-
Source: ONE News -
Watch Video
-
Related
It's been revealed a former ASB banker convicted of a multi-million dollar fraud was blackmailed by one of the prostitutes he blew his stolen money on.
Stephen Versalko was sentenced on Thursday to at least four years in jail for stealing almost $18 million from investors over nine years.
Serious Fraud Office director Adam Feeley says the 51-year-old stole from 30 wealthy ASB Bank customers, by sheltering under the banner of a bank that people trusted.
Versalko paid his victims back $4.6 million of their own money in "returns" on their non-existent investments, while splurging $3.4 million on two prostitutes.
He also spent $313,000 on wine over a seven-year period.
During the Auckland trial, Versalko's lawyer Stuart Grieve, QC, told the court that one of the prostitutes had blackmailed his client for $1.2 million.
The SFO summary of facts said Versalko began the fraud in 2000, when he had a credit card debt of about $30,000. He mainly targeted elderly women living outside of New Zealand, with high-interest tax-free investments which were supposedly government guaranteed.
The clients tended not to access accounts online.
ASB has paid out all the investors not only the principal Versalko took from them but also all the interest they were promised.
Mr Invincible
The SFO says Versalko was "nothing, if not resourceful in the way he presented the investment opportunities."
"He made it very clear that it was branded as part of the ASB, so people figured: 'I'm not dealing with dealing with an individual, I'm not dealing with an independent finance adviser, I'm dealing with a bank, and I can trust a bank," says Feeley.
Versalko used bank letterheads: "It was carried out under the banner of a bank".
Feeley says he does not know where Versalko's family thought his money was coming from.
"I guess they thought he was doing well at work, and in one sense, he was."
The investment adviser called himself "Mr Invincible" when investigators caught up with him.
Feely says the SFO is happy with the punishment dished out to Versalko.
He told TV ONE's Breakfast programme they are investigating ponzi schemes "all the time" in New Zealand.
"It is a terrible cliche but if the deal looks too good to be
true, it probably is. You simply can't make money with 50% returns.
No matter how convincing somebody is ... those kind of returns just
do not exist in real life."
