OUT COLD
Court KOs bid by alleged cold call heavyweight to be ringside at Mayweather-McGregor fight in Vegas
THE alleged kingpin of a $59 million cold-calling scam asked a magistrate for permission to travel to Las Vegas while on bail so he could attend the Floyd Mayweather-Conor McGregor fight.
Mrunal Parekh, 38, of Clear Island Waters, was charged with five counts of fraud yesterday over his alleged involvement in three different scams.
Parekh, pictured with his wife Richa, was refused permission to attend the bout. Tickets cost $3000 to $95,000 each.
AN alleged kingpin of a $59 million cold-calling investment scam asked a Gold Coast magistrate if he could travel to the US this weekend for one of the biggest fights in boxing history.
Mrunal Parekh, 38, was yesterday arrested and charged with five counts of fraud over his alleged involvement in three different scams, one of which allegedly netted almost $60 million from innocent victims.
The Romanian-born man was accused of personally scamming victims out of more than $3.5 million over 13 years.
He was granted conditional bail without a surety in the Southport Magistrates Court.
During the bail application, defence barrister Alastair McDougall argued against a condition Parekh surrender his passport, saying he had already paid for a trip to Las Vegas to see the Floyd MayweatherConor McGregor fight.
Magistrate John Costanzo was not convinced a man facing such serious charges should be able to travel overseas to attend the boxing blockbuster, which yesterday demanded admission prices between $3000 and $95,000 each.
“That’s not something that is essential to, for example, deriving a livelihood,” he said.
Parekh was required to surrender his passport and reside at his $1.6 million Clear Island Waters home as a condition of his bail.
Police allege the man was a high level manager in a syndicate of cold call investment fraud operations.
They said he continued to live in the lap of luxury on the Gold Coast despite two police raids on Bundall addresses in May 2015 and February 2016.
Detectives say the man, who allegedly drove luxury sports cars and lived in a mansion, was enjoying the proceeds of crime for the past 13 years.
Acting Detective Senior Sergeant Janelle Walsh described Parekh as living in an “affluent area” with “luxury vehicles” and “luxury domestic dwellings”.
The court yesterday heard Parekh is a father to three children, one of whom attends the prestigious TSS.
His wife, instablogger Richa Parekh, was photographed in the Gold Coast Bulletin’s 50 Best Dressed in 2015.
Despite knowing he was under investigation for fraud, Mrunal Parekh travelled overseas on three occasions in the past two years, Mr McDougall said.
The court heard Parekh travelled to Dubai, Oman and Hong Kong following the February 2016 raid for a foreign exchange market expo.
He also travelled to Oman again in 2017 to visit his parents and holidayed to New Zealand with his family, the court was told.
“If he was going to flee he would have done so when under investigation,” Mr McDougall said.
The business names police allege Parekh was involved with are: Sports International Investment Corporation, Accord Professionals Group Pty Ltd, Voss Capital Management Pty Ltd, LayBet Professionals and Beyond Global Corporation (BCG) Pty Ltd.
One of the scams involved offering software that could predict the losing horses in races.
Police say generally, the scams worked by offering customers the opportunity to buy sports betting software and software connected to “commodity trading”.
Scammers allegedly offered victims across Australia high financial returns that were supposedly tax-free and potential clients were given demonstrations at their homes.