Sydney's former lord mayor among conman's victims

Reported by Fiona Willan, ninemsn
Tuesday, September 11, 2012
A fake photo of de Angelis with Mikhail Gorbachev.
A fake photo of de Angelis with Mikhail Gorbachev.

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Sydney's former deputy lord mayor and her husband gave $1.01million to a conman who posed as a successful music producer and convinced them to invest in his label.

Marcelle Hoff and her husband John were among 14 victims who lost more than $8.5million to 46-year-old Dimitri de Angelis.

De Angelis went to extreme lengths to convince his victims to invest in Emporium Music so he could live a lavish lifestyle that included overseas holidays, expensive restaurants and five-star hotels.

He Photoshopped himself into images with influential people so it would appear he was well-connected, News Limited reports..

In one of the images, which showed him with Kerry Packer, he had actually just Photoshopped his face onto James Packer's body.

Mrs Hoff, who served as Sydney's deputy lord mayor from September 2010 to September 2011, was introduced to de Angelis at a restaurant in 2004 and two years later went to his CBD office with her husband.

He took them into an office decorated with fake photographs of himself with famous people.

Some of those he appeared with in photoshopped images included Nelson Mandela, Bill Clinton, Pope John Paul II, the Dalai Lama, John Howard, Vladimir Putin and Westpac boss Gail Kelly.

Among de Angelis' other victims were Anne Keating, sister of former prime minister Paul Keating, who lost $100,000, and Graeme Uren QC, who lost $20,000.

De Angelis was arrested in March 2010 and was bankrupted in 2011. Last week he pleaded guilty to 16 fraud charges.

20/05/2013 01:47Sydney, Australia. 20 May,2013
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