Convicted fraud Peter Foster speak out on Horn-Mundine fight, calling it greatest con since Fine Cotton

NOTORIOUS convicted fraudster Peter Foster has weighed in on the much-hyped Anthony Mundine-Jeff Horn fight, describing it as “the greatest con perpetrated on the Queensland sporting public since the Fine Cotton ring-in” in a startling rant.

NOTORIOUS convicted fraudster Peter Foster has weighed in on the much-hyped Anthony Mundine-Jeff Horn fight, describing the 96-second bout as “the greatest con perpetrated on the Queensland sporting public since the Fine Cotton ring-in”.

Foster, 56, who was convicted last month for using an alias to get an investor to spend $1.3 million on an offshore betting licence, sent the Gold Coast Bulletin a letter to the editor saying the fight at Suncorp Stadium was a “blatant self-interested dash for cash”.

Foster signed the letter with the titles “International Man of Mischief, Formerly World’s Youngest Boxing Promoter and Queensland Sports Tragic”.

Mouthy Mundine, 43, hit the deck in the first round of the State-sponsored fight against schoolteacher Horn.

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Peter Foster arrives at Sydney Central Local Court in Sydney, Thursday, October 18, 2018.

Foster was a promoter for Mundine’s father Tony in 1985 and was made bankrupt that year after he failed to pay Gold Coast Publications nearly $7500 in advertising fees for a failed Mohammed Ali tour.

He owed more than $40,000 in legal costs to an insurance company he unsuccessfully sued in 1983 to recover insurance on an abandoned fight between Tony Mundine and Buddy Johnson.

Foster was released from jail in July after serving his latest sentence over a sports betting scam.

When the Bulletin phoned the writer to verify his identity, Foster said he’d felt compelled to write as a member of the community who wanted to start a debate.

“It was just accepted as going to bring tourism to Queensland which clearly it didn’t do,” he said.

“It was patently obvious the fight was unjustified — there’s simply no benefit for the community.

“It was always a con, the most obvious con. It maybe takes one to see one.”

FOSTER ROWS WITH RADIO STAR

Australian boxer Jeff Horn has his arm raised as he is announced winner against Anthony Mundine (right) following the River City Rumble boxing match at Suncorp Stadium in Brisbane, Friday, November 30, 2018.

Horn-Mundine fight promoter Dean Lonergan wasn’t about to let Foster’s view of the Rover City Rumble worry him.

“I couldn’t care less what Peter Foster thinks of any of my events,” he said.

“We had 26,000 people turn up to Suncorp Stadium. Jeff Horn performed very well and boxing is a sport where anything can happen.

“I would suggest Peter Foster goes and crawls back into the jail cell he recently crawled out of. But of course he’s entitled to his opinion.”

Mundine hits the deck. Pic Annette Dew

Foster said he was now spending his time looking after his elderly mother and working on his autobiography and had never written a letter to the editor before.

“I was just angry that there was no questioning of an obvious rort,” he said.

“It made me feel better to vent and say `let’s have a debate about it’.”

Foster was dramatically nabbed outside Byron Bay in 2014 where he and an associate had been living in a $1.3 million, five-bedroom mansion rented for $1400 a week, running a multimillion-dollar sports betting scheme.

He’d been on the run for more than a year after being found guilty of contempt for defying Federal Court orders to stay away from weight loss schemes.

He was sentenced to three years’ jail for his involvement in a $6 million slimming spray scam and was released from jail in July.

It was the latest of numerous sentences for fraud including jail time in the UK, USA, Fiji and Vanuatu.