Judge blasts Sydney lawyer Leigh Johnson for failing to disclose links to conman Peter Foster

High-profile Sydney lawyer Leigh Johnson, who once defended one of Anita Cobby’s killers, has been found to have lied to ripped-off investors about business links to serial conman Peter Foster.

High-profile Sydney lawyer Leigh Johnson, who once defended one of Anita Cobby’s killers, has been found to have lied to ripped-off investors about business links to serial conman Peter Foster.

In the Supreme Court, Justice James Stevenson found that Ms Johnson knew Foster was behind a business which claimed to use Rainman-style savants to predict winners of events such as the World Cup.

Sports Trading Club claimed to have “embraced the extraordinary skills of savants … (who) unmask patterns that others can’t see and are bewilderingly quick at performing calculations and recalling enormous amounts of data”.

Ms Johnson was a partner in STC which turned out to be a Ponzi-scheme and targeted the “over-50s” by promising they could earn $5000 risk-free a week with a minimum $50,000 investment.

Sydney lawyer Leigh Johnson in 2015.

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The colourful lawyer knew that “National Sales Manager Mark Hughes” was really Foster, Justice Stevenson found.

While she doubled her investment of $182,500 in a few months before resigning as a partner in 2014, the 153 other investors who ploughed in $29.6 million recovered just $6.4 million and have launched legal action.

Justice Stevenson said Ms Johnson knew it was vital for STC’s “business” that Foster’s involvement was hidden because of his history as a “notorious confidence trickster”.

“I found Ms Johnson to be an unreliable witness,” the judge said in a scathing judgment this week.

“Silence can amount to misleading or deceptive conduct … Ms Johnson knew from the outset that Mr Foster was involved in STC.”

Peter Foster is in jail in NSW for fraud. Picture: AAP

The career criminal, 56, notorious for his “slimming” teas, was convicted in NSW for fraud over a $1 million investment he took to set up STC in South Africa.

Ms Johnson told the court she met Foster through one of his family friends Anne Larter on the Gold Coast. The court found she and Ms Larter set up the STC partnership but Foster was always pulling the strings.

Though by July 2013 Ms Johnson was concerned Foster was running a Ponzi scheme, she did not reveal his involvement at a time when she could have gone to corporate regulators, said Justice Stevenson.

Ms Johnson claimed that in August 2013, Foster threatened to “put a bullet” in her head “if I told anyone he was involved”.

“She seemed to be unable to face up to the catastrophic situation in which she found herself … I found it impossible to tell what Ms Johnson holds to be true,” the judge said.

Justice Stevenson has called for submissions on whether her silence about Foster caused damage to investors and how much she may be liable for. Ms Johnson said yesterday: “All I did was try to protect the investors”.