Aaron Baslangic pleads guilty to stealing $1.9m from Coles

A “highly intelligent” former Coles financial executive siphoned almost $2m from the corporate giant to pay for rental properties and designer gear from top fashion brands.

Former Coles executive Aaron Baslangic has pleaded guilty to stealing $1.9 million from the company. Instagram

A former Coles executive stole almost $2m in company money to fund a lavish lifestyle, including leasing a BMW and loading up on luxury goods from high-end brands including Jimmy Choo, Cartier and Louis Vuitton.

Aaron Baslangic pleaded guilty at Melbourne Magistrates Court on June 14 after he was charged in 2019 with obtaining property by deception, obtaining financial benefit by deception and falsifying documents.

The 40-year-old made 14 fraudulent transactions from Coles into multiple bank accounts — the biggest sum in a single transaction being more than $413,000.

Baslangic, of Sandringham, siphoned the stolen money into his eight personal bank accounts through a variety of methods, including creating fake emails from his supervisors to authorise payments to a fictitious business, and to real estate and car companies.

The court heard that the offending occurred between January and July 2019, while Baslangic was working as the head of strategic initiatives for Coles Online and had authorisation to make external payments of up to $75,000 but could make bigger payments with supervisor permission.

Baslangic splashed the cash on rental properties, a lease on a BMW car and on retail goods from luxury brands such as Jimmy Choo, Cartier and Louis Vuitton.

He did not stop his offending until he was discovered by Coles, who connected the suspicious transactions totalling $1,978,550 to his personal bank accounts.

Judge Duncan Allen said he was confused by the “strangely unsophisticated” conduct committed by a “well-educated man”.

“The conduct is extremely bizarre in that he must have known this was to be picked up very soon, he made no attempts to cover his tracks,’’ Judge Allen said.

“Brazen is one word for it, the other word is incredibly stupid … it’s very odd.

“A year 12 student could have worked out where this money was going … it’s extremely bizarre.”

Baslangic was remanded in custody on June 9 and has paid back $1,313,634 to Coles but still owes $615,000.

The court heard that he had provided no explanation to his counsel as to why he committed the offending other than “he was angry”.

The defence lawyer for Baslangic said he had no master plan for the stolen funds.

“He’s not able to give an explanation … he’s ashamed and accepts the prosecution case.”

Baslangic, originally from Turkey, started working with Coles in 2014, after gaining an MBA.

Judge Allen abruptly ended the hearing and decided the matter needed to be stood down and ordered more information to be obtained about Baslangic’s psychological condition.

“Someone with no prior convictions, no anti-social tendencies, no drug or alcohol tendencies, educated and highly intelligent … out of the blue, commits offending which can only be described as bizarre, he must have known would be readily identified and he would be identified as the offender,” Mr Allen said.

“The circumstances call for a better explanation than what we've got now … to give Mr Baslangic a chance to explain, if there is anything to explain.”

The hearing will continue in August.