Police arrest serial fraudster Peter Foster over online sports scam
Prolific conman Peter Foster has been arrested in Queensland over a multimillion-dollar scam. He is expected to be charged with more than a dozen offences, including fraud and money laundering, and extradited back to NSW.
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Prolific conman Peter Foster has been arrested in Queensland over a multimillion-dollar scam.
The 57-year-old was arrested on the beach in the up-market holiday destination Port Douglas, north of Cairns, just before 8am today.
It is understood Foster travelled recently from his palatial home on the Gold Coast and had inquired about buying a $1 million yacht moored at Port Douglas.
Three plain-clothed police officers arrested Foster as he was walking his two dogs along Four Mile Beach this morning.
Sitting on the sand in handcuffs, one officer told a dazed Foster he was the subject of a NSW arrest warrant.
“I’m very worried about my little dogs,” the serial fraudster replied.
Police will allege in court Foster, using the alias Bill Dawson, encouraged a Hong Kong-based client to invest almost $2 million in the scheme.
The alleged victim believed the money would be used to wage bets on sporting events with the help of experts through Sports Predictions.
Over five transactions, he transferred $1.85 million worth of Bitcoin to an address nominated by ‘Dawson’, police allege.
The Bitcoin was then transferred to Independent Reserve, a cryptocurrency exchange in Sydney’s CBD.
According to police, however, the funds were never used to make bets.
It will be alleged Foster funnelled the money into other bank accounts.
Police will allege that while Foster was operating under an alias, his voice was recorded during Zoom calls with the alleged victim
It follows a lengthy investigation led by NSW Police into allegations Foster fleeced millions of dollars from investors through an online sports trading operation named Sports Predictions.
He is expected to be charged with more than a dozen offences, including fraud and money laundering, and extradited back to NSW.
It is not the first time Foster, who attracted infamy for his flashy lifestyle choices and celebrity associations, has been in handcuffs.
The career criminal has spent time behind bars in Australia, Vanuatu and Britain for everything from dodgy weight loss products to bogus sports trading.
He used his pin-up girlfriend Samantha Fox and the Duchess of York Sarah Ferguson to spruik his Bai Lin slimming tea in the 1980s.
He controversially helped the wife of then UK Prime Minister Tony Blair buy property at a discount before fleeing the country in the 2000s.
He was banned from being the director of a company and also popped up as a witness in the murder of Novy Chardon on the Gold Coast in 2013.
Foster had claimed he drew a jailhouse confession out of Ms Chardon’s husband, businessman John Chardon, when the pair shared a jail cell in 2015.
Then in 2018, Foster was jailed for 18 months in NSW for using a fake name to dupe investors out of almost $30 million through the Sports Trading Club Scheme.
Since his release from prison he moved back to the Gold Coast, where he claimed in media interviews he had turned over a new leaf.
Originally published as Police arrest serial fraudster Peter Foster over online sports scam
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