Music identity and his ‘700 large’
A HIGH-PROFILE music promoter, a Sydney solicitor and a known crime figure are among five people arrested in Australia and the United States in connection with an alleged importation of 300kg of cocaine and money laundering.
Music identity Andrew McManus, 54, was arrested at Melbourne airport on Thursday night, following the arrests in Sydney of crime figure Craig Haeusler, Kings Cross solicitor Michael Croke and Auburn pastry shop owner Zeki Atilgan.
McManus has been charged with perverting the course of justice, attempting to defraud by false of misleading statements and knowingly participating in a criminal group to assist crime.
He was released on bail to appear in a Sydney court on October 14, a NSW Police spokeswoman said.
The international investigation, sparked by the discovery of a suitcase filled with A$700,000 (NZ$785,000) cash at Sydney’s Hilton Hotel, also netted the arrest of US businessman Owen Hanson Junior, as he played a round of golf in San Diego.
Hanson previously ran the business Advanced Peptide Solutions with Sean Carolan, a Sydney-based former cage-fighter and racehorse trainer-turned personal trainer.
A spokesman from the US Federal Bureau of Investigation said the agency had been working closely with Australian law enforcement on the operation.
‘‘Mr Hanson, was arrested by FBI Agents assigned to the San Diego FBI Field Office who have been working with the New South Wales Police Department,’’ a statement said.
‘‘New South Wales Police Department Detectives were present during the arrest of Mr Hanson.’’
Hanson was arrested on federal drug charges and appeared in court on Wednesday US time, where he was remanded in custody to appear again on Friday US time (this afternoon NZ time).
The investigation, by the FBI, the NSW Organised Crime Squad and the Australian Crime Commission, began when Carolan was discovered in August 2011 at the Hilton in possession of a black suitcase containing A$702,000.
Fairfax Media has previously revealed police were actually called to the hotel after an anonymous tip-off that the occupant of room 3026 in the Hilton Hotel had a gun.
The occupant – Carolan – didn’t have the gun, only the bag of cash.
On the night, Carolan claimed the money belonged to his business partner Hanson jnr, who he said was investing in Carolan’s weight loss business. The money was confiscated, but Carolan took action in the Supreme Court have the money returned.
But in extraordinary evidence tendered to the court, McManus in fact claimed ownership of the bag of cash. ‘‘I gave someone 700 large, and you’ve found someone with 700 large. It’s my 700 large,’’ he told police in a record of interview with detectives in April 2012.
‘‘It’s not the proceeds of crime, it’s the proceeds of Andrew McManus.’’
He claimed the money was the proceeds from a Lenny Kravitz tour and he had used about 20 crew members to ‘‘sneak’’ the cash in from New Zealand. ‘‘I’m not a dickhead but . . . if this went to the ATO, I’d be cooked again,’’ McManus said to police at the time. McManus went on to say he was repaying Hanson who had stumped up the deposit McManus needed for a ZZ Top tour and now he was paying him back.
Although he was accompanied
to to the police interview by his lawyer Croke, who was once his partner in a Sydney nightclub, McManus continued to make extraordinary admissions. He boasted to police that if they came round to his house ‘‘right now’’ they would find a safe with ‘‘600 large sittin’ in it’’.
The Supreme Court ruled against Carolan and McManus and the cash remains in the custody of NSW authorities.
Both Croke, 65, and Haeusler, 55, were charged with both those offences earlier yesterday.
A raid at 32-year-old Atilgan’s Kellyville home allegedly resulted in the seizure of cash, steroids and cannabis. He was charged with two counts of money laundering.
The three men arrested in Sydney were given police bail. Carolan has not been arrested.
NSW police are also expected to apply for the extradition of McManus from Melbourne and Hanson Jnr. from the US.
In his 2012 interview with police, Haeusler said he had been introduced to Hanson by a Chinese gambling identity and that the pair had bet on the NFL in America.
Croke, who also represented Hanson and Haeusler in Haeusler’s drug trial, offered that Hanson was nicknamed ‘‘Dispose’’ by his Australian friends because of his propensity to dispose of prepaid mobile phones.
In his interview with NSW detectives, in July 2012, Hanson said, ‘‘Do you want me to tell you the, the full story of how basically this money was laundered?’’
He went on to say, ‘‘I have silent investors that are basically at their wits end over here. . . . I deal with a lot of professional athletes . . . and a lot of people are upset . . . I haven’t given them a return on their investment,’’ he said of the $700,000.
Andrew McManus, music identity