Perth investor says he lost millions in alleged fraudster's ‘Ponzi scheme'
However, private investor Chris Marco has admitted he was using their money to pay returns to other clients in what one witness told his West Australian Supreme Court trial on Tuesday 'reeked of a Ponzi scheme'.
Marco is on trial, facing 44 charges after allegedly defrauding investors of about $36.4 million. His former executive assistant, Linda Marissen, has been charged with 30 offences for her alleged role in the crimes. Both have pleaded not guilty to all charges.
Giving evidence on Tuesday, Perth-based accountant Charles Napoli said he decided to invest when he became aware of Marco through one of his clients.
He invested $1 million with Marco, who promised to invest his money in lucrative overseas investment structures called 'private placements'.
Private placements are when a company raises money by selling shares, bonds, or securities to a select group of private investors, rather than through the public stock exchange.
Napoli said he was a risk-averse investor, but he was assured by Marco's promise his principle investment would be kept in a blocked bank account that had a multimillion-dollar insurance policy attached.
He said it gave him confidence that he could invest with the Nedlands-based businessman, as well as his 'experience' in the financial sector.
Napoli said Marco regularly spoke about the 'four or five years' he spent in Europe learning about private placements and investing, and how he had 'all the right connections'.
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Britain has granted its first space launch licence to a homegrown rocket company, paving the way for a Scottish start-up to send satellites into space from the UK's first vertical launch spaceport. Skyrora, which was founded in 2017, would be able to conduct up to 16 launches a year, subject to further approval by the UK Civil Aviation Authority (CAA), the regulator said. The Scotland-based company would use the SaxaVord Spaceport in the Shetland Islands, northern Scotland, which received a key safety licence last year, meaning rockets could be launched from the site in the future. However, SaxaVord has told Skyrora that there is no availability for a launch in 2025, the Financial Times reported. Skyrora chief executive Volodymyr Levykin said in a statement the firm's priority was to launch from Britain but it expected a delay. "Despite having a vehicle ready and a launch license, it is unlikely that Skyrora will be able to complete its launch from the UK this year," Levykin said. He said the company had options to launch from Australia, Oman and potentially Iceland. "Granting a home-grown company, Skyrora its launch licence is a major milestone for our space sector and our nation," CAA chief executive Rob Bishton said. The space market is forecast to be worth over $US1 trillion by 2030 as companies around the world plan to deploy thousands of internet-beaming satellites. Britain has been looking to add launch capabilities to its space industry, which employs over 45,000 people and builds more satellites than anywhere outside the United States. But those efforts were dealt a major blow in early 2023 when a horizontal rocket launch from Newquay, southwest England, failed. A successful vertical launch from SaxaVord would revive the industry's prospects. Skyrora needs to meet a number of conditions before any launch, including adequate insurance, a data-sharing deal with the British government and airspace agreements with other countries.
