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See also McCoy's Gallery and Claims Latest lie
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Douglas Graeme McCoy . . . lying dog and consumate conman, . . . . the real McCoy. . . . . . .
a true liar, thief and fake.
Updated February 4, 2021
Douglas Graeme McCoy, Australia's lowest predatory
fraudster.
Dominique Grubisa, McCoy's idol.
See also McCoy's list of achievements. We have rarely read such a load of bragging grabage. Link
THIS MAN IS PROBABLY AUSTRALIA'S WORST SERIAL CONMAN. HIS USUAL TARGETS ARE OLDER WIDOWED OR SINGLE WOMEN WITH GOOD ASSETS AND LARGE BANK ACCOUNTS. And
it also appears that most of his victims are from the same church that
he is a member of. So much for his Christian principles. God
will not forgive him.
Why did NSW Health Minister Brad Hazzard name McCoy as "the king of conmen" in parliament? see below
McCoy defames Mr Hazzard: In an
email received from McCoy on Frday Oct 23 2020, a blatant defamation of
Mr Hazzard has been expressed. We have forwarded details to Mr
Hazzard's electoral office marked for his personal attention. We cannot
repeat the defamatory comments here for obvious reasons.
Where's the Truth. Why, if McCoy earns $11 Million per year as he claims on his facebook video, has he connned older single women out of hundreds of thousands of dollars? And if he earns such huge amounts of money,
how come he has an Australian Pensioner Concession card?
(He has admitted that to one of his victims in an email, a copy of
which we have).Perhaps the ATO and or Centrelink should review his
situation.
Why did McCoy associate with this known grub,
Dominique Grubisa.
We have been advised by an informant that Grubisa did a lot of public
spruiking, and interested parties were directed into the arms of McCoy.
Dominique spruiking her best falsehoods.
Why have at least three elderly women laid complaints to police?
Why does McCoy refuse to repay a three-month loan of $50.000 to Mrs Ruth Rothery?
And if he earns $11 million a year as he claims, why did he need to borrow that $50k
in the first place? More contradictions from this dodgy conman. Nothing
he claims ever adds up.
Latest lie:
McCoy's latest and close to his worst lie yet, followed his confronting
Mrs Rothery and her daughter Sylvia at their church on Sunday January
24 2021, when he stated that he had paid some $40,000 of his debt owed
to Ruth to a Mr Ray Powell on her behalf. This was an absolute lie,
he has not made such a payment
and Mr Powell has confirmed to Wikifrauds that he has not received any
such payment. We have emailed McCoy requesting proof of the payment. He
has not replied. This matter is again a contradiction; McCoy has all
along denied owing Mrs Rothery any money at all, so why this lie about
making a payment?
A narrative from one of McCoy's victims, now aged 91. This is from
enmails to us from Mrs Rothery, and shows how McCoy used Grubisa's
tactics to con her out of everything she had.:
Email to Wikifrauds dated Feb 4, 2021 ". . Brad Alfred warned me
of a scam being perpetrated on the Gold Coast against vulnerable oldies & my
response at that moment with Doug sitting near me was "Oh Brad, it's too
late. They've already got all my money". Doug didn't even raise an eyebrow
or ever admit he was in the scam!!! So, note well. He knew that $50,000 he
"borrowed" that October- he KNEW quite well that it was the last of
my money because HE WAS THE ONE WHO DROVE ME TO WHERE WAS THE OFFICE OF THE
PERSON WHO WAS PAYING ME ON THE SALE OF THE PROPERTY I HAD IN BANORA
POINT!! So he KNEW the exact amount of that Bank cheque as I had to put
it into my account & withdraw sufficient to pay for the washing machine I
had had ALDI set aside for me & then Doug took me to pick it up at Tweed
Heads & bring it to my place". This
demonstrates the use of Grubisa's tactics in searching default and
court listings to find vulnerable people with some distressed assets.
And it shows just how low McCoy stooped to get her money - he even
drove her to collect the money!
Further:
"It
was $50,000 he "borrowed from me with a guarantee IF HE DID NOT REPAY IN
FULL IT WOULD AMOUNT AN EXTRA $5,000 PER MONTH ON TOP. HE MADE UP THE CONTRACT
NOT ANY LAWYER & HE ASSURED ME THAT I WOULD HAVE IT BEFORE CHRISTMAS of
that year assuring me it was very short term to pay wages to the group who had
done the labour at the property in Wellington.
Of course at the time & this is over 4'-5
years ago, at that time I did not know that he was part of the FORSYTHE set-up
& had been involved right from the start so he fleeced me both ways. From
that personal loan & from his cut of my hard-earned & saved money over
many years!!! And he it was who brought Jim Boguevski (?) to my place so he was
in on it even before it even got under way".
We have repeatedly asked the question
of McCoy that if he earns eleven million per year as he has publicly
claimed many times, why did he need to borrow a mere $50,000 from an
old lady?
McCoy has recently published his "counter website" alleging all sorts
of accusations against us and the editor. Not a word of it is accurate
or true. He's desperate to shut us down and will get into bed with any
other crooks to achieve this aim.
McCOY NOW USES FACEBOOK TO LURE MORE VICTIMS -
DO NOT DO BUSINESS WITH THIS CONMAN. Check
Facebook link
to his "Billionaire Mind Magnet" page above. The only thing McCoy
creates is misery and losers. There are no winners, except McCoy, who
will readily snatch your money, all of it. If one watches his video (on
the facebook link)
wherein he claims to be making eleven million dollars a year, the
question raised is why won't he repay a simple piddling $50,000
three-month personal loan? And if he was making all that huge amount of
money, why did he need to borrow $50k in the first place? Does not add
up. Go figure! This man is a true liar of gigantic proportions.
July 29, 2020: McCoy emails us
confirmation of his collaboration with other criminals named on this
website. Below is a pasted copy of his latest email. This guy and his
mates confirm that they tried and failed to acquire our website and now
want some sort of deal whereby they will remove McCoy's website on
Wikifrauds if we remove our pages on this collective of bottom-feeders:
(our comments are in
red)
"Thank you for your acknowledgment of my Copywrited name and
acknowledging that you know you owe me $530,000 for each breach!!
Appreciate it. (Never acknowledged by us)
Now just for your information we have a handful of your Victims
are getting to together tomorrow, Wednesday 29th July to discuss the further
actions and way forward with dealing with a little challenge we have had enough
of... Just so I know if this could be considered AS A POSIBLE SOLUTION
we could consider??? We had the money together we were going to buy your sick website,
BUT realising your lack of good character traits and lack of any integrity and
honesty, PLUS we had heard you were going to set up another website after you
were paid anyway, so we decided we can use our money better ways then paying
you. Please let me know by tomorrow if you are opened to both you and
we take down our websites and we all move on and be nice people if you could
ever consider that? OR at least take down Douglas (McCoy), John Foley, George, and John Alexander (not his real name)
if we considered taking down our wikifrauds site? Is that something we could work out, OR best to not even discuss
this as one of the solutions for discussion for tomorrows meetings? We have much more stuff, if that's what you call this rubbish
about you? PLUS you address etc its about time we put up. Kindly let us know as soon as you can thank you Doug"
McCoy threatens us:A
threatening voicemail message was left on the private phone of the
editor on June 28, 2020, around midday. McCoy must be stupid as
the missed call showed the caller's number as 0449 971220. A simple
lookup on Google showed the number as being McCoy's. What an idiot! He
needs to read some good spook books and learn a little "tradecraft".
Another threat issued by one of his co-conspirators can be heard
here. This has also been given to police.
McCoy's copycat Wikifrauds website:
McCoy, in an effort to discredit us, has published his own website
which contains complete fabrications about us and the editor. There is
nothing this conman will stop at to protect his scams and his bogus
company, the Australian Success Academy.
July 14, 2020: McCoy email to us, what a joke:
"Detective, It has come to the world's attention and mine that you have been
using the Copyrighted name: Douglas Graeme McCoy and/or it's derivatise without
consent for the owner.This name is Copyrighted for some $530,000. It would appear that you were unaware. Unless you Cease and Desist as you were informed by my Solicitor
Avish from the USA Office, we will have no alternative but to sue you to the
full extent of the law, including DEFAMATION and EXTORTION included. Also if the use of this Copyrighted name should show up on any
other website without my written consent then you will be sues. Please read letter attached. If you require any further proof this can be supplied. When I state ALL RIGHTS RESERVED, I have meant it!!
Thank you. Regards Douglas McCoy
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED"
Mr McCoy, who says he earns over $11,000,000,000 (eleven million!) per year (but can't repay a $50k loan), should have some lessons in English expression,
and maybe some law text books would help also. He mentions some two
dollar lawyer in the USA, yet he is a close personal friend of
barrister John Foley. Why not use Foley to sue us? And since when does
one's personal name become copyrighted. What a pitiful joke for a
supposed sophisticated and successful businessman. The man is derranged
and paranoid. All he has to do to have his name removed is to repay his $50k loan plus interest to Mrs Ruth Rothery.
McCoy intimidates one of his victims on Tuesday March 10
Independant mediator's report.
Associates of McCoy's:
Keith
Kelly
John
Foley "Goldfinger" Jim Bogevski

We understand McCoy's Wellington place is this one.. . . on
Arthur St. It was
fraudently valued at just under $1M based on a
ficticious lease agreement to enable McCoy to raise "working capital".
Read what Brad Hazzard, NSW MP and Government Minister, had to say about McCoy - Hansard report.
When you have read this report, which is also
pasted further down this page,
A MUST READ! you
will
wonder, as we have, if the victim described in the report, a Mrs Ruth
Foley, was any relation to "Sir" John Foley mentioned elsewhere in
Wikifrauds. We are checking. If it is found to be true, then we seem to
have uncovered yet another conspiracy. But the Hazzard report takes the
cake; Douglas McCoy was involved in five separate companies that had
generated a
total of 48 formal complaints
up to 1985! Who knows how many since then and up to now aside from the
two we have been working on. And this scumbag, who has corresponded
with us, still denies it all and seeks to blame others for losing his
"client's" money.
A common theme running through all his scams seems to be church
related, in so far as his victims all come from one church or another,
the last two from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, or
more commonly known as the Mormon Church. In fact McCoy himself was or
is a member of the same church as one of his victims, and McCoy 's own
mother was a friend of this victim!
McCoy is a shameless conman
who preys on vulnerable older people, particularly older women with
property but little income. His modus opperandi is to approach such
people and with his considerable selling skills, cons them into
entering
joint venture agreements to develop their properties, injects no cash
himself, plays at doing planning work, then registers caveats on their
properties. In one case he conned one victim into allowing himself and
his mother move into and occupy a small dwelling, on the old lady's
country property. In fact he has been trying to con two elderly single
women, one "Ruth" and the other "Eleanor". Below is the story of one
of these defenceless elderly women Eleanor Whight, in her own words:
"He (McCoy)
phoned me one day to say that he and Joan had to move out of the container in
which they were living on his sister'place as one of her kids needed to move
back there, and would they be able to come and live in my old Dairy. He was
aware that it had been rebuild years earlier as a 3 bedroom cottage instead of
being an 8 bail milking shed, but was still very basic. At that stage, the
plans that Ruth, John Foley and Doug for my flats in Dornoch Terrace had gone
up in smoke, thanks to John (Foley) and all his lies to both R and me. The bank had
repossessed and sold the place. Another long saga. John and D had taken R's
co and renamed it Rutlin P/L. She
deposited some $240K into a new bank account in the Co name but B O Q. refused
to allow Rutlin to take over the debt.
Anyway
I said I would be pleased to have them come and live here as permanent tenants
but only if Joan could handle country living and if Doug helped with renovating
it again as the white ants had had a field day and I had started from floor up
to rebuild it. I had knocked out walls, dug up the floor and reconcreted it,
relined the ceiling, put in solar panels etc. but he would have to cover his
share of rates and maintenance. They were there next day and said yes please.
He was to help on the farm as well as get all the legal work done so I owned
the farm and it was unemcumbered.
He
came up a week later with a double bed, fridge, small chest and some clothes
and we stored them in a container. Then a couple of weeks later he rang late
one Friday night with the story about Les, Keith, and Forsythe, and how they
could cover all my debts from Arab $ if i would allow them to take out a 2nd
mortgage so they could pay out a creditor of Forsythe. Enter Jim and Dale.
I
think you know the rest of that story, but Joan was put into a nursing home,
Doug went ????????????? to live, perhaps with "Blondie".
Neither
Doug nor Joan ever moved up here, but he certainly conned me. He did do up an
agreement for me to sign to say that he "owned" the miking shed and
initially it was 30mt around it. I had words about that so he changed it to the
land around it, no good to me. He kept resending new versions saying that he
owned the shed which I kept refuting till eventually he arrived one day with Joan
in tow trying to insist that I sign his agreement, which Joan was to witness.
He went away empty handed but insisted I had signed. After months of my asking
for a copy of that agreement, I got one with my name "signed" in very
small writing, similar to my signature but not mine. It was on that document
that he took out the Caveat only to have it thown out by D N R as he did not
return the required docs to DNR in the required time, probably because he knew
that it was a forgery and would not stand up in court. He
and Andrea just turned up one day, when he handed me papers claiming that I
owed him$1.5m, and he took his fridge and clothes with him but left the small
chest and some linen which had got wet, ha ha ha. He was also told to leave
that day by my cattle partner (The C I B cop) he fronted him and told him he
couldn't tell him what to do, and only a cop could tell him what to do.
Woopsie, on being told again to leave, Karl offered his rank and
serial no so Mc Coy rethought his options and left rather promptly, Andrea
drove quite quickly out the gate. So
anyway, he does not, never will, nor does his mum live out here.
The
caveat had an email address on it which when my solicitor checked up on it was
registered to someone in San Francisco. USA. I later came across some
information which has led me to believe that he is actually registered in
Australia, as Michael Douglas McCoy and uses Douglas Graeme McCoy as a false
identity. His pension card is in the name of Michael Douglas.
He
often insists that he paid a large sum of $ into a BOQ account, of course he
didn't, and yes we opened a bank account in the name of a company that
"was given to us by Les"(Les Cheers). I paid in a small sum to make it
patent but he has since withdrawn that and I have contacted ASIC and resigned
as a Co Director and office bearer. So
for what it is worth, he has cost me about $3m in losses of property, plus my
sanity and relationship with each of my 3 children and their families etc etc
plus all the legal issues.
I
called a meeting with all those involved with Forsythe (Owned by Les Cheers and Keith Kelly), held down the coast and
asked Dale to have the Caveats lifted off all my properties and allow me to get
on with selling those places and relieve me of all debt. I believe Ray you
asked the same of him, which he did, not McCoy, but it was too late then for me
to unburden the places myself and the banks got them." A copy of this caveat that
McCoy denies having lodged can be viewed here.
Associates of McCoy's, or
should we say current co-conspirators, are pictured at the head of this
page. We make this point again as it is our firm belief that John
Foley, "Mr Goldfinger", sells his name and gives his recommendations to
McCoy's victims. His apparent wealth and his educated demeanour make
for an easy endorsement of the investments promoted by McCoy.
He even flashes a few gold bars he keeps in his Q1 apartment on the
Gold Coast. The man is a barrister, an Officer of the Courts. What a
disgrace! And he was a director of Forsythe Manufacturing at the time
that both Eleanor and Ruth were conned into the fatal investment.
Forsythe subsequently went bust ayway, so at the very least, all the
directors including Foley should answer to the allegation of trading
whilst insolvent.
Eleanor has been ruined, and
Ruth has lost many hundred's of thousands of dollars to Forsythe and
its gang of criminal directors and shareholders. Principal architects
of the scam include all those who appear at the top of this page. As for McCoy and Foley, they were rewarded for their services by Forsythe with shares or directorships etc. See ASIC Company Extract.
McCoy threatens one of his victims. See here
Below is a screenshot of a text message written by Ruth:
McCoy intimidates Ruth Rothery on Tuesday March 10, 2020:
We have been advised that McCoy and his mother arrived unannounced at
Mrs Rothery's property on Tuesday around lunchtime. His mother remained
in his latest car while McCoy conversed for some time with Mrs Rothery.
He badgered her about what he had done for her (apart from relieving
her of $50,000) in trying to assist her with other bullshit endeavours.
When Mrs Rothery asked him several times about him repaying her $50k
loan, he swerved the question each time and just went on and on about
how good he had been to her. It's clear that he was looking to get his
name off Wikifrauds and to pursuade her to keep silent. There are not
too many scammers who prey on elderly defenceless women, and McCoy is
the very worst of these bottom feeders. He has threatened us with legal
action on countless times, but he hasn't got the balls to do it.
Further,
we have now received copies of correspondence from McCoy to Ruth
Rothery, some quite threatening. Unfortunately, McCoy, who we think is
bi-polar and a control freak, has a tendancy to rant on at a nauseas
level and his letters just go round in repetitive circles page after
page, so we have produced below a lot of this correspondence in one pdf
file. Sorry to you the readers for having to see so much diatribe from
this conman. These combined letters to Ruth are absolutely full of
malicious accusations, excuses, lies, threats and blame-shifting from
McCoy.
See pdf file.
Independent mediator's report:
“I Douglas James
Reti of 40 Angelsey Street Kangaroo Point Qld
write this testimonial to assert that as requested by Mrs Ruth Rothery I did
act as mediator concerning a debt between the above & Mr Douglas McCoy of
$50,000 +loaned on or about 10 October 2017. According to Mrs. Rothery
the debt was to be for a maximum period of 8 weeks covered by a written
contract between the 2 parties. The contract stated that the loan would attract
an immediate return of $5000 & thereafter a further $5000 per month on the
same date until paid in full. Mrs Rothery Jas not received any repayments or
interest on this loan.
Mr Douglas McCoy stated that he had sold the contract to Mr John Alexander. Mrs
Rothery claimed that this would be illegal as she had not given any authority
for this to happen & Mr McCoy was of the opinion that he had the right to
do so. During the meeting I observed that Mrs Rothery had prepared direct &
precise questions to which Mr McCoy was unwilling to take responsibility &
provide any further information other than the loan belonged to Mr Alexander &
it was up to him to make repayments.
MRS Rothery has since contacted Mr Alexander whose real name is Xxxxxx,
who adamantly denies any such AGREEMENT.
MRS Rothery has informed me that she has placed her case with detectives of the
CIB Southern Investigation Branch.”
We also now have a listing of
who obtained what amounts of Ruth's total monies lost in addition to
what she lent to McCoy direct. This has been provided by an insider,
and we have no reason to doubt the email contents. Our observations and
comments are in
red.
"This
is from memory and is not to the dollar it is a big ask with no paperwork to
back it up
The
companies and directors that got ruths money
KK
Developments p/l Director Kelly We ave reason to believe that KK developments and Forsyth are owned by Clarence Boyd Nelson.
BL
Retirement living p/l Nelson The same Nelson as above.
to
the best of my knowledge this is where the money went
Rent
Factory Keysbough Victoria $100,000.00 plus Supposedly owned by Forsyth (John Alexander, Keith Kelly, Boyd Nelson)
Leases
on cars
$80,000.00 plus
Deposit
on land Beenleigh $50,000.00
plus
Buying
a second mortgage from a builder who had already lost the block to a first mort
gee
$85,000.00
Jim
$50,000.00 Jim Bogoevski, shares accomodation with Nelson
Nelson
$20,000.00 Clarence Boyd Nelson, Gold Coast Solicitor.
Kelly
$20,000.00
McCoy
Brokerage
$20,000.00
McCoy
borrowed
$60,000.00
LMC
Money borrowed went into kk Dev $60,000.00 Keith Kelly along with Nelson at the helm
Silver
chef equipment Victoria $80,0000.00
plus Forsythe
This
is to the best of my knowledge but a lot more cash went elsewhere at the
request of Jim and nelson That's Jim Bogoevski and Boyd Nelson.
"PS
Re Foleys involvement he was introduced to me by McCoy stating that he could
get the overall funding for Forsythe manufacturing and the ice cream ,Foley
said that it would be easier for him to get the money if he was a director and
shareholder ,he then said that McCoy should get some shares as with the money
that he could raise giving away shares did not matter the rest is history
Regards L"
We have been trying to get both Ruth and Eleanor out of the clutches of this
bastard McCoy for some time now, without success . . . so far. But not
only is McCoy a nasty con-artist, he's also
stupid
to say the least. He has apparently complained to police that he was
recently assaulted by someone who is somehow officially connected to
us. Well, we do have an informal relationship with the alleged
assailant, however on the day cited by McCoy as the day this alleged
assault took place, the contact of ours was in the company of another
friend of Wikifrauds, who states quite clearly that no such assault
took place. Furthermore, McCoy is claiming that Ruth was a witness.
Indeed, Ruth was nowhere near the place at the day and time McCoy
claims he was assaulted. And even
if
his allegations were founded in fact, she would be the last person
alive who would support his ludicrous allegation. He has conned her
bigtime - why would she support him. She has also confirmed to police
that she knows nothing of this matter.
McCoy has also told Ruth that he paid some $10,000 to have his name
removed from our website. A complete baldfaced lie. And we must add
that should he ever pay anything to us remove his "good name",
any such money would be passed on to Ruth and Eleanor. This man just
can't help telling lies and conning anyone he can.
Another large con was perpetrated on Ruth a few years ago. McCoy talked
her into lending him $50,000 for renovations on a house in Wellington
NSW. She lent him the money but wisely took a caveat out on the
property. McCoy has not paid one cent back to her and refuses to do
so. So he can't sell the property, but doesn't want to anyway, so poor
old Ruth, who is in her nineties, is left swinging in the breeze. The loan was for a couple of months only!
A copy of this caveat that
McCoy denies having lodged can be
viewed here.
We have several copies of these bogus and unenforceable agreements upon
which he has relied to lodge the caveats mentioned, and we will publish
more of these in coming days. Read below how Mrs R's money was distributed
and to whom. This has come from an informant who was in on the deal,
one Les Cheers. It is pasted from a text message from him to our
contact. We have idicated in
red who these people are.
RaymondConfirming yesterday's meeting My statement Re Ruth breakdown to best of my memory
Kk dev
$250,000 Keith Kelly
Nelson.
$450000
Boyd Nelson, disbarred lawyer.
Jim.
$100,000
Dimce (Jim) Bogoevski
McCoy.
$60,000.00 Doug McCoy
Me.on behalf kk $60,000.00 John Alexander supposedly on behalf of Keith Kelly but we don't believe that.
Raymond that is as close as I can get it Regards Led Sent
from my iPhone
McCoy's business is "The Australasian Success Academy", which Google
tells us used to have a website but we found all links to it went
nowhere. The only "success" we know of is his scamming of old women,
usually in concert with Kelly,
John Alexander, Clarence Boyd Nelson, and another con artist broker,
Jim Bogoevski who also owes over $100,000 to Mrs R.
THE NSW PARLIAMENT HANSARD REPORT:
MR DOUGLAS McCOY INVESTMENT ACTIVITIES
Mr BRAD HAZZARD (Wakehurst)
[1.31 p.m.]: In life there are scam merchants and then there is the
king of the scammers—one Douglas Graeme McCoy. I draw attention to this
conman who knows no State boundaries and no moral boundaries. In 2005 a
northern beaches woman, Therese Foley, received advice from an
acquaintance at a northern beaches church that Mr McCoy would invest
her money at a particularly good interest rate. In or about February
2005 Mrs Foley invested $300,000, the proceeds of her marriage property
settlement, for a period of three months with the very unaptly named
Loyalty Plus Pty Limited. None of the funds has ever been repaid. Mrs
Foley advised me she had contacted the New South Wales Department of
Consumer Affairs and the Australian Securities and Investments
Commission prior to investing the funds and was given no indication
that there was a problem. The Australian Securities and Investments
Commission indicated that it had no history of Mr McCoy, and the New
South Wales Department of Consumer Affairs indicated that it could not
give Mrs Foley any information about Mr McCoy.
Research
by Mrs Foley since the loss of her money found a reference to Mr McCoy
in 1994 in Parliament after Mr Richard Amery, member of Parliament,
asked a question on notice. At that time Mr Amery's question produced
an answer that indicated that Douglas McCoy was involved in five
separate companies that had generated a total of 48 formal complaints
since 1985. The response also indicated that the Department of Consumer
Affairs had cooperated with the New South Wales police service in
initiation of criminal proceedings against Mr McCoy, although this
appears never to have happened. I am therefore amazed that the
Department of Consumer Affairs offered no advice to Mrs Foley prior to
her lending the funds to Mr McCoy's company when he clearly has a long
history of involvement in fraudulent activities of which the department
was well aware or should have been aware.
On
14 June 2007 I wrote to the Minister for Fair Trading, the Hon. Linda
Burney, sending a copy of the loan agreements dated February 2005,
which facilitated the investment of $300,000 for three months. The
documents stated interest would be paid up front and the balance repaid
at the end of the three-month term. Mrs Foley received the one interest
payment back. It appears she got back some of her $300,000 as an
interest payment, but the rest was never seen again. Since February
2005—today is the three-year anniversary—she has received zilch. With
the benefit of the history of parliamentary questions raised over 15
years ago, it is clear that Mr McCoy has ripped off vulnerable people
for almost two decades, which raises the apparent lack of capacity in
the State and Federal watchdogs to act appropriately. When I first
contacted the Department of Consumer Affairs and the Federal body the
Australian Securities and Investments Commission, neither body had
contact details for Mr McCoy. Inquiries by me turned up an address in
Western Sydney and I got a mobile number for that address. Phone
discussions followed with the "king of conmen".
Mr
McCoy presents as a credible fellow who turns out to be utterly
incredible. After my contact with him he suddenly showed up at my
office on Thursday 19 July 2007 and told me that he now lived at 6
Golfview Terrace, Robina, in Queensland. Does he really? Who knows? In
a 1½ hour-long talkfest Mr McCoy admitted to me that he had been in a
relationship with a woman called Jacqui Blazeski, the same woman who
had attended a northern beaches church with Mrs Foley and first
suggested that she invest her money with him. Mr McCoy claimed he had
not seen Jacqui Blazeski for 12 to 18 months and that she had lived at
Bondi. He stated that Jacqui had worked for him as a secretary-personal
assistant for four to five months at Loyalty Plus. It would seem more
likely that Jacqui was part of the scam, hooking innocent people into
Mr McCoy's financial black hole.
So
what is McCoy up to today? During our meeting he told me that he had
set up a business with a woman called Bridget Bryant in a company
called Y Not Call Me. He maintained there were "a lot of people after
her" arising out of other business dealings. He named a James Meyers in
Canada, and said the company's bank account was in Delaware, in the
United States. He told me that had told Mrs Foley that her money would
go into a telecommunications company with millions of distributors
throughout the world and that this discussion took place in his office
in Pyrmont in the premises of Y Not Call Me. Mrs Foley recollects going
to a presentation at a Pyrmont office, which she thought belonged to
Loyalty Plus Pty Limited, where McCoy delivered his conman spiel. She
told him that she had her marriage property settlement funds to invest
and that effectively they were all her available funds.
At
the meeting with me in July, Mr McCoy gave me chapter and verse of his
tales of woe to explain why he had not repaid the money. He told me he
had put up 16 properties for security for loans totalling $1.8 million.
He mentioned various properties at Mumbil and Wellington, and he said
he now had a place on Macleay Island, off Queensland. He mentioned
another business called Self Reliance, which he had operated 20 years
ago, which had also gone into liquidation after a judgement debt for
half a million dollars. After listening to his conman banter I asked
him to sign a document on the spot that guaranteed he would personally
pay back the money to Mrs Foley. That is, instead of Loyalty Plus Pty
Limited, in liquidation, being the only avenue for Mrs Foley to get her
money, I asked him to sign a document saying he would pay the money
personally. In the best efforts of criminals, spivs and conmen, he even
posed for a photograph showing the document he had just signed, which
effectively bought him another few months while Mrs Foley hoped he
would pay the money.
Today
is the end of the road for McCoy the conman. Nobody on the northern
beaches, nobody in Sydney, and indeed nobody in Australia, should be
under any misapprehension: they would have more chance of getting their
money back if they stood on North Head and threw their $300,000 to the
four winds. I call on the Office of Fair Trading to get its act
together and ensure that in future people who make inquiries before
making investments can rely on the department to give the necessary
information. If someone has been on a warning list, that is where they
should stay and the list should be updated. In the meantime, the people
of the northern beaches want to keep a look out for a fast-talking,
smooth-operating king of scammers who will rip them off as quick as
look at them. Finally, Mrs Foley needs help. She needs her $300,000. If
anybody knows which rock this conman is under or what assets he has
that could be used to pay back Mrs Foley, I ask them to please let
Therese Foley know.
Ms LINDA BURNEY (Canterbury—Minister
for Fair Trading, Minister for Youth, and Minister for Volunteering)
[1.36 p.m.]: I thank the member for Wakehurst for raising the issue. He
has written to me and discussed the matter with my staff. The body
responsible for consumer protection regarding financial services is the
Australian Securities and Investments Commission. However, the Office
of Fair Trading contacted the liquidator seeking further information
about the circumstances of the liquidation. Fair Trading investigated
Mrs Foley's complaint and is liaising with the Australian Securities
and Investments Commission about Mr McCoy's investment activities and
involvement with at least one failed company to determine whether any
regulatory action is appropriate.
Generally,
Fair Trading is not in a position to provide consumers with reputation
checks unless the Minister or the Commissioner for Fair Trading has
issued a current public warning about the trader's conduct that can be
brought to the attention of the inquirer. In the case of Mr McCoy no
public statement has been issued for more than 10 years. I place that
on record, but I am very happy, as the member for Wakehurst would know,
to have further discussions regarding the matter. I take on board his
comments today.
Check
this link to read earlier information about McCoy
Meantime, anyone who has further information on this man or who has
also been conned, may contact us in confidence for further details.