Connie Paglianiti scam: Melbourne socialite embezzled $6 million to fly in A-list Hollywood stars
A Melbourne socialite’s “fantasy” to lure Hollywood A-listers such as Al Pacino and Susan Sarandon to Melbourne with big bucks to save her struggling events company hinged on only one problem — she had to steal millions to make it happen.
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A Melbourne socialite was living a “fantasy” lifestyle when she stole more than $6 million to prop up her failing events business.
Connie Paglianiti spent huge sums flying in Hollywood A-listers to appear at her charity galas, the County Court heard.
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.
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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 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.
Sarandon appeared in 2016 to help raise money for Bully Zero.
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.
A forensic accounting investigation revealed Paglianiti had “engaged in a widespread and longstanding misappropriation of funds”.
Paglianiti, 61, from Brunswick East, pleaded guilty in the County Court on Wednesday to nine counts of theft.
Her lawyers submitted that “things started to go downhill” after she formed a business partnership with Melbourne-based Italian chef Dario D’Agostino, whom she claimed “promised her big things” in events but left her with a $440,000 debt.
Paglianiti was “feeling publicly humiliated in an industry often beset with gossip”, and had turned to gambling to put cashflow back into Eventcept.
Her “obsession to succeed” led her to paying celebrities to appear at her events.
She was convinced these events would generate “great profit”, get her company out of debt and allow her to repay Mr Qi, the court heard.
A psychologist testified that Paglianiti was apparently overwhelmed by achievement of securing famous guests for her events.
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“She relied far too much upon others, perhaps living out a type of fantasy which was also overflowing into the fantasy of making some gains in the escalating gambling process,” the psychologist said.
Judge Liz Gaynor remanded Paglianiti — a former president of the Carlton Traders Association and an ex-member of a police community consultation committee — until November 27 for sentencing.