Bookie linked to Tony Mokbel sues over $100m Ponzi scheme

A new victim has emerged in a suburban solicitor’s $100m Ponzi scheme that claimed the cash of AFL and racing heavyweights.

A bookmaker linked to bailed drug lord Tony Mokbel is chasing $4 million lost in a Ponzi scheme that ensnared some of Australia’s most celebrated sporting identities. Picture: David Crosling

A bookmaker linked to bailed drug lord Tony Mokbel is chasing $4 million lost in a Ponzi scheme that ensnared some of Australia’s most celebrated sporting identities.

Frank Hudson, who was pictured taking bets from Mokbel at Flemington before he was jailed on drug charges, has filed a lawsuit for money lost in a suburban solicitor’s $100 million fake mortgage scheme.

John Bernard Adams’ scam was only uncovered after his sudden death at his clifftop beach house near Lorne in October 2023.

Mr Hudson is one of more than 20 people suing Adams’ former business partner Shane Maguire of the now defunct AMS law firm in Ivanhoe in Melbourne’s leafy north eastern suburbs.

Tony Mokbel with rails bookmaker Frank Hudson at Flemington racecourse on Oaks Day. Picture: Craig Borrow

Documents filed in Victoria’s Supreme Court alleged that Adams’ mortgage scheme had victims with losses totalling $100 million.

Mr Hudson had invested $3.4 million of his personal cash in the scheme and another $600,000 from his superannuation fund.

“In the days following the death of Adams, the plaintiff (Frank Hudson) attended on the offices of AMS and met with Maguire,” Mr Hudson’s lawyer claimed in court documents.

“(Mr Hudson) was shown a handwritten list of investors in sub-schemes to the Scheme by Maguire.

“This list showed investment monies owing to investors totalling approximately $100,000,000.

“The plaintiff identified himself on this list and identified that there were debts owed to him.”

Mr Hudson was among a number of bookmakers caught in Adams’ financial web.

Former AFL premiership player Ian Collins, who was president at Carlton and a former chief executive of Docklands Stadium, was also among the victims.

John Bernard Adams.

Shane Maguire. Picture: Supplied

Adams was a key figure in AFL circles, often drawing an elite crowd to long lunches which doubled as networking opportunities for his Ponzi scheme. 

Many of his victims lost their life savings after investing their superannuation, or the proceeds of the sales of family homes.

They were receiving eight per cent interest rates, at a time when banks were offering two per cent, in the months before Adams’ death, which led to the collapse of the scheme.

Mr Maguire has previously denied any knowledge of the scheme but declined to comment on the latest case.

Mr Hudson’s case has been filed with Sydney’s Damian Sturzaker of Marque Lawyers, while many of the other claims have been lodged by Melbourne’s Gordon Legal.

Former AFL player Ian Collins, who was president at Carlton and a former chief executive of Docklands Stadium, was also among the victims.

The cases are likely to centre on whether Mr Maguire’s legal professional indemnity insurance would cover any of the losses.

The scheme has a $2 million limit, including legal costs, but the key question will be whether claimants would share a fraction of that figure or be able to each claim up to the maximum amount.

Mr Hudson was a go-to bookmaker for Mokbel, a drug dealer who was part of the “tracksuit gang” that punted hundreds of thousands of dollars a day at Flemington in the early 2000s.

AMS Law Office in Ivanhoe.

Mokbel has now been released on bail after serving 18 years in jail. He is now appealing his convictions because he was advised by Nicola Gobbo, who was working as a police informant at the same time.

She became known as Lawyer X following a Herald Sun campaign that exposed her double life.

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Originally published as Bookie linked to Tony Mokbel sues over $100m Ponzi scheme