Aussie conman flees overseas with $40 million of investors' money
EXCLUSIVE: A Sydney conman who claimed he was working with the royal family in Dubai has fled overseas with more than $40 million of investors' money.
A SYDNEY conman who claimed he was working with the royal family in Dubai has fled overseas with more than $40 million of investors' money.
John Varoujan set up the Gold Hedge Royalty Corporation and invited investors on a luxury 60m cruiser with a jacuzzi on the deck and to business meetings in Paris, London and Geneva.
"It was all just a big con. None of it was real," said retired architect Brian Mazlin, who has won a judgment in the NSW Supreme Court for Varoujan to pay him $3 million he is owed.
"I haven't received a penny because he is not in the country," said Mr Mazlin, who is now taking action to seize Varoujan's only remaining asset, a house in Chatswood worth less than $1 million.
"I met him when he was an investment banker with a respectable company. When he went out on his own I placed investments with him but I never received any paperwork," said Mr Mazlin.
The brazen conman dazzled 70 Australian investors with a glossy prospectus promising to invest in gold mines and bullion.
On the cover it said: "In gold we trust". The prospectus aimed to raise $400 million and was filled with the names of genuine people who had never consented to be part of the business and background briefings on real gold mines that he never paid for.
Varoujan invited would-be investors to a business meeting in Rome with "Vatican financiers" as art of a bogus 200 million euro bullion deal.
Varoujan, whose real name is Varoujan Yaghldjian, was chairman of the Armenian Chamber of Commerce in Sydney and posed for photos with the now treasurer Joe Hockey at a charity event.
The flamboyant cigar-smoker used those connections to fleece members of the Armenian community, including an honorary consul.
Australian Securities and Investments Commission investigators swooped as soon as they were alerted to the con. ASIC is investigating Varoujan's scheme and has already cancelled his financial services licence and taken down his website.
It warned investors that Varoujan's business memorandum "included an array of false claims including misrepresenting that various law firms, auditors, and investments banks act for Gold Hedge Royalty".
Varoujan fled the country and set up an office in Dubai's Moscow Hotel, which is an expensive and notorious pick-up spot for Eastern European prostitutes.
He told investors back in Australia he was doing gold deals with the royal family in the United Arab Emirates.
He was spotted paying for lunches in Paris with $US500 notes and dining out in London and Lebanon.
Adelaide dentist Jamie Harris pumped $1.5 million into Varoujan's gold company and met him in Dubai to discuss their investment.
"We met in a very expensive hotel and he bought a bottle of Moet and dinner," said Mr Harris. "It was all promises and nothing came of it.
"The sad thing is that his investment ideas were spot-on, it's just that he kept the money for himself," said Mr Harris, who ended up paying Varoujan's $30,000 Dubai hotel bill.
The con man has been busy while overseas.
Australian investment adviser Evan Stevens invested $250,000 with Varoujan and has been attempting to follow the money trail ever since.
"He registered Gold Hedge Royalty in the Cook Islands and then Singapore, where he had $9 million transferred in from a group in Mexico," said Mr Stevens.
But he is suspicious about the origins of the money because the building in Mexico is empty and the people who allegedly transferred the money cannot be traced.
Meanwhile UK investors who put more than $1 million in a company Varoujan set up in Cyprus also want their money back.
Investors have now gone to the Australian police with Chatswood detectives confirming they are investigating a fraud complaint. "We would encourage anyone who believes they are a victim of fraud to report the matter to their local police," said a NSW Police spokeswoman.
In Australia, Varoujan's wife Eloise said: "I want to know where he is too. I haven't had contact for the last four years".
Email matthew.benns@news.com.au if you believe you are a victim of fraud involving Varoujan.
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