Vic Cuoco: CVC Law founder’s downfall through drug supply

With a top job, influential friends and a celebrity wife, Vic Cuoco had made it. But his ‘play hard’ mentality led him down a dangerous and destructive path.

For the best part of a decade, Vittorio ‘Vic’ Cuoco was the toast of Wollongong with a celebrity wife, his own law practice and proud contributions to a number of charities and sporting organisations.

Following the death of his father in 2009, the prominent lawyer led an exuberant lifestyle with a ‘work hard, play hard’ mentality, cutting loose on weekends with binge drinking and cocaine.

“I didn’t want to go down his path when you work yourself silly and don’t get to enjoy it,” Cuoco said. “(My father) left a great legacy but never got to enjoy it.”

Vittorio ‘Vic’ Cuoco leaving court. Picture: Bianca De Marchi

On the night of February 6, 2020, the principal and founder of CVC Law supplied cocaine to two male pals and two women he barely knew, actions which triggered a dramatic fall from grace and the end of his marriage.

On Wednesday, the District Court heard father-of-two Cuoco had hit “rock bottom” following the events of the drug-fuelled weekend in Sydney as he appealed for a lighter sentence.

The high-flying legal eagle was unaware police had bugged his Pitt St hotel room where he supplied the cocaine a number of times across the night.

When police raided his home and Wollongong office in the weeks following the bender an unlicensed poker machine, bag of cocaine and unregistered air rifle were found.

The court heard his arrest led to public shame. Picture: Jonathan Ng

In December, the lawyer was convicted and placed on a 12-month community corrections order for drug supply and weapons charges.

Cuoco told the court it had “been a lonely 12 months” and his reputation was “tarnished”, with the public shame of his criminal night out ending his marriage with former My Kitchen Rules contestant Cyn.

“It was a night out,” he recalled of the offending. “It was actually a day thing, we attended an event together and basically went back to the room and just had a social gathering. I had some (cocaine) with me and shared it with them. That was it.”

The lawyer revealed in cross examination the fake key in which he carried the cocaine was a gift from a friend, given with the intention of carrying cocaine.

He said the possession of an unauthorised firearm, being an air rifle found in his walk-in wardrobe, was a family heirloom which he had intended to get registered but simply forgot.

Cuoco told the court he had used cocaine for a decade.

The poker machine he had at his Balgownie mansion, which he was not licensed to own, was also a gift and just used as an “amusement” when he had friends around.

Cuoco also gave evidence of a small amount of cocaine found inside a memorabilia football boot at his office, which he pleaded guilty to possessing, he didn’t know how it got there.

The lawyer’s barrister Winston Terracini SC said Cuoco had suffered a “significant fall” in the public eye, with the media interest in the case an indirect punishment.

Judge Jenni Girdham SC said Cuoco’s crimes were a result of the high-flying lifestyle he had been living.

“(Cuoco) was indulging in a party lifestyle,” she said. “That lifestyle led to his involvement in the cohort (of cocaine users). It led to the supply”.

On the four charges of drug supply, Cuoco was convicted and sentenced to a 12-month conditional release order.

For the cocaine possession, the unlicensed poker machine and firearm offences, he was also convicted and fined a total of $4250.

Cuoco will learn the fate of his 28-year legal career in coming months, with a show-cause notice previously issued by The Law Society of NSW as a result of the charges