Fraudster Chris Marco has lodged an appeal against his convictions and the 14-year prison sentence, after a jury found he defrauded investors of $34 million.
Fraudster Chris Marco has lodged an appeal against his convictions and the 14-year prison sentence, after a jury found he defrauded investors of $34 million.
Marco, through his lawyer Luka Margaretic, has lodged appeal notices against the 43 counts of fraud he was found guilty of earlier this year.
It comes after Mr Margaretic flagged his client would appeal both the guilty convictions and the 14-year imprisonment.
Speaking outside court after his client’s sentencing last month, Mr Margaretic said he had never seen a result like this in his 35 years of practice.
“I don't really want to say too much, because it's going to another forum,” Mr Margaretic told reporters last month.
"We're very confident of appeal prospects."
A Supreme Court of Western Australia jury unanimously found Marco guilty of defrauding $34.3 million from six investors from 2011 to 2018, after a five-week trial in August and September.
WA Supreme Court judge Natalie Whitby sentenced Marco to 14 years immediate imprisonment with eligibility for parole after serving 12 years.
In her sentencing remarks, Justice Whitby said Marco used a large portion of the investors’ funds to buy cars, shares, real estate and other personal expenses.
The court was told Marco received $253 million from investors but only transferred $11 million overseas for investment purposes, which Justice Whitby said represented only 4.4 per cent of the funds deposited in his accounts.
Marco’s former assistant Linda Marissen was also charged with fraud but was found not guilty by the jury.
Both Marco and Ms Marissen pleaded not guilty to the charges.
During the trial, Mr Margaretic claimed Marco genuinely believed in the investment programs he sold investors on.
However, Justice Whitby said it was irrelevant whether Marco believed in the legitimacy of the investments.
"Those funds represented only a very small percentage of the overall funds you received from investors and you did not make any actual returns on these alleged 'investments' over the entire relevant period,” she said in her sentencing remarks.
"I am satisfied beyond reasonable doubt that firstly, you had no intention of using, and did not in fact use, the victims' funds in accordance with the representations you made to them and secondly, that each of the representations you made to the victims was false, and that you knew that they were false."
The Australian Securities and Investments Commission investigated Marco’s business operations for four years.
A dispute involving Melbourne-based insolvency accountants who were appointed as special purpose liquidators of Marco’s flagship company AMS Holdings (WA) is ongoing in the Federal Court of Australia.
The liquidators launched legal action against Westpac Banking Corporation in the NSW Supreme Court, chasing compensation for the bank’s alleged failings in handling Marco’s financial accounts.
