Duo swindled $6 million from five victims in investment scam, court hears

Andre Langos and Sam Smith will be sentenced in South Australia's District Court next month. (ABC News: Che Chorley) Two men swindled more than $6 million from five people via a fraudulent property investment scheme. One of those victims says she wants Andre Langos, 44, and Sam Smith, 57, to be given a "substantial custodial sentence" for their crimes. Link copiedShareShare articleA woman whose sister lost more than $3 million in a property investment scam has said she wants the two men responsible to receive a "substantial custodial sentence" for destroying their lives. Adelaide resident Andre Langos, 44, and Brighton resident Sam Smith, 57, stole more than $6 million from five people, four of whom were aged over 60, between April 2019 and July 2020. Last month, prosecutor James Slocombe told Adelaide's District Court the men committed a "deliberate" act of "fraud" by deceiving the victims into believing they were investing their money in property. "It is their good character that enables them to commit crimes like the ones that are before the court, given the trust that they are able to engender with their victims." Langos previously pleaded guilty to 14 counts of aggravated deception, and one count of deception, and Smith had pleaded guilty to six counts of aggravated deception and one count of deception. The court had heard that a total of $6,043,000 was swindled from the group, but that Smith had only pleaded guilty to stealing $1.7 million, and Langos pleaded guilty to stealing only $890,000. Mr Slocombe also told the court that one victim said they had "lost the version" of themselves that "existed before these crimes", while another victim said the offending "was a rampage of decadence, contempt and arrogance". Janet Rowe lost money in the fraudulent investment scheme. (ABC News: Eva Blandis) Outside the court following a pre-sentence hearing today, Janet Rowe said both she and her sister fell victim to the scheme after being friends with Smith for 20 years. "That's why we trusted him," she told the media. "There are five victims, one of whom is my sister, who has advanced Alzheimer's and who had over $3 million stolen, leaving her with $16,000 in the bank." Ms Rowe said she had "lost half of [her] super" due to the fraud. "My sister and I have worked all our lives to get a superannuation, and they have stolen that." Ms Rowe, who suffers chronic pain, said she has "got more and more ill" since the offending, while her sister was "completely destroyed". Mr Slocombe told the court last month that the offending would have an everlasting impact on the victims. "Their sense of loss, betrayal and anger at the admitted offending will continue long after sentencing; and the anger they hold is a result of the predicament they're in, in their mature stages of life, having lost their financial futures," he said. Defence counsel for Langos, Craig Caldicott, told the court his client was trying to make up for the invested money he had lost. "In 2019, 2020 he was chasing his losses, trying to turn it around and there was huge volatility in the market," he said. "It's not an excuse at all. It is just an explanation." Mr Caldicott also said his client was bankrupt. "The COVID-19 pandemic caused cataclysmic volatility, which resulted in unacceptable losses," he said. "He denied his motivation was greed and malicious intent, but rather a belief that he could fix the problem with an act to understand trends. "I am actually asking your honour to be as lenient as you possibly can." Sam Abbott KC, for Smith, told the court that his client had also fallen victim to the scheme. "In other words, he is being sucked in, along with the other victims, as to this tale of registered first mortgages, and the security, and the rolling over of developments, and all of the other fictions as being told to these victims on this meeting occasion," he said. He also provided two apology letters to the court on his client's behalf, one of which was addressed to the victims. Mr Abbott asked the court to impose a home detention sentence to allow Mr Smith to compensate his victims. "It meets the specific difficulty that Mr Smith does not have money at the moment to pay a lump sum of compensation," he said. "It would allow these victims to continue to receive money into the future. "In our respectful submission, it meets more of the aims of the interests of the victims than it would simply sending Mr Smith to jail." Ms Rowe said the proposal was "a joke" and "insulting". Copy linkFacebookX (formerly Twitter)Top StoriesCrunch time for Labor's budgetTopic:Government and Politics

Duo swindled $6 million from five victims in investment scam, court hears

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