Christopher Wayne Fuss, who fleeced $27m from Flinders University, working as informal financial advisor to Largs Bay RSL

A convicted fraudster who stole $27 million from Flinders University using two passwords and an EFTPOS machine is now working as an informal financial advisor for an RSL club.

Christopher Wayne Fuss, centre, was convicted of defrauding $27 million from Flinders University.

• Two passwords, two years, $27 million: Cashier’s fraud scheme
• Uni fraudster to serve at least five years’ jail for scam

A convicted fraudster who stole $27 million from Flinders University using two passwords and an EFTPOS machine is now an informal financial advisor to an RSL club.

Largs Bay RSL will next week hold a special general meeting to deal with internal disquiet caused by the involvement of Christopher Wayne Fuss in its affairs.

Club president Peter Cates stood by Fuss, saying there was neither cause for concern nor anything to hide.

“This guy has done his time, he has paid his penance, he’s back in the industry, he’s advising our treasurer, he doesn’t touch our funds, he has no access to them at all,” Mr Cates said.

“If he had access to our funds, petty cash and actual day-to-day takings, or had the ability to make transfers without me co-signing, maybe I would be worried.

“But he has no access to it. He just shows our treasurer how to use the internal workings of our new cash flow management system.”

Fuss, 54, was jailed in 2011 for at least 5½ years for defrauding $27.4 million from Flinders while working as its cashier.

Between 2008 and 2010, he transferred the money to his own accounts to fund a lavish lifestyle and set himself up as a “loan arranger”.

As part of the eight-man “Save Our Sixers” consortium, he helped lead the then-ailing Adelaide 36ers out of financial ruin.

His money secured star US import Julius Hodge who, like the club, did not know it had been stolen.

In sentencing, the District Court told Fuss he was “deluded”, saying he had used “fanciful notions” to justify his “naive and bizarre” offending.

The uni recouped all but $1 million of the stolen money.

Mr Cates said the dispute over Fuss’s involvement was between “current and former committee members”, not widespread among the membership. He said Fuss was “a childhood friend” of the club’s treasurer and had been “very upfront” about his past. “He’s been doing this for two years … he doesn’t come into the office, we might see him in there once every three months,” he said.

Mr Cates wanted the “rumour-mongering” to end.

“I did 26 years’ service with the Army and I hate my integrity being questioned by anybody … I don’t have anything to hide. Every cent is there and accounted for … (At the meeting) I want everyone to have a look at the books and ask whatever questions they like.”

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