Perth serial fraudster sentenced to 14 years over defrauding his investors

During sentencing, Whitby said Marco when ASIC shut down the business in November 2018, the six investors who gave evidence at trial were left about $34 million short.

“You, however, had no intention of using the victims money in the manner you had represented,” she said.

Whitby said Marco had told his clients his programs were almost risk-free, and were exclusive opportunities.

Throughout the trial, the court heard Marco believed he was investing in “real and legitimate” schemes, but Whitby disagreed this was likely his genuine belief.

“Instead of investing those funds as you represented you were going to, you used a large proportion of those funds to pay victims and other investors returns,” Whitby said.

“You only transferred about $11 million overseas for investment purposes.

“This represented only 4.4 per cent of the total funds deposited into your accounts by investors.”

She said about 95 per cent of the money he took was not invested.

“You did not tell any of the victims you would use their money to pay their and other investor’s returns … to purchase real estate, shares, cars, personal collectibles and personal expenditure.

“The money was not being invested in the programs you had represented to them, and you knew it.”

Whitby said further expert evidence also showed the private placement scheme used by Marco was not legitimate or real.

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She said Marco’s victims had made submissions to the court.

“They [say they] will never recover from the financial losses they have suffered no matter how long and hard they continue to work,” Whitby said.

“You became a friend and trusted advisor to many of the victims. You knew you were investing hard-earned money.”

One of Marco’s clients, Andrew Batchelor, read his victim impact statement in court via video link from Sydney.

He said the impact of Marco’s actions were “profound”.

“We have endured years of emotional hardship and financial struggle,” he said.

“What took 40 years of hard work, sacrifice and hard planning to build was destroyed by lies and deceit.”

Batchelor said he had lost his house, his superannuation and was unable to pay back a loan due to Marco’s actions.

“This fraud stripped me of everything I had spent a lifetime trying to achieve,” he said.

Batchelor said he sought to launch a compensation action after the criminal action against Marco concludes.

Prosecutor Steve Whybrow said the fraud represented an intentional and significant breach of trust.

Whybrow said Marco still appeared to blame ASIC shutting down his business for its failure and he did not appear to have remorse.

“[In his view] it’s all ASIC’s fault,” he said.

Whybrow said character references about Marco’s good character stood at odds with his offending.

Marco’s defence lawyer Luka Margaretic said his family and friends all spoke “very highly” of him.

Luka Margaretic outside of court.Credit: Hannah Murphy

He said it was important to consider Marco’s age and deteriorating health during sentencing, as well as the fact he is a primary carer for his daughter and wife.

Margaretic said he had been transparent with ASIC since the authority intervened in his business.

Marco’s assistant Linda Marissen was acquitted on all 17 charges against her.

Speaking outside court, Margaretic said Marco would consider appealing the sentence.

“I don’t really want to say too much, because it’s going to another forum,” he said.

“We are very confident of appeal prospects.“

He said he understood Marco was upset by the sentence and indicated its length was a surprise.

“I’ve never seen anything like it in my 35 years of practice,” he said.

A friend of Marco’s outside court said they still supported him, and believed he had not willingly done anything illegal.

When asked if he would still choose to invest his money with Marco, his friend said he would.

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