Melbourne socialite Connie Paglianiti sentenced in County Court over embezzling $6m
A glitzy socialite who committed “sophisticated fraud” in a bid to save her struggling events company is now behind bars. Here’s how Hollywood A-listers such as Susan Sarandon and Al Pacino played a part in her downfall.
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A socialite who stole millions to lure Hollywood A-listers has been sentenced to at least two-and-a-half years in jail over the “sophisticated fraud”.
Connie Paglianiti faced the County Court today after earlier pleading guilty to nine counts of theft.
The court previously heard Paglianiti spent huge sums flying in Hollywood A-listers to appear at her charity galas.
She was desperate to save her crumbling Eventcepts business when she swindled $6,320,230 from Eastern Ocean, a homewares and gifts import firm run by a friend.
Paglianiti was its part-time bookkeeper when she made 100 dodgy transactions, masked as ATO payments, between February 2014 and September 2018. The money went into her bank account and into her Carlton-based company’s account.
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As her business losses grew, Paglianiti turned to gambling “four to five” nights a week at Crown, where she lost $1.5 million of the stolen cash, the court previously heard.
She paid Oscar-winning actors Sophia Loren and Susan Sarandon big money to appear at her La Dolce Italia gala dinners in 2015 and 2016 in a bid to save Eventcepts from bankruptcy.
Loren appeared at the 2015 edition held in the Crown casino Palladium room, where tickets cost between $500 and $2000 a head.
Money raised was to have gone to the Alannah and Madeleine Foundation.
How much money was passed on to each charity is still unknown.
Paglianiti claimed she paid deposits to a management company to secure Al Pacino and then Alec Baldwin to also appear at the 2016 dinner, but both “cancelled”.
Her offences did not come to light for several years because she had a “strong and protracted” working relationship with Eastern Ocean managing director William Qi which stretched back 20 years, the court heard.
But Mr Qi reported the thefts to police in September 2018 after he discovered the unauthorised transactions.
The court today heard police searched her Brunswick East home and Carlton business, seized documents, an apple laptop, USB sticks and bank statements.
Mr Qi said he was shattered, felt embarrassed and humiliated and had lost confidence in business.
The court heard Paglianiti had raised thousands for charities such as Scope and the Royal spastic society and The Royal Women’s Hospital.
But Judge Liz Gaynor labelled Paglianiti’s conduct as “grave offending” and said she would be sentenced as a “continuing criminal enterprise”.
Judge Gaynor said Paglianiti had a “relatively routine and not really stimulating” job but accepted she had developed a “pathological gambling addiction”.
“You had a low opinion of yourself,” Judge Gaynor said.
She said the gambling helped explain Paglianiti’s offending but was not a “mitigating factor”.
However, Judge Gaynor accepted her early guilty plea was “proof of remorse”
“The gravity is on the breach of trust,” Judge Gaynor said
“You were so trusted and so personally regarded as a friend (Mr Qi).
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“(This friendship) made it less likely the offending will be revealed.”
Judge Gaynor sentence Paglianiti to four years in jail, with a minimum two years and six months.
She ordered Paglianiti to pay compensation of $6 million — the amount stolen.