STOLE $4 MILLION FROM FRIENDS (NEWS)
(Tuesday Telegraph 5th April 2011) By: Goeff Chambers.
A former school captain has been jailed for defrauding family and friends of more than $4.2 million to dabble on the stock market, despite having no qualifications.
George Hawa, 26, from Seaforth on Sydney’s Northern Beaches, used his connections and reputation to establish a growing stock market portfolio.
Without qualifications of his own money, Hawa originally used a $10,000 loan from his father before launching an aggressive campaign to persuade his friends to invest with him.
Between 2005 to 2010, the former St Paul’s Catholic College student would sit at his home computer, working the phones and playing the foreign exchange market.
By August last year, he admitted to fraud investigators how he had fleeced millions of dollars from friends.
Hawa broke down in tears at Hornsby Local Court yesterday as magistrate Daphne Kok sent him to prison for two years.
Police prosecutor Sergeant Richard Taylor told Ms Kok that the high-achiever, who had a clean record, should not be sent to prison because he hadn’t intended to defraud more than $4.2 million from 77 relatives and friends.
Among Hawa’s victim was one man who lost $2 million. Others lost their superannuation and livelihoods.
Sgt Taylor said in his 35 years in the police force he had never come across any case like Hawa’s.
I have never seen anything like this, where a person has actually come forward to the police and offered a brief of evidence against himself, Sgt Taylor said.
Hawa told the court yesterday that he decided to hand himself into police after realising that he could not repay the money to his investors.
The court heard that Hawa treated the stock market like an addiction, enjoying the thrill of the ‘ups and downs.’ When the global financial crisis struck in late 2008, he lost millions of dollars in just three weeks.
Amazingly, Hawa claims that weeks before the stock market crash, he was $70,000 away from being able to pay off his investors and walk away from the scheme.
Hawa, who was recently employed as a sales executive with a local company, admitted he had intentionally deceived friends, using methods including monthly account updates and a ‘marketing sheet.’
I’m disgusted with myself, Hawa said.
Police charged Hawa with 52 counts after he came forward.
Ms Kok, who agreed there would be little benefit sending Hawa to prison, said the community expected her to send him to prison.
Hawa, who will complete a business degree through Monash University behind bars, will be eligible for parole on October 4, 2012.
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