‘A gun wasn’t held to their heads’: Alleged fraudster’s lawyer says he was deceived by overseas operators

3 months ago 25

The defence lawyer for a Perth businessman accused of defrauding his clients of $36.5 million over eight years says he genuinely believed he was investing in legitimate overseas schemes.

Chris Marco and his former personal assistant Linda Marissen are on trial in Western Australia’s Supreme Court.

Marco, 67, worked as a private investor and Marissen, 57, was his personal assistant.

Commonwealth prosecutor Steven Whybrow alleged clients had been defrauded of $36.5 million between 2011 and 2018, after Marco purported to invest money on behalf of his clients.

However, Whybrow said, “there were no investments”.

Marco is facing 44 charges related to the alleged fraud, while Marissen has been charged with 26 offences. They have pleaded not guilty to all charges.

On Tuesday, Marco’s defence lawyer Luka Margaretic told the court the fundamental question at the heart of the case was whether his client had an intention to defraud his investors.

“Being convincing about something you genuinely believe to be true is not fraud,” he said.

Margaretic said the court would hear evidence over the course of the trial that Marco himself was “deceived” by international operators when setting up his investment scheme.

Regardless, Margaretic said, records showed Marco still had a “perfect payment record” with his clients over the eight-year period relating to the offences.

“Everyone was paid as they were promised to be paid, for all the time they invested with my client,” he said.

Margaretic said it was telling only seven of Marco’s more than 150 clients were participating in the court case against him, and some had even experienced a “net positive” through investing with him.

“With respect, no one held a gun to these people’s heads,” Margaretic said.

“They could have walked away with their money whenever they so pleased.”

Margaretic said Australian Securities and Investments Commission investigators had looked into whether the money had gone to “islands, private jets, boats”, but had turned up nothing.

“Every cent was accounted for,” he said.

“As long as his investors received their very, very handsome interest payments they didn’t care where it went.

“Anyone can make a bad investment and lose money on an investment, but that does not mean there was no investment.”

Marissen’s lawyer Simon Freitag said his client had a long-running working relationship with Marco, but her position meant she did not have insight into any alleged offending.

“She types emails … occasionally witness documents, makes phone calls,” he said.

“She does all of those things at [Marco’s] direction.”

Freitag said her executive assistant title was not accurate, as she was “more of an assistant than an executive”.

“[Marco’s] the brains of the operation … she works for him,” Freitag said.

The court was told Marissen would occasionally complete transactions with Marco’s supervision.

“There is no evidence that she knew or understood the investment plans that he talked about with investors … that she knew what was going on,” Freitag said.

“She simply helped the administrative wheels tun without any great insight to what is going on.”

The trial is set to continue for eight weeks before Justice Natalie Whitby.