Three-quarters of the loot spent on gambling and poker machines, “while the rest of it was wasted"
A fifty-tree-year-old woman from the NSW South Coast has been hit with 749 counts of dishonestly obtaining financial advantage by deception with police alleging she stole more than $1.5 million from Tyler Wright and brothers Owen and Mikey,
Shane Maree Hatton, a family friend of the Wrights, although one must now presume that friendship has become somewhat strained, was a bookkeeper for the Wright’s plumbing biz.
When the kids started to rake in the sponsor cash, Hatton took on their finances, too.
“There is a trend of family friends and relatives, who are less than qualified, managing large amounts of money and they can’t resist the temptation of taking some of the money for themselves,” the State Crime Command Director, Detective Chief Superintendent Darren Bennett told The Daily Telegraph.
Red flags went up when celeb agent Nick Fordham, who handles Tyler’s sponsorship deals, saw the books, and noticed the balance was a little lower than expected.
He called the cops, they got the fraud squad in, and the woman was arrested.
“They have a limited window for earning so they need to protect themselves,” Detective Bennett said. “The first thing they need to do is employ reputable companies, not family friends to handle their careers. They need to get contracts, and with legal advice. Then they need to take an interest in their money day to day and the movement of money in their bank accounts.”
Cops allege the woman spent $1.2 million on gambling and poker machines “while the rest of the money was wasted.”
Which brings to mind the wonderful George Best quote, “I spent a lot of money on booze, birds and fast cars. The rest I just squandered.”
Bookkeepers, accountants, whatever you want to call ‘em, are notorious for sticking their fingers in the honey pot, although their lifespans can be shortened considerably depending on the victims.
One man who ripped off Andy and Bruce Irons for a mill, as well as another thirty or so people for a total of fifty-mill, ended up at the bottom of a canyon after a mysterious car accident.
Police said the day was “very windy.”
Thanks for the advice, I appreciate it. Sorry to hear you aren’t on good terms.
My mother just passed away and my sister was named the executor of the trust. It’s going to permanently destroy our relationship. From what I have read making one of the beneficiaries the executor is asking for trouble. I guess it depends on the people involved.
The whole thing is nauseating to see how it changes people. The only analogy I can think of is the gold rush in California. Blow Indians heads off with guns to get their land.
Greed is a bitch
George Best or George Raft?
George Raft is cooler. Gangstah.
George Best was a pom or one of the Beatles or whatever.
https://uploads.disquscdn.c…
Looking at that picture made me think… do you think it would be weird to spend that much time around a sister that’s usually wearing a bikini?
Or relatives that get named as the executor of a trust. It brings out the worst in people.
sad. surely there is a more fun way of wasting 150k annually than feeding it into a brickies laptop.
To all athletes: You do not need to risk getting your $ stolen by a financial planner. Put your money in small-cap, mid-cap, & large-cap indexed mutual funds. Hire a good tax person. The rest of us need to take risks with money to make it. You have already made it. Keep it.
No fee Fidelity account, some European funds as well.
The amount of guys in the NBA who have been fd way harder than this is staggering. A lot of these guys come from really tough situations, have zero financial literacy, and are just set up for the taking. I think Antwon Walker made over a hundred shmil and he now shares an apartment with three guys!
And how in the world did Mike Tyson lose 250 million? I keep thinking that all the NFL ,NBA players need to do is set aside 10 million with a good financial firm and don’t touch it, let it grow in the stock market. I guess they get conned into making stupid investments.
Shady agents and money handlers prey on rookies. Often the young players are convinced to sign over power of attorney. It’s really very sad,
Iverson travelled with 60 people. Everywhere. 250m – zero.
I found 5 bucks in the street last year. My son and I went into Coles and bought some ice cream with it which we were on our way to buy anyway.
We enjoyed the ice cream.
That was my Ted Talk.
Thanks for listening.
I hope you found it inspirational.
Flava?
Reeses On a Stick.
not quite as inspirational as when “surfer” and “environmentalist” Kyle Thierman gave a Ted talk in a short john wetsuit with a surfboard on stage, that was truly inspirational, yours is a close second though.
Culburra Bowlo or Worrige Sports?
Kinda explains why Tyler is so angry at the world!
No one’s so pissed off as a multi millionaire who just got embezzled a couple hundred grand.
Life fucken suxs at the top!
Bank accounts matter. Keep an eye on them.
the lady is presumably now going to bill the family for her dynamic empathy training program?
and look i know i am more than a little OCD…but surely she could have done just one more and rounded it to a nice 750?
Two Wright’s don’t make a sound financial decision maker.
zing!
Don’t know why but I really don’t give a shit..
Clay marzo was taken for everything. That was a shit thing to do.
Many pro surfers have suffered over the years, as have the rest of us but you will not hear about most. I went to one of these meetings with a pro years ago and part of the presentation was “This is offshore, so don’t tell anyone and it is tax free” That’s your first red flag.
Google Gold sky Kenny Grace – still no court case and pro sportsmen were involved
Pro surfers are generally dumb fucks so easy targets perhaps?
Few more years of school rather than missing heaps to ‘pursue their career “
T-ron got me.
Head office got a letter of compliant over that comment from an outraged regular commentator.
Along with the Irons brothers, I too lost a chunk of cash to mortgage broker Jim Lull from Kauai. But there was no mystery about his final day. He had pled guilty and was on the mainland waiting sentencing. On the very day he was supposed to be in a Honolulu federal courtroom he drove off a cliff. Victims were in court waiting to testify and he was a no-show surprising his attorney. In Clay’s case, the immigrant Filipina bookkeeper convicted got a slap on the wrist and was sentenced to only 3 years in federal lockup and will be likely deported when released. No matter who you are or what you have, track your kālā daily like a hawk. Trust no one.
I rate this advice.
Only add is if you find yourself in charge of family money. Check that three times a day!
Never, ever, rip off your olds
Heard snippet this today – $1.5 over 10 years is $150K by my maths – seriously how do they not know that amount is missing per year!!!
Considering that at this stage she’s just been charged (not convicted) and therefore has only ‘allegedly’ been wronging the Wrights, so she may infact be quite innocent and the Wrights have had no wrongs done to them but merely forgotten that they’d agreed to allow her to be paid the alleged missing monies.
Wouldn’t be too surprising, as it’s not like they come across as a very organised bunch, especially considering the years of childhood abuse they don’t seem to be able to agree ever actually happened…
Definitely a cautionary tale to young tier 1 pro’s. As boring as it is paying for decent financial advice could make the difference between a post tour career of running a surf school / digging ditches / selling real estate or relaxing and living off your investments. I hope the book keeper does some time.