Gladstone Park pensioner Gunter Lang jailed for $6.5m Ponzi scheme
A Gladstone Park pensioner presented as a high-flying share market guru, but his stocks knowledge was mainly limited to what he’d read on the net. When the cash started haemorrhaging, he spun his victims — many elderly retirees — a web of lies.
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A retired pensioner posing as a stock market heavy-hitter who fleeced millions through a failed Ponzi scheme has been jailed.
Gunter Lang, 80, was sentenced in the County Court on Friday to a minimum 21-months’ jail after pleading guilty to 33 charges of obtaining financial advantage by deception.
The court heard Lang rinsed almost $6.5 million from 30 victims between January 2014 and September 2015.
The Gladstone Park pensioner prowled stockmarket share seminars targeting investors for his company G. A. Lang & Associates.
The court was told Lang presented as a bogus chief executive and accredited trader who could deliver fat returns on low-risk investments.
However, Lang’s stock market knowledge was mainly limited to what he had read on the internet, the court heard.
Lang told investors he was making “substantial profits” but in reality he was haemorrhaging cash.
He tried to “trade himself out of trouble” by investing in “high risk” US and German shares but this move just “accelerated” the losses, the court heard.
Lang dropped $738,000 on ATM withdrawals, household goods and credit cards but the rest of his victims’ millions went down the drain.
Lang spun various lies including telling victims his “hacked” trading account had been “frozen by ASIC and the Federal Police”.
He also told victims their investments had returned a profit and he had already “credited” their accounts.
Lang concocted a final fib when he realised the jig was up by telling victims their money had been stolen but insurance would cover the loss.
Lang’s victims – many of whom were elderly retirees – lost everything when he declared bankruptcy in February 2016.
One victim lost $3.4 million, while another lost $1.1 million from their late-mother’s estate.
Many victims said they were suffering physical and emotional stress after being left financially destitute.
At least one victim contemplated suicide, the court heard.
Judge Michael O’Connell said Lang’s investors had been “devastated”.
“You were much more than a backyard investor who had gotten out of his depth,” Judge O’Connell said.
“The scale of deception and loss you engaged in once things started to go wrong was particularly egregious.
“In reality you were doing no more than indulging in high stakes gambling with money belonging to those who had the misfortune to believe your assurances.”
Lang was jailed for a maximum five years and three months.
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