Sydney trader Vincenzo Joseph Vocisano allegedly used AU$25m (US$16.8m) of investor money for gambling purposes, defrauding clients out of about AU$30m (US$20m) in total. The 40-year-old told the victims that the money would go toward foreign exchange investments.

cut contact with his family and moved to the Gold Coast

Police arrested Vocisano and extradited him to New South Wales on Tuesday. He faces a single count of dishonestly obtaining financial advantage by deception and was denied bail on Thursday. The defendant cut contact with his family and moved to the Gold Coast last year. Magistrate Geoff Dunleavy believes this indicates that Vocisano was attempting to avoid charges by creating a new life for himself. Police discovered his whereabouts after seeing him in the background of a social media photo.

Vocisano allegedly ran a Ponzi scheme from January 2020 to July 2022, using money from new investors to pay off other investors. He apparently has little of the money left. An investor filed a complaint with police last July about the “misappropriation of client funds.” Vocisano did not have a license and claimed to be a self-taught trader.