Accused conman Luka Matak granted bail by Croatian court

Jailed Sydney man Luka Matak has been granted bail despite former friends telling a Croatian court they were fooled into investing more than $170,000 with him.

Accused Australian conman Luka Matak has been granted bail by a Croatian court.

Accused Australian conman Luka Matak has been granted bail after two witnesses told a Croatian court they were fooled into investing money with the former barman turned hedge fund director.

Former lawyer and friend Don Markusic told the Municipal Criminal Court in Zagreb, Croatia, he was conned into investing $A39,525 with the 31-year-old and had repeatedly asked for his money back.

“Over time I had enough and told him to stop making a fool out of me,” Mr Markusic told the court.

“He would say that he doesn’t make a fool of anyone and accused me of jeopardising our friendship,” he said.

“He always said ‘of course I have your money’ and would get angry.”

Australian man Luka Matak, who was arrested in Croatia over fraud allegations. Picture: Supplied

The court also heard from a Croatian investor, who broke down as she recounted how she entrusted her “best friend” with her life’s savings of A$ after selling the family home for funds to invest.

“It was basically all I had from the sale of my home,” the woman told the court.

“When I saw that he (Luka) had cut off all contact and realised that I would never see that money again, I broke down.

“I’m terribly ashamed … I had to ask for psychiatric help, and what struck me the most was that we were really good friends,” she said.

Former Melbourne lawyer Don Markusic, 58, who lives in Croatia, says he was tricked by his friend and client self-proclaimed hedge fund director Luka Matak into investing $39,000 into oil shares but never saw any profits. Picture: Supplied

The young manager said she first met Matak through the internet in 2015, meeting up twice before he returned to Australia.

When he returned to Croatia in 2016 they became friends and kept up an “intense” friendship.

“Almost every day (we spoke), we shared every thought … We were so close that my friend and I went to pick him up at the airport when he returned from Australia in 2017,” the woman told the court.

“I considered him one of my best friends,” she said crying in court as she explained that she still becomes overwhelmed when she thinks of how she trusted him enough to make four payments between October 2018 and January 2019.

“Luka knew I was trying to sell the family home due to financial problems,” she told the court.

“He often talked about his job and used to joke that he would make me rich, and when the money from the sale of my house came to me, I thought that I finally had money to invest,” she said.

Adriana and Luka Matak. Picture: Supplied

She told the court she and a former boyfriend met the investor at a café in Ban Jelačić Square where she made a bank transaction to his account in October 2018.

“He also brought the investment contract that we signed, but I couldn’t find it later,” she said.

She said Matak would email her PDF statements of her investments that she could not understand.

“I could not follow exactly what (investments) Luka was up to,” she said.

“The problem first appeared in April 2020 when I wanted to buy a new car.

“I asked him for the money, but he first claimed that the funds were frozen and that he could not get them out,” she said.

“He paid me some ridiculous amounts, about 17,000 HRK (kunas) in total (A$3,729.49), and kept coming up with excuses why he couldn’t get more.

“Our last contact was in April 2022, when he blocked me on social networks,” she said.

Adriana and Luka Matak. Picture: Supplied

Matak and his seven-month pregnant wife Adriana Matak, 36, (who also goes by the surname Kupresak) have both pleaded not guilty to five charges of fraud with the intention of unlawfully obtaining substantial property benefits, and defrauding their victims of 350,000 euros (A$575,504) during an alleged five-year scam ending last September.

Investors who paid them millions of dollars claim they funded their outlandish lifestyle of luxury holidays and hotels in Dubai, Croatia and London and paid for their designer clothes including expensive Savile Row suits.

Adriana Matak was released on bail last month and is living in the couple’s apartment in the capital.

Judge Iris Juzbašić Gabron agreed on Monday to set bail for Luka Matak at A$451,201 – half of which is to be paid in cash, and the other half in the form of a lien over his father’s property.

The prosecutor has three days to appeal the judge’s decision in the higher criminal court.