Feds say man lied about name, past
Australian press dubs man now living in area “Casanova Conman”
Saratoga Regional YMCA officially launched its annual campaign designed to ensure that all in the community have access to vital community programs and resources. When it closed in March 2020, the Y began providing food and hygiene supplies to struggling individuals and families in need, noted CEO Scott Clark, above. But even with the reopening of facilities in September, the Y is still facing financial challenges. It has lost more than $1.5 million in revenue and saw a 35 percent drop in membership. Contact 518-5839622 x104 or allison.dantonio@srymca.org, or visit www.srymca.org/donate for details. At right is board member Ally Meyers.
An Australian man accused of ripping off real estate developers, charities, business partners and his own mother has been quietly living in the Capital Region for several years under an assumed name, according to federal law enforcement officials.
He now faces visa fraud charges after allegedly lying about his old name and a past arrest.
Federal agents charged Paul Carter, 55, on Wednesday with making false statements in connection with a visa renewal application. The complaint against Carter does not say what brought him to the attention of federal agents.
Carter, who was born Paul Cristallo and has been going by the name Paul Hamilton, gained the “Casanova Conman” moniker in the Australian press after a splashy September 2019 series in the Herald Sun and other news outlets. Carter allegedly posed as a multi-millionaire developer and would woo women into turning over to him control of their financial assets, according to the news reports. The stories include allegations that he hired a hitman to kill Katherine Dubois, his thenfiancée, after she found out his wife, whom he said died of bone cancer, was alive and well in the United States.
When an Australian television reporter tracked him down at an Albany-area construction site, Carter denied all the allegations against him.
Dubois later wrote a book about her experiences. Carter was never charged with any crimes in connection with his alleged fraud in Australia. His now ex-wife Brooklin Carter is still alive and runs a business in Rensselaer County. She declined to speak with the Times Union when contacted in October 2019.
The Carters entered the country in 2014 under E-2 investor visas, initially living in Boston, according to a copy of Paul Carter’s visa application obtained by the Times Union and court documents. It’s unclear what kind of business they were trying to create or invest in. At some point, Paul Carter traveled back to Australia and became engaged to Dubois. The occasion was celebrated with a lavish party that she described in her book and which also chronicled on social media.
But Paul Carter’s activities in the U.S. are what got him in trouble with the federal government. He came back to the U.S. and continued to live with his wife and, in 2018 when their visas were set to expire, they traveled to Toronto to apply for their second E-2 visas. They were denied by the U.S. State Department. However, the pair allegedly took advantage of an immigration law loophole to buy themselves two more years of legal status in the U.S., until May 2020, court records show.
The couple divorced in August 2019. Carter, who never married Dubois, later became engaged to the Troy-based attorney who handled his divorce, according to Australian press reports.
That second visa application is the focus of the criminal case pending against Paul Carter.
In the complaint, a Homeland Security Investigations agent says that Carter wrote that he had never gone by any other names and that he had never been arrested. In 2002, he was arrested in Australia for growing 12 marijuana plants and received a conditional discharge,
according to the federal complaint.
When agents interviewed Carter on Wednesday, he admitted he had overstayed his visa and was in the process of changing his name to Paul
Hamilton, according to the complaint.
Carter is scheduled to appear in federal court for a detention hearing on Friday.