By Perry Duffin and Michael McGowan
According to Fotis Antonios, allegedly defrauding hundreds of thousands of dollars out of the government was “not that hard” – all he needed was for his accomplices to stick to his scripts and turn on the tears as they lodged claim after claim of false child abuse.
Six-figure payouts were rolling in for everyone, he allegedly assured them, and they, too, would catch a “break” by sitting down with a no-win-no-fee lawyer in Sydney.
“As soon as you sign, you’re gonna get something,” Antonios allegedly told one accomplice late last year.
“You know why? They don’t get paid unless you win.”
The call is just one of dozens released by the NSW Supreme Court to the Herald which give the first real look at what has become known as the “bum money” scam, which has embroiled a late TikTok star and cast doubt over a billion dollars of abuse compensation claims.
The NSW Police fraud squad established strike force Veritas in mid-2023 after lawyers raised concerns about current or former prisoners lodging dubious claims against the NSW departments of Communities and Justice and Education.
Russell Manser, social media star and former bank robber, allegedly ran a “claims farming” operation before his sudden death in 2024.
“None of the claimants we looked at wanted police intervention – none. All wanted to go down the civil route,” Detective Superintendent Gordon Arbinja said in February.
Investigations led police toward Russell Manser, a former bank robber who had earned a massive following by speaking out against child sexual abuse through TikTok and Instagram.
Police suspected Manser, behind his activism and newfound fame, was secretly operating a “claims farming” operation in which compensation funds, brought in after the Royal Commission into child abuse, were exploited.
But when Manser died suddenly in early 2024, investigators turned towards his suspected accomplices, including his son, Ky Manser, police said in February.
But as they listened, they concluded the business’s main operator was the 55-year-old Antonios, from Girraween in Sydney’s west, documents released by the NSW Supreme Court allege.
“The accused is directly involved in recruiting fraudulent claimants, coaching them and assisting in the drafting of fictitious versions of abuse events and resultant trauma for maximum compensation,” a police fact sheet released by the court reads.
Antonios allegedly referred more than 100 people in four months, and police say they are still unearthing the full extent of the alleged multimillion-dollar scam.
Nearly 4000 “strikingly similar” claims were identified by the time police swooped, and multiple law firms are being investigated for links or knowledge of the scam.
Details of the tapped calls reveal how Antonios allegedly coached clients on how to lodge fraudulent civil claims, largely against the Department of Education.
One-third of inmates in Cooma’s minimum security prison have lodged claims related to historic child abuse, Arbinja has said.
In one call in August last year, Antonios allegedly coached a woman through the details of her claim, including the school, teacher and type of abuse she would describe to lawyers.
“Like he kept you back, lunchtime. And sometimes … once … he got you in the ladies’ toilets, right. And then um, and then at lunchtime he kept you back at the classroom,” Antonios allegedly suggested.
“Nah, I’ll say the sports area,” the woman responds.
“Oh yeah, mad. Beautiful,” Antonios said.
Antonios allegedly coached multiple claimants on how to describe the abuse in graphic terms, including telling a claimant to “make yours dramatic”. In another call in November, Antonios allegedly stressed to another fake claimant that the details of the offending were less important than the “after-effects”.
“It’s all about the damages, what it’s done to you after that,” he said.
When his co-accused explained they had worked for the “government in Canberra” before becoming involved in drugs, Antonios said it would “work in your favour”.
“Yeah mad. Well, I’ve got uh, plenty of after-effects,” the claimant responded while laughing.
No lawyers have been charged over the scam, but police allege certain legal firms had an ongoing relationship with Antonios.
“Although the claims farmer was presenting unmeritorious claimants to the law firms, many of which were rejected, the law firms continued to accept regular referrals from the claims farmers,” police documents say.
Lawyers often charge more than $50,000 to represent claimants, police say, making it “highly lucrative” for them.
Police also allege the scam focused on civil claims because lawyers were “less motivated” to use the National Redress Scheme because they could charge a capped fee of only about $800.
“So then you, you just say that and then you sort of name the teacher ’cause it doesn’t matter. They don’t, they don’t get in trouble,” Antonios allegedly told one claimant.
In another call in September last year, Antonios explained to a claimant that “if you pick the redress [scheme] they’re not gonna help you, right? … so you wanna pick the civil. The civil is worth it for them.”
Antonios allegedly took a cut of the payouts received by the fake victims, as well as receiving hundreds of thousands of dollars through his own claim.
Police allege Antonios was “exploiting” compensation schemes introduced after the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sex Abuse.
“The sequence of legislative changes aimed to assist victims of historical child sexual abuse … had allowed for the nourishment of fraudulent claims farming and coaching for fraudulent compensation claims,” the police document reads.
The civil compensation claims and National Redress Scheme compensation claims have cost the taxpayer about $2.536 billion in compensation payments and have been “accelerating with frequency and popularity”.
But police believe there is a “significant fraud component to the compensation claims”.
Seven people were arrested in February: Antonios, Ky Manser, a woman in Granville, 53, a man and a woman in Pendle Hill, 32 and 35, a man in Gladesville, 42, and a woman in Horsley, 52.
Antonios was refused bail after representing himself in court this month.
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