Murdered Australian Linked to Investment Scam, Paper Says

An Australian lawyer killed at the Hotel Sofitel Cambodiana two weeks ago was involved in a multi-million dollar investment scam, an Australian newspaper has reported.

Max Green was killed in his fifth-floor room at the four-star hotel on the morning of March 24, when his assailant hit him re­peatedly on the back of the head with a brick and then strangled him with a tie, police said.

After his death, business partners of the 46-year-old commercial lawyer began investigating his pa­pers and found an un-known bank account, according to Monday’s version of The Age, the Web site of The Mel­bourne Age newspaper.

The money trail led them to what the newspaper described as an elaborate investment scam to which some of Mel­bourne’s lar­gest accounting and legal firms had given the thumbs-up. As many as 50 people, including some of Melbourne’s financial elite, lost nearly $26.5 million, with some estimating the damage as high as $100 million, the newspaper reported.

The investment plan sounded foolproof: Investors were told their money would buy inexpensive construction equipment like helmets, lights and scaffolding. Green’s company, CL Custo­dians, would then lease the equipment to the Australian city of Sydney for its planned light rail projects. After one year, the equipment would depreciate by 100 percent, become a tax deduction, and yet continue generating income, the paper reported.

But most of the equipment was reportedly never purchased. Green’s company showed inves­tors reams of invoices and documents for the equipment, but the papers were apparently forged, according to The Age.

Investors’ cash was transferred to Green’s personal accounts in the National Australia Bank, investigators told the newspaper. Australian authorities are trying to identify where Green transferred about $24 million. So far, investigators have discovered that some of the money went to banks in Thailand, Hong Kong, and the English tax haven of Guernsey. Police froze $1.3 million they found remaining in the National Australia Bank account.

The Age said Green made frequent business trips to Asia, and told law partners he was coming to Cambodia to get new clients and look into a sapphire mine.

Immigration police said Green arrived at Pochentong Airport from Singapore on the afternoon of March 23 with a one-month tourist visa.

He then checked into the Hotel Sofitel Cambodiana’s new Me­kong suites. The luxury suites were not yet completed for the floor’s grand opening on March 24, police said, and a video security system was not yet installed.

Hotel records showed Green made several phone calls to Thai­land and Australia the evening he arrived, police said.

Hotel staff told investigators that Green was last seen having coffee in the fifth floor’s new lounge at about 7 am. Hotel staff also told police they tried knocking on Green’s door at noon and later at about 2 pm, when a “do not disturb” sign was hanging on the door. A maid found Green lying in his own blood.

Police said they could not find Green’s wallet, but his watch was on his bed. Police also said they found Green’s passport and almost $9,000 in mixed currencies, in the room’s safe.

Local police have no suspects, although immigration police said the victim arrived in Phnom Penh with four other Australians who have since left the country. The Australians, whom police would not identify, have been asked to return for questioning.

“The killer either knew the victim or was involved with the victim because it was a VIP room and apparently, the victim let the killer in,” said Colonel Mao Dara, chief of the criminal office of the Ministry of Interior.

A policeman at the crime scene said investigators found fingerprints that do not belong to either the victim or hotel staff.

Police also said they are bewildered that a brick was used as the weapon. Most murders in Cambodia, said Mao Dara, are carried out with guns, knives or explosives.

“A brick is too simple a weapon for us, so it is difficult to investigate,” Mao Dara said.

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