‘How conman Foster stole my identity’, says Bill Dawson
A family friend of serial conman Peter Foster has given a statement to police revealing how his identity was allegedly used by the notorious criminal to facilitate a multi-million-dollar scam.
A family friend of serial conman Peter Foster has given a statement to police revealing how his identity was allegedly used by the notorious criminal to facilitate a multi-million-dollar scam.
Foster is accused of using the alias Bill Dawson to defraud a former fighter pilot of almost $2m through a gambling scheme called Sport Predictions.
The future of the case is in doubt after NSW prosecutors told the victim that Foster should have been charged in Queensland, where he was living at the time of the alleged offending.
NSW is expected to withdraw fraud charges, leaving it up to Queensland to bring new ones,
Foster was released on bail on Friday to live in a friend’s luxury home at Dover Heights in Sydney’s east. He was photographed at the weekend reporting to police in line with his bail conditions, wearing a shirt emblazoned with the words “Can I help?”.
In a development that will further alarm the alleged victim, Queensland police said in a statement on Monday that “police have not identified any outstanding offences committed in Queensland … therefore, the Queensland Police Service will not be taking any further action at this time”.
The evidence against Foster includes a sworn witness statement that Mr Dawson, 77, gave to Sydney detectives in mid-March, The Australian can reveal.
The Gold Coast resident said he first met Foster’s sister Jill and mother Louise in the 1970s when Jill was the girlfriend of his friend Bill Duffy. Mr Dawson said in 2015 he was asked to travel to Fiji to personally deliver a boat part to Mr Duffy for the luxury motor yacht Next Adventure, allegedly owned by Foster.
By 2017, he was financially assisting Foster’s mother and sister when they had no money and it looked as though they were going to be evicted from their home, he told police.
Around this time, he had his first meeting with Foster, who had been told by his mother to look after Mr Dawson for saving them from being thrown on to the streets, he said.
From then on, Mr Dawson thought of Foster as a friend and fielded daily calls from him, becoming “racing manager” of Foster’s champion racehorse Azkadellia in return for an offer of 10 per cent of profits.
Later, Mr Dawson travelled to Singapore and met a Foster associate called Peter Mitchell.
With Mitchell’s assistance, he opened bank accounts in the name of Sport Predictions, which he understood were to take deposits from international participants.
Mr Dawson said when he returned to Australia, he gave Foster details of the bank accounts. Foster needed an account with Sydney cryptocurrency exchange Independent Reserve, so he took a photograph of Mr Dawson holding up his passport for identity verification, police were told.
He said he thought Foster was running a legitimate business that would be a “great earner” but now knew purported “trades” or bets never happened. Police allegemoney was diverted to Foster.
Alleged victim Konstantinos Stylianopoulos, originally from Greece, became an American citizen and trained in the US Air Force before becoming a commercial pilot with numerous airlines, including Cathay Pacific.
Based in Hong Kong, Mr Stylianopoulos allegedly recorded himself talking to Foster at Sport Predictions when he was using the “Bill Dawson” alias.
He provided the recording to IFW Global chairman and private investigator Ken Gamble, who was investigating the fraud on his behalf, and it was passed to police.
Mr Gamble says he tried to get Gold Coast detectives to take on the case from the outset but when he was rebuffed, he approached Sydney city detectives.
NSW police pursued the case due to the Bitcoin transfers being made through the Sydney cryptocurrency exchange.
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