Student behind get-rich-quick scheme should ‘face the consequences’

ALEXANDER Beniac-Brooks loved shoes. But a venture involving designer watches and investors from private schools seems to have gone wrong.

ALEXANDER Beniac-Brooks had a well-documented love of shoes.

The teen entrepreneur is at the centre of an alleged get-rich-quick scheme that spread to some of Melbourne’s top private schools and left parents and students out of pocket. In an online video, he talks about his “obsession” with fashion and European style, and his big plans inspired by a trip to the continent.

“I want to do my entrepreneurship course ... expand businesses I already have,” he says in the clip, filmed on Melbourne’s St Kilda foreshore.

“Move overseas, experience a bit of their culture ... Live the lifestyle and collect shoes.”

But it appears to have gone awry for the former Scotch College student, who acquaintances say won popularity for his ability to source and sell Louis Vuitton and Gucci products via Facebook.

It is believed his return from a school exchange to Germany marked the start of the failed venture, with reports the-then year 12 student told classmate investors he had set up a manufacturing business making watches for $2 to $3 a piece. If they invested, he reportedly told them, they would get a big return.

Alexander Beniac-Brooks is the failed entrepreneur who lost students hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Some students handed over thousands of dollars, with one reportedly losing $150,000.

The failed venture was first brought to light by the Herald Sun, with students from Brighton Grammar, St Kevin’s College, Haileybury, Trinity Grammar and Melbourne Grammar also believed to have invested.

One investor told the Herald Sun of investing $1000 on a promise it would be more than doubled but remains sure it was not a scam.

Some student investors were reportedly given Rolex watches after kicking in cash.

“I don’t think anyone really knew (what they were investing in) but people just gave him money.

“Lot of my mates got heaps of money back and it was all working.

“(What people invested) varied from $500 to $5000 to $10,000. The more you gave the more you got back.”

Mr Beniac-Brooks parents, who live in Kew, have reportedly repaid all of the classmates who lost money in the venture.

Former Scotch College student Alexander Beniac-Brooks asked students to invest in the scheme.

An expert in teen psychology said Mr Beniac-Brooks needed to face the consequences of his actions.

Dr Michael Carr-Gregg said the teenager should face some sort of punishment.

“There should be consequences as a result,” he told Melbourne’s 3AW.

“You can’t blame the school.

He added the way Mr Beniac-Brooks’s parents reacted was important.

“I do hope the parent in question hasn’t repaid all the (investments), without some consequences.”

Although it was a “life lesson” for Mr Beniac-Brooks and his classmate investors, it would be a costly one.

“Hopefully ... they will learn from this.”