Young mum took part in super funds and stock portfolios scam

A young hairdresser was part of a scam which defrauded more than $3 million from super funds and share portfolios of older Australians.

A young Melbourne mother has been jailed for her role in an international fraud syndicate which stole millions of dollars from super funds and stock portfolios.

A young Melbourne mother has been jailed for her role in an international fraud syndicate which took millions of dollars from super funds and stock portfolios.

Jasmine Vella-Arpaci, 24, arrived at the County Court of Victoria on Friday dressed in a black, skin-tight dress and wearing large designer sunglasses.

She was sentenced to six years in prison for what the court heard were her “many separate acts of deception” within a criminal web stretching from Hong Kong to the US.

Friends and family of Ms Vella-Arpaci, who sat silently throughout her sentencing with her hands clasped at her lap and her eyes fixed intently at Judge Fiona Todd, shed tears outside court once the sentence was handed down.

Jasmine Vella-Arpaci, 24, has been jailed for her role in a multi-million-dollar fraud, whose victims included elderly Australians. Picture: NCA NewsWire / David Crosling

Ms Vella-Arpaci earlier pleaded guilty to two counts of conspiracy to defraud and one count of conspiracy to deal with the proceeds of crime in excess of $1 million. Picture: NCA NewsWire / David Crosling

Ms Vella-Arpaci had earlier pleaded guilty to two counts of conspiracy to defraud and one count of conspiracy to deal with the proceeds of crime in excess of $1 million.

A qualified hairdresser, Ms Vella-Arpaci was 21 when she helped in a scam which defrauded more than $3 million from the super funds and share portfolios of older Australians.

She would use “phishing” schemes to obtain personal information and to gain access to accounts, before siphoning money to fraudulently obtained credit cards, which were subsequently mailed to Hong Kong via FedEx to a man known as “H” – who the court heard was the “mastermind” and “ultimate decision maker.”

Then, as the court heard, a man known as “Swiper” would launder the money through the purchase of diamonds and other jewellery.

Jasmine Vella-Arpaci (right) used sophisticated ‘phishing’ schemes to siphon money from the accounts of older Australians. Picture: NCA NewsWire / David Crosling

Once the items were sold off, Ms Vella-Arpaci was paid her share in cryptocurrency.

The victims, whose names are suppressed by order of the court, included a couple in their late 80s and early 90s, and another whose super was razed a year before their retirement.

The court heard that at the time of the offending, Ms Vella-Arpaci, who was arrested at Melbourne Airport on her return from Turkey in April 2019, was living with the now-imprisoned husband of her child, and financially supporting his gambling addiction.

Jasmine Vella-Arpaci’s friends and family shed tears outside court once her custodial sentence was delivered by Judge Fiona Todd.

In her sentencing remarks, Judge Todd said Ms Vella-Arpaci was not living a “luxurious existence”.

She said Vella-Arpaci, who attended Rosehill Secondary College in Niddrie, Victoria has become a frequent user of valium, xanax and benzodiazepine, at times taking as many as 10 pills a day, in order to deal with her anxiety.

Judge Todd said Ms Vella-Arpaci’s “phishing”, which included enticing people to enter their personal information through google advertisements resembling their super companies, was “effortful and sophisticated”.

Ms Vella-Arpaci will be eligible for parole in four years.

Originally published as Young mum took part in super funds and stock portfolios scam