Sydney travel blogger Adriana Matak allegedly worked as $1000-a-night hostess
New details have emerged about the Australian woman accused in Croatia of swindling investors of nearly $600,000 and her life in Europe.
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Exclusive: An Australian woman accused in Croatia of swindling investors of nearly $600,000 allegedly worked as a $1000-a-night high class hostess in London.
The manager of exclusive gentleman’s club, Albemarle Bar, in Mayfair, claims Sydney travel blogger Adriana Matak operated under the name Giselle, wearing heels and drinking champagne at £500 ($A960) a pop.
The now-36-year-old, also known as Kupresak, mingled with wealthy politicians, lawyers and aristocrats at the club, allegedly developing a taste for the finer things in life.
Ms Matak and her investment adviser husband Luka Matak, 31, both formerly of Sydney, are being held in Remetinec prison in the Croatian capital of Zagreb, accused of defrauding people there of 350,000 euros ($A587,000). They have not been charged and strongly deny the allegations.
Sources who entrusted their money to Mr Matak — a one-time barman turned self-described “hedge fund manager” — claim the total invested by people from Croatia, Britain and Australia to be closer to $4.9m.
“She wasn’t as successful as some of the girls, but there are a lot of very rich, very lonely men out there whose company she milked,” said the club manager, who asked to be known only as Renard.
“She had the chat and made around £500 ($A960) a night and could put the drink away, that’s for sure.
“She would wear these impossibly high heels and walk around to get attention, she’s quite short and wanted to get attention.
“Some of the girls who come to meet like to blot out their lives with alcohol … and she was one of them,” he said.
“She was good at computers, she first came to me about eight, nine, years ago and wanted to put everything on Twitter and Instagram, it was before the boom in social media.
“I told her to be quiet and go sell some champagne to the gentlemen but she wouldn’t let it go.
“I remember one guy offered to give her £100,000 ($A192,000) to buy a flat, I don’t know if she did.
“These clubs are where she developed a taste for luxury, designer bags and dresses.”
Prior to working at the Albemarle for a year, Ms Matak, a self confessed former high functioning addict, is believed to have worked for several years at Sammy’s gentleman’s club in London’ Lancaster Gate before it closed down during Covid.
“(The club) owed her a lot of money so she came to work for me,” Renard said.
Ms Matak and her husband moved in elite social circles before they were arrested.
She worked with the Croatian Tourist Board to spruik the island country as a holiday destination and wrote travel articles for The Lonely Planet guide. She was born in Croatia but lived in Sydney from the age of one.
Her father was a Sydney United football player, Velimir Kupresak, who retired in 2001.
Authorities allege they were running the scam for a number of years with five alleged victims.
The couple have told Croatian police they had no intention of cheating investors with any loss.
WhatsApp chats show Mr Matak citing rising oil prices and Joe Biden’s US stimulus bill to coax more money from a British investor in mid-2021.
Croatian publication NI cited Ms Matak’s statement to investigators where she insisted her husband was struggling to transfer the money from the brokerage account to a bank account in Croatia.
“Luka had that money, he just had to find a legal way to return it,” Mrs Matak said.
“Luka closed the sum of 600 thousand euros on a brokerage account and can send that money.”
When police arrived at the couple’s home in Croatia’s wealthy Salata neighbourhood they are said to have been greeted by security guards they had hired.
On her blog she writes about her 11 year battle to kick drugs and alcohol.
“I was fuelling an addiction to alcohol, carelessly tampering with drugs and being disposable with my body while diving deeper into the depths of depression and despair,” she wrote.
“I was walking towards rehab, in my designer shoes and you probably never would have known because I was a high-functioning addict.”
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