Victorian State Liberal Party Director admits to Fraud.

Victorian State Liberal Party Director, Damian Mantach pled guilty to a total of 44 charges relating to false printing of invoices and other fraudulent expenses billed to the Liberal Party of Victoria, as well as other fraudulent charges billed to MP’s offices and paid by State or Federal authorities.

“Initially.. I was under substantial financial stress and I got myself into too much debt,” Mantach is quoted as saying in a police interview. “When I took the money, it was basically to relieve pressure in my personal life.”

The fraudulent practices took the form of inflated invoices, allowing Mantach to collect a “levy.” When initially questioned about the levy by Liberal Party Staffer, Andrew Camenzeli, Mantach told him not to be concerned about, and that he’d take care of it.

Auditors were later to track Mantach’s spending and find he had used the money to buy half a million dollars’ worth of shares, a café for $611,000 as well as an $81,000 car and $45,000 in home loan repayments. To date, only $466,713 has been recovered from Mantach.

Mantach, who was Victorian State Director for the Liberal Party from 2011 until his resignation in March 2015, is due to return to court in May.

Fraudulent behaviour from senior managers is on the rise in corporate Australia, and as the economy continues to weaken and business confidence continues to be weak, business leaders need to watch out not only for criminals on the internet, but for Senior Managers feeling the pinch.

Dr Russell G Smith, Principal Criminologist at the Australian Institute of Criminology delivers an insightful Keynote address at Akolade’s 5^th Annual Australian Fraud Summit 2016 being held at The Menzies Hotel Sydney, May 24^th – 26^th 2016.

Dr Smith will be discussing Fraudsters an the Top: The incidences of fraud among senior management examining the latest strategies to overcome and prevent fraud from your senior management team.

Tickets for Akolade’s 5^th Australian Fraud Summit 2016 are on sale now. To view the programme or for further information, please click here.

Mike Cullen has recently returned to Akolade after a period as the conference producer for one of Australia's leading economic think tanks. Mike began working in the conference industry in 2007 after looking for a career change from the high pressured world of inbound customer service.

Mike has worked for some of the most well-known conference and media companies in the B2B space and in his spare time is working on his first novel in a planned Epic Fantasy trilogy. Mike’s first published work will be the short story Seeds of Eden, in the Sproutlings Anthology scheduled for release in March 2016.