By Cara Waters
Billionaire Adrian Portelli kept parts of Melbourne awake Thursday night with a party in his penthouse skyscraper apartment complete with a laser light show.
Neighbourhood chat groups around the inner suburbs lit up with questions about the “crazy bright flashing” lights across the night sky.
Billionaire Adrian Portelli kept parts of Melbourne awake Thursday night with a party in his penthouse skyscraper apartment complete with a laser light show.
“I saw it reflecting off the buildings in Brunswick just now,” one resident posted on Facebook. “It’ll be waking a lot of people up actually.”
Tanith, who did not want to provide her last name because of her employer, said she noticed the lights around 10pm on Thursday night.
“It was definitely quite blinding because my lounge room overlooks the city and it was very annoying,” she said. “It was quite a blinding light. I did wonder how it got past any council regulations because it was very bright and it did not stop.”
“Curtains are not a thing anymore,” another resident posted.
The source of the commotion turned out to be Portelli, who threw a party in his $39 million CBD penthouse and hired On Track Lighting to put on the light show from the apartment windows.
“They wanted crazy, they got crazy,” On Track Lighting posted on Instagram. “Job put together in under 24 hours notice.”
Portelli is known to many as “Lambo guy”, after pulling up to an auction on the 2022 season of The Block in a yellow Lamborghini. (The flashy reputation then stuck when he later made headlines for hoisting his $3 million McLaren 57 floors into his penthouse.)
Portelli posted on Instagram about the party, detailing how he picked up friends, including comedians Nelk Boys, in Sydney in a private jet yesterday to bring them to Melbourne.
Screengrabs from a video of the party that Adrian Portelli threw in his Melbourne penthouse on Thursday night.
“Did someone say penthouse party?” he posted on a video of himself, with his son filming the party set-up complete with luxury car and dancers dressed in Victoria Secret-style jewel-encrusted bodysuits and bikinis with angel wings.
The party was attended by actor and model Nicky Whelan, and DJ Havana Brown played.
Portelli also posted a video of himself doing a shoey, where he sculled a drink from a sneaker and tossed it in the air when finished.
Party attendee Rosanna Faraci, a photographer and digital creator, said she did not even notice the lights at the party.
“It was very tame,” she said. “Everyone was very well-behaved.”
Faraci said there was no reason in particular for the party, “just that festive time of season”.
The party was held on the evening that Portelli and his “membership rewards” business LMCT+ were charged by the consumer watchdog with allegedly conducting a string of illegal lotteries.
“Did someone say penthouse party?” Portelli posted on his Instagram account. Credit: Instagram
South Australia’s acting liquor and gambling commissioner laid the charges against Portelli on Thursday following a protracted investigation by the state’s consumer and business services department.
Charge sheets reveal Portelli faces nine counts of being involved in the “conduct of an unlawful lottery”, while his company, Xclusive Tech Pty Ltd, which trades as LMCT+, also faces the same nine charges.
The alleged offences relate to several promotions by Portelli and his business between January 2023 and May 2024, which included prizes of properties bought from Channel Nine’s The Block reality show, cash of up to $3 million and luxury cars. (Channel Nine is owned by Nine Entertainment Co, which is also the owner of this masthead.)
The acting liquor and gambling commissioner alleges Portelli and his business “did not hold a licence to conduct the lottery in South Australia”, according to charge sheets.
Portelli did not respond to a request for comment but posted on Instagram that his business generated “millions and millions of dollars in sales” for Australian businesses.
“I know the tall poppy phrase gets thrown around in Australia often and I hate mentioning it because I don’t want to believe it but at what point in this country are we going to celebrate others success and use it to motivate our upcoming generation rather than frowning upon it,” he said.
“To the SA Gambling Commissioner… stop wasting tax payers money!”
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