An Aussie man lost thousands to scammers. Then we followed the money trail

An Australian man lost $10,000 to scammers. But that was just the beginning of a bizarre money trail leading to the other side of the world.

A foreign political candidate’s Australian business accounts have been swiftly shut down after he unwittingly become embroiled in a global scam operation.

News.com.au can reveal that an Australian business established by a man living in the Middle East was used to siphon at least $10,000 of stolen funds.

Dozens of people all around the world lost tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars last year to 4AI.net, a scam website posing as a legitimate cryptocurrency trading platform. Customers soon realised they couldn’t withdraw their investment gains and the website eventually ceased to exist.

One victim claimed on social media they had been duped out of as much as $US300,000 ($A467,000).

The scammers gave a Sydney man the details of an Australian bank account to make a $10,000 payment.

The bank account belonged to Invent Media Pty Ltd, which was set up in Australia last year by a 50-year-old filmmaker and aspiring politician based in Lebanon, Malek Mawlawi.

Mr Mawlawi told news.com.au he has no knowledge or involvement in the 4AI.net scam and said a friend tricked him into gaining control of his company’s bank account. The friend rejected these allegations.

Malek Mawlawi is the sole director of Invent Media. Picture: Facebook

An Invent Media bank account was used to defraud an Australian man of $10,000.

Early last year, Andy* heard about 4AI.net through a fake media article that appeared on his social media feed.

The 53-year-old Sydneysider registered his interest and after several conversations with staff – calling from Australian numbers but with European accents – he was eventually coaxed into investing $10,000.

At the end of June, a scammer sent the dad-of-two the BSB and account number for Invent Media Pty Ltd, an Australian-based business with a Commonwealth bank account.

Andy was instructed to pay $10,000 and to put “professional consultancy” down as the reason for the transaction.

Within a day of making the bank transfer, the $10,000 had appeared in his 4AI trading account, making him believe the payment had worked.

But a few weeks later, on August 2, the 4AI website abruptly shut down, leaving Invent Media Pty Ltd as Andy’s only clue of where his money went.

Australian business records show that Mr Mawlawi, with an address in Beirut, Lebanon, is the sole director of Invent Media Pty Ltd.

Mr Mawlawi told news.com.au he opened an Australian arm of his Invent Media business in February last year because he was going to start working with the ABC to help their Middle Eastern coverage.

He has previously worked for Al Jazeera, the BBC and the Turkish national broadcaster, TRT.

Mr Mawlawi also ran for a seat in the Lebanese region of Tripoli in the 2018 and 2022 federal elections, for the Revolt for Justice and Sovereignty party.

His late father was a prominent sheikh, Faysal Mawlawi, with strong links to Hamas and Hezbollah.

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Andy’s transaction to Invent Media last year.

The email from 4AI.net scammers telling Andy where to send his money.

When news.com.au contacted Mr Mawlawi, he said a friend had tricked him into giving access to Invent Media’s bank accounts.

“So what’s happened is my friend came to me and you cannot imagine that your friend will cheat on you, will use you,” he told news.com.au.

Mr Mawlawi said this man had been a friend of his for many years and heard he was opening a business in Australia.

This man reportedly convinced Mr Mawlawi to give him control of Invent Media’s bank accounts, as he said he was having issues receiving funds from Australian clients.

The man lives overseas.

Mr Mawlawi said he soon lost control of Invent Media’s email and that the man used disappearing messages on WhatsApp so has no proof of those texts.

Malek Mawlawi pictured beside Sheikh Ahmad bin Hamad Al-Khalili, the Grand Mufti of the Sultanate of Oman.

“He is a liar,” Mr Mawlawi said of his friend. “And because of his lying, I stopped talking to him.”

When news.com.au contacted the man, he said he and Mr Mawlawi were still in touch and he was surprised to hear of the allegations.

“I have nothing to do with this,” he said.

“Malek (Mawlawi) is the shareholder, he is the director. For me I am not involved in this situation at all.”

The man pointed out that $10,000 is “such a small amount” and it wouldn’t make much sense risking his international reputation over it.

“Why would I spoil my name with this stupid thing? I don’t have any involvement in this rogue operation. I have nothing to hide,” the man said.

Mr Mawlawi’s late father was a prominent sheikh, Faysal Mawlawi, with strong links to Hamas and Hezbollah.

News.com.au has previously reported that these kinds of scams are global operations run by transnational crime gangs and are highly lucrative.

Many crime gangs have pivoted from drug and sex trafficking to scams in the post-Covid era.

Ken Gamble, who heads private investigation firm IFW Global, and who has been hired by Andy to look into this case, believes Mr Mawlawi’s explanations.

He said Mr Mawlawi’s friend fits the profile of the kind of person who might become involved in a major scam operation.

“We actually hear this story all the time. It’s a common theme with money mules,” Mr Gamble said to news.com.au. “That’s how they get accounts - they find people with dormant accounts.”

He said he found Mr Mawlawi “naive” and believed his friend had manipulated him.

“Scams are high-value enterprises,” Mr Gamble said, adding it would make sense for someone like Mr Mawlawi’s friend to be involved.

“We’ve got a lot of people that parade in eastern Europe and are involved in scams. Some of them even own crypto exchanges. Some are politicians. These syndicates go all the way to the top.”

The Commonwealth bank shut down Mawlawi’s business and personal accounts with no explanation.

Mr Mawlawi has said he is not involved.

The bank closed down Invent Media’s account last August.

Mr Mawlawi’s bank, the Commonwealth Bank, shut down his company’s account with no explanation in August last year.

The corporate regulator, ASIC, also investigated Invent Media but would not make a comment.

News.com.au understands Australian victims made reports to the police and that the matter was also referred to the Australian Federal Police. The AFP also declined to comment.

Mr Mawlawi has vowed to never do business again in Australia.

“I stopped everything since last year. I’m not doing anything in Australia after this case,” Mr Mawlawi said.

Mr Mawlawi said a friend of his is to blame.

A man who helped Mr Mawlawi set up his Australian business has been approached by authorities investigating the company.

Mr Mawlawi was required to hire a local intermediary, Peter Hocking, who offers services to act as what’s called a resident director, to register Invent Media as a business in Australia.

Mr Hocking, from Sydney, said the explanation that Mawlawi’s friend took over the company’s accounts made sense, given his own interactions with the company.

“He (Mr Mawlawi) did everything he was required to do to set up the business in a proper manner,” Mr Hocking recalled to news.com.au.

“If you’re going to be wicked, you wouldn’t go to the bother of paying a few thousand in director’s indemnity insurance.”

A few months in, Mr Hocking noticed the tone of the emails changed and he came to suspect that he was talking with two different people through Invent Media’s emails, consistent with someone other than Mr Mawlawi having control.

“There was a period of time where I wasn’t sure who I was speaking with,” he said.

On June 16 last year – less than two weeks before Andy was coaxed into making the $10,000 bank transfer – Mr Hocking received a very strange email.

A man who wasn’t Mr Mawlawi told him he was the CEO of Invent Media and requested to open a new bank account at either NAB or Westpac.

This person later identified himself as someone from Cyprus.

“I refused point blank when that bank account request came through, to do that,” Mr Hocking said. “It raised suspicions about this business.”

This person eventually threatened legal action against him for his refusal to follow their bidding and he cut ties, resigning as a director. This left Mr Mawlawi as the sole director.

Mr Hocking has given all his correspondence between Mr Mawlawi and Invent Media to ASIC.

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