‘Private placements', property and cars: Inside WA's multimillion-dollar fraud trial
Private investor Chris Marco is on trial in West Australia's Supreme Court, 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.
The minimum investment to work with Marco was $100,000, and his clients included an environmental scientist and a Sydney-based insurance underwriter.
In his opening statement, Prosecutor Steven Whybrow said Marco spent years developing credibility with his clients between 2011 and 2018, promising to invest their 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.
They are generally a riskier type of investment and aimed at exclusive groups of people, which Marco claimed to have access to.
In an interview from 2021 played to the court on Friday, Marco said he mainly ran them through overseas operators.
Whybrow told the court Marco added to his credibility by allowing investors to pull their money out at any time, but the generous returns his clients received meant they often rolled over their investments.
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