A jury is deliberating the case of an alleged Perth-based fraudster who claims he was scammed by overseas operators and hedged clients’ investments against high-end real estate and luxury cars.
Private investor Chris Marco is on trial in Western Australia’s Supreme Court, facing 44 charges after allegedly defrauding clients of about $36.4 million.
Chris Marco outside the Supreme Court of Western Australia.Credit: Jesinta Burton
His former executive assistant, Linda Marissen, has been charged with 30 offences for her alleged role in the crimes.
Marissen has already been found not guilty on 13 of the charges by Supreme Court Justice Natalie Whitby. Both have pleaded not guilty to all remaining charges.
The Australian Securities and Investments Commission charged the pair after intervening in the business in 2018, after years of Marco investing in lucrative overseas investment structures on behalf of hundreds of Australian clients.
Prosecutor Steven Whybrow previously told the court Marco would purport to invest money on behalf of his clients, however “the state’s case is there were no investments”.
The trial has run for about a month, during which the court heard from several of Marco’s clients who claimed while their returns were always deposited into their bank accounts on time, the scheme collapsed when ASIC intervened and shut down Marco’s business.
Marco later claimed he was being scammed by overseas investors, including an American lawyer, a Lord and other overseas operators with promising “mythical deals”.
Defence lawyer Simon Freitag, acting on behalf of Marissen, said the case had seen “some ridiculous documents, crazy characters and returns so fantastical you just couldn’t believe it”.
“Marco was no match for the crooked American lawyer out of Florida, or for Lord Steven Carrington – the fake Lord with a vengeful wife,” Freitag told the court on Monday.
“Marco is Teflon ... he keeps sending money. What is obvious, is Mr Marco is being scammed.”
Freitag said a number of the investment schemes used by Marco sounded like “spell incantations – things like private placements, warehouse arrangements, proof of fund deals”.
“It was [like he wanted] to wave a magic wand over his money and say ‘monetise’, and it would suddenly be millions of dollars,” he said.
Freitag denied Marissen’s role in the crime, and said she genuinely believed in Marco’s skill.
He told the court Marco had successfully accepted money from an experienced insurance underwriter, an environmental consultant, a forensic accountant and a Perth financial planner.
“These were experienced businesspeople, and they thought Mr Marco was genuine, that he was trustworthy,” Freitag said.
“The prosecution wants you to find that Linda Marissen knew better than all of them … with all their decades of experience, all their degrees, that Ms Marissen knew better than all of them.”
The jury is expected to retire later this week.