Dodgy deals: successful business people who hid dark secrets
They were hugely successful business people, some of them built empires, but underneath they hid a dark secret. These are their shocking stories.
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They were successful business people, some of them built empires, but underneath they hid a dark secret.
From insider trading to running underground drug empires these are some of the stories of Sydney’s dodgiest business people.
Aaron Waters - pleaded guilty
He owned a Dee Why swimming pool business Superior Pool Care and loved flaunting his wealth on social media. But ripped bodybuilder Aaron Waters was secretly running a drug operation worth hundreds of thousands of dollars out of a garage on Manly’s East Esplanade.
Agreed facts heard in court state that after his arrest in May last year police seized 1381g of powerful party drug MDMA in the garage, which is worth more than $275,000 on Sydney’s festival and nightclub scene.
Waters pleaded guilty and is due to be sentenced later this year.
Oliver Curtis - convicted
Married to PR queen Roxy Jacenko stockbroker Oliver Curtis was convicted of an insider trading scam in 2016 and jailed.
The scam hatched with a former private school mate raked in more than $1.4m in profits.
He was found guilty in the NSW Supreme Court for conspiring to commit insider trading on 45 separate occasions, Curtis received a maximum sentence of two years with a minimum of 12 months.
The court heard the pair spent the profits on luxury vehicles, gambling, overseas holidays and to pay the rent on a $3000-a-week Bondi apartment.
Ross Glynatsis - convicted
The owner of a well-known Central Coast nightclub Siren Ross Glynatsis “visited it upon himself” when he got involved with bikies which led him to arming himself with a gun, a court has heard.
Explosive details were heard at his sentencing hearing including that he first hired a Bandido bikie to settle a debt, only to become the target of extortion and threats, which led to him arming himself with a loaded pistol and other weapons.
Glynatsis, 65, faced Gosford Local Court last month having already pleaded guilty to eight weapons and drug offences following a police raid of his Erina unit in October last year.
An agreed set of police facts, tendered in court, states Glynatsis had no previous criminal history but had become the victim of an extortion attempt by a Bandidos member in 2018.
Claudia Gelonese - convicted
Claudia Gelonese was the bride who used childcare fees meant for centre she was working at to bankroll her dream wedding at Luna Park.
Gelonese, 26, was in January jailed for seven months, to be suspended after four months served, after pleading guilty to obtaining financial advantage by deception.
Ryan Charlton - convicted
Baulkham Hills man Ryan Charlton was sentenced last month for defrauding people tens of thousands of dollars through his real estate business to fund a gambling habit.
According to documents tendered to the court from June 2017 to April 2018, Charlton fraudulently converted around $76,000 to fund his gambling habit and support his real estate business.
Charlton was the sole director and shareholder of Condor Real Estate, which offered management services to landlords of residential premises.
Stephanie Daran - convicted
Glamorous eastern suburbs pilates instructor Stephanie Daran has worked with clients ranging from NRL players to politicians but that counted for nothing when police raided her Dover Heights home last year and charged her with drug supply.
Daran, 45, faced Waverley Local Court last January after pleading guilty to a number of charges, including supplying a prohibited drug, over the incident in February 2019.
The court was told Daran had pleaded guilty to the supply charge only because police found more than 4g of cocaine, which is higher than the trafficable quantity of 3g.
However, the mother told the court she did not supply the drug but used it about every two weeks including with her now-estranged husband, who she said had told her he wanted a divorce on their wedding anniversary and a week before her court appearance.
“We would get it roughly every second weekend,” she told the court.
The court was told Daran’s husband had previously pleaded guilty to drug supply after the raid.
A less than impressed Magistrate Greg Grogin placed Daran on an 18-month community corrections order.
“A person who teaches pilates one would assume would have good health at the centre of their teachings and instruction,” he said.
Court records showed Daran lodged an appeal and she remains before the courts.
Leon Roussakis, Edward Watt - pleaded guilty
They were the odd pair, a rubble merchant and highly-paid boss of a Canberra concrete recycling company that conspired to dump more than $3 million dollars of waste in Canberra for free.
The former general manager of Canberra Concrete Recyclers, Edward Anthony Watt, 56, pleaded guilty in the ACT Supreme Court on Friday to providing false or misleading information to a company director, a white collar crime that carries a potential five year jail sentence.
His partner in crime, Sydney building rubble merchant Leon Roussakis, 49, pleaded guilty to aiding and abetting Watt.
According to documents tendered in court, Roussakis was the owner and operator of Tip It Interstate, a Sydney company that trucked tons of building rubble into the ACT every night to get around NSW waste levies.
A statement of agreed facts shows Watt and Roussakis hatched a plan so Roussakis’s company could dump waste at about half the advertised cost.