cards - $3.85 million to pay back seven credit cards in Bill Vlahos’s name
* Property purchase - $1 million paid to Allied Lawyers in August 2013 for a NSW property, now owned by a mystery person
* Punting club payouts - $42.2 million to early investors whose “winnings” may now be clawed back by bankruptcy trustees
* Bookmakers - $8.3 million in losses over eight years to corporate bookmakers
KEY CREDITORS OWED MONEY
* Punting club members - $118.6 million
* Aloga (a group of punters) - $30 million
* Mark Quinlan Family Trust - $1.34 million
* McKellar superannuation fund - $434,000
TOTAL UNSECURED CREDITORS
$150,326,880.36
Last edit: 10 years 5 months ago by Bob Brogan.
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