Accused conman given bail in Croatia
Accused Australian conman Luka Matak has been granted bail after two witnesses told a Croatian court they were fooled into investing money with the former barman turned hedge fund director.
Former lawyer and friend Don Markusic told the Municipal Criminal Court in Zagreb, Croatia he was conned into investing A$39,525 with the 31-year-old and had repeatedly asked for his money back.
“Over time I had enough and told him to stop making a fool out of me,” Mr Markusic told the court. “He would say that he doesn’t make a fool of anyone and accused me of jeopardising our friendship. He always said: ‘Of course I have your money’ and would get angry.”
The court also heard from a Croatian investor, who broke down as she recounted how she entrusted her “best friend” with her life’s savings of A$131,858 after selling the family home.
“It was basically all I had from the sale of my home,” the woman told the court. “When I saw that he (Luka) had cut off all contact and realised that I would never see that money again, I broke down.
“I’m terribly ashamed … I had to ask for psychiatric help, and what struck me the most was that we were really good friends.”
The young manager said she first met Matak through the internet in 2015, meeting up twice before he returned to Australia.
Matak and his seven-month pregnant wife Adriana Matak, 36, (who also goes by the surname Kupresak) have both pleaded not guilty to five charges of fraud with the intention of unlawfully obtaining substantial property benefits, and defrauding their victims of 350,000 euros (A$575,504) during an alleged five-year scam ending last September.
Investors who paid them millions of dollars claim they funded their outlandish lifestyle of luxury holidays and hotels in Dubai, Croatia and London and paid for their designer clothes.
Judge Iris Juzbaši Gabron agreed to set bail for Luka Matak at A$451,201 – half of which is to be paid in cash, and the other half in the form of a lien over his father’s property.