Inside the Ivanhoe Ponzi scheme that ensnared barristers, sports stars

Close to $100m may have been lured from powerbrokers in sport, the law and wagering as part of a Ponzi scandal that’s set to be bigger than Sydney conwoman Melissa Caddick’s massive rort.

The Victorian Bookmakers’ Association has confirmed it has $1.8m at risk, but it could be just the tip of the iceberg.

Leading figures in wagering, the law and sport are trapped in the Ponzi scandal now shaping to overtake the Melissa Caddick rort that stripped $30m from its victims.

One estimate is that close to $100m has been lured from investors with false promises of well-secured mortgage loans.

The Victorian Bookmakers’ Association has confirmed it has $1.8m at risk — but several independent bookies stand to lose far more than that on their own accounts.

One leading bookmaker fears losing at least $3m and members of another well-known racing family have “invested” more than $5m between them with AMS Law in Ivanhoe.

The Ivanhoe scheme is shaping to be bigger than the Melissa Caddick rort. Picture: Andy Baker

Another retired bookmaker is reputed to have invested $11m and another close to $5m.

A football identity who played the game before becoming a heavyweight administrator has, with a close family member, lost $2.2m and is enraged to find he has two properties recently encumbered with mortgages that he now has to prove are bogus.

A recently retired Queens Counsel stands to lose $1m, and he is believed to be only one of several legal figures who has been burnt.

A former Stawell Gift winner who has dementia cannot yet grasp that the man he thought was his longtime friend and lawyer, has effectively robbed him and his elderly wife of their only security and income.

The old runner’s family were on the verge of tears on Tuesday as they revealed gruelling details of the couple’s financial plight.

But for every person who has so far told the Herald Sun about their potential loss, more have not yet spoken up because of embarrassment at being duped by someone they believed was a family friend and respected adviser.

Major racing figures are believed to have lost a combined total in the tens of millions. Picture: Jenny Evans

At the centre of the scandal is lawyer and former sports powerbroker and partner at AMS Law, John Adams, who died recently.

The Victorian Legal Services Board said on Monday it was aware of allegations of misappropriation of investment funds by Mr Adams.
“The Board is undertaking a preliminary assessment of the allegations, including liaising with the law practice and relevant third parties,” a statement read.
The VLS was also working with Victoria Police on the matter.

For about 20 years, John Bernard Adams has held two lunches a week to press the flesh with friends who, it seems, he used to spread word of his uncanny knack for profitable mortgage loan investing.

Although Adams was far from flamboyant, presenting as a kindly grandfather, he effortlessly promoted confidence in his money-making ability in the same way that renowned confidence men like Mike Bastion and “Dollar Bill” Vlahos did in the past.

Bastion robbed big-name racing people and farmers across Australasia with his money market racket before suiciding in Hong Kong in 2000. And Vlahos conned people into punting and bloodstock schemes for seven years before his bubble burst in 2013.

But Mr Adams sold the con decades longer than other fly-by-nighters.

One leading football figure whose family stands to lose $2m has known Adams since 1961, when they used to play kick to kick in the street around Flemington.

Despite that 60-year friendship, the now enraged football figure was not told of the extremely secretive service held for a handful of family members at the Immaculate Conception church in Hawthorn last Thursday.

No one outside family and very close friends attended because there were no death or funeral notices.

The old friend says he now realises this was to avoid any chance of angry investors turning up to the funeral to demand answers to some very difficult questions, starting with “Where’s our money?”

The answer to that question might begin with access to a particular file or files left at Mr Adams’ smart office at AMS Law at 176 Upper Heidelberg Rd, Ivanhoe.

Mr Adams inspired the same confidence in his money-making ability in the same manner of fraudsters like Bill Vlahos. Picture: David Crosling

According to anxious investors, an Adams family member (not a lawyer) forced an office manager into letting him into the office to retrieve the sensitive file only a few hours after his father died on the night of Saturday October 21 at the family’s luxurious coastal property near Lorne.

The “tell all” file was reportedly taken back to Lorne and was not returned to the AMS practice for eight days despite increasingly agitated clients alarmed by the odd reaction of the Adams family and of Mr Adams’ legal partner Shane Maguire.

One family that stands to lose $5.5m report they were called by a member of the Adams family at 9am on the Sunday morning (October 22), just hours after Adams died.

It seemed strange, as if they were being deliberately told about his death for a reason — to prepare them for bad news ahead — and yet the same people were not told about the secretive funeral service later that week.

What is clear is that Mr Adams and his legal partner Mr Maguire “flew under the radar” with the wider public despite being known in certain football, racing and business circles.

One leading bookmaker fears losing at least $3m.

Mr Maguire said on Monday that following Adams death the firm had “identified a number of concerns in relation to mortgage investments (Adams) had arranged”.

“I am continuing to conduct our practice with the assistance of our capable team,” he said.

Adams was one of the architects of North Melbourne’s renaissance from “easy beats” into a premiership-winning club but he also had heavyweight connections at Carlton and was on the board of the fledgling West Coast Eagles, reflecting his status as one of the fathers of the national competition.

He and Maguire are known to have registered the name “Australian Football League” well before the national concept was embraced — and reportedly sold the rights to it for a substantial figure when the old VFL went national.

Adams was known as a mentor to a young Andrew Demetriou, and helped set him for AFL football’s most powerful executive job before Gillon McLachlan took the reins.

Maguire was well-known in amateur football circles as a successful captain-coach of North Old Boys. On the field, he was a good full back, although outshone by players of the calibre of Tony Hannebery, later a well-known criminal lawyer who has watched Maguire’s progress with interest.

Off the field, Maguire and Adams have had a surprising variety of business interests. Not every pinstriped Ivanhoe lawyer would be a director of a city strip joint but Maguire was up for the job.

Company records show he was a director of Showgirls 20 club, which operates in the city’s King St sleazy nightclub strip.

He was also a director of Planet Platinum, a company associated with the well-known brothel Daily Planet and its owner John Trimble, nephew of the late drug baron Robert Trimbole.

Despite his assertive fearlessness on the football field, Maguire has proven both passive and publicity shy in the 10 days since his legal partner’s sudden death.

He did not insist on retrieving the vital file that the Adams family commandeered without any legal right to do so.

And he was slow to react to demands that he notify legal authorities and police about the obvious irregularities contained in the Adams mortgage loan records.

There are many unanswered questions in a story that has a long way to go.

One of them is how Mr Adams tricked his partner into signing or approving or ignoring so many documents that allowed a staid suburban law firm to separate so many innocent victims from their savings.

To be continued.