Funny business: Celeb impressionist accused of fraud using sticky-taped signatures
Comedian and financial adviser David Valvo, whose celebrity impressions include Donald Trump, has been accused of ripping off dozens of clients’ signatures.
National
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He made a living impersonating high-profile people including Russell Crowe and Donald Trump, but now authorities accuse David Valvo of impersonating his clients – using sticky tape.
In Federal Court proceedings, the corporate regulator has accused Mr Valvo, a voice over man and celebrity impressionist turned financial adviser, of ripping off at least 48 clients to the tune of about $750,000.
The court has frozen the assets of Mr Valvo, who bills himself as “the man of a thousand voices”, and banned the Sydney man from leaving Australia after the Australian Securities and Investments Commission said there was a risk he would flee the country and dissipate all his assets.
In an affidavit filed with the court, ASIC investigator Jessica Seymour said ASIC was considering referring Mr Valvo to Commonwealth prosecutors for fraud and dishonesty offences that could see him jailed for up to 15 years.
She said Mr Valvo had “a long history of substantial gambling”, punting more than $400,000 at Sportsbet since February 2021, and was “transferring large sums of monies to another individual” in Malta, where he was born.
Mr Valvo was also in the process of selling an investment property in Sydney suburb Baulkham Hills and appeared to have plans to travel to Malta in October, she said.
ASIC began investigating Mr Valvo and his financial advice company, Your Financial Freedom, in November last year after a tip-off from another firm that had bought his roll of financial planning clients.
Ms Seymour said the firm, the name of which has been redacted by the court, went through 20 boxes of client files taken from Mr Valvo’s home and “identified that in some instances, client signatures had been stuck on to various forms with tape”.
She said ASIC had possession of a form authorising Mr Valvo to charge a one-off fee “and containing what appears to be a sticky-taped client signature”.
Ten clients of Mr Valvo interviewed by ASIC said signatures on forms allowing Mr Valvo to slug them with charges of between $5000 and $25,000 were either not theirs or they did not recall making them, Ms Seymour told the court.
She said she believed Mr Valvo had been living off withdrawals from his own super, drawing down $183,000 between December and May.
He also received $22,000 in rent from the Baulkham Hills property between August last year and May but made just $3500 from voice-over work for DMC Talent, Nine Entertainment and Eventbrite in the same period, she said.
Mr Valvo declined to comment on the allegations against him, saying he had advice from his solicitor “to say nothing to no-one”.
“I’m a little fish – seven hundred and fifty, for f*** sake, it’s nothing,” he said.
Last month Justice Elizabeth Cheeseman granted ASIC’s application for a travel ban and froze his assets up to the value of $1m.
The case returns to court this week for a case management hearing in front of Justice Michael Lee.
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Originally published as Funny business: Celeb impressionist accused of fraud using sticky-taped signatures
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