australias biggest scammer

Anyone been reading about this fella? Have been doing a bit of research and reckon he's knicked anything from $9 million to $100 million:

This article was in Nov 2004:

Melbourne cabinet-maker Omar Yusuf has his money tied up in China, reports David Elias.

The man who would be a prince is a legend on his own internet site. Omar Yusuf wants people to believe he has a fortune to equal Kerry Packer's and soon will be one of the richest persons in Asia.

In the meantime he is offering to "share his success" with Australian investors willing to stake $36,000 on the purchase of a delivery truck that he says will be part of a fleet of contract vehicles.

In his mind's eye, Yusuf is Prince Omar, a business tycoon with international interests in oil, pharmaceuticals, aviation, property, textiles, timber, coffee, sugar, salmon and perfume.

But the enigmatic "prince", who lives in Melbourne, is unknown in Australian business circles and there is little evidence of any business activity in this country beyond a head office coterie and two private companies; a small transport operator and a fledgling producer of the export-only health products Omar-X and Omar-Xtra.

Yusuf claims to have made his fortune supplying his Asian-manufactured Islamic Sports shoes to those Muslims he says prefer not to buy Nike and other Western products.

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AdvertisementThe website of his company Yusuf Holdings, http://www.yusufholdings.com, describes an empire of "over 200 active businesses" with 6500 employees in Asia and a turnover of $US650 million ($860 million) a year.

It says that through the privately held Australasian & Arab Oil Corp he has control of six as yet unnamed oil refineries in Asia, each capable of producing more than 250,000 tonnes of fuel a year.

It lists Yusuf's headquarters at Level 50 in Melbourne's most prestigious corporate address, 101 Collins Street, as well as seven branch headquarters for the oil company located at impressive addresses across Asia, from Dubai to Tokyo, which all turn out to be serviced offices.

Yusuf, a tall, thickset man of 36, came to Australia from Cyprus when he was five. He occupies a corner suite at 101 Collins Street with a panoramic view of the city, where he said this week that his princely title was the equivalent of a knighthood. "It was bestowed on me by people in the Middle East for the help I have given in the region." Asked if he should be addressed as "Excellency", he replied: "No, Prince will do."

He said that his wealth was locked up in China and in his various Asian businesses and he was accepting money from investors for the Campbellfield-based On The Go Transport because of Islam's prohibitions on usury.

He is offering extraordinarily high returns of 43 per cent a year plus 90 per cent back on the original investment after five years.

Each $36,000 investment is framed as a loan to purchase one of the new $47,000 Omare trucks that he is having assembled in China from Japanese and American components.

"I cannot borrow from the banks because Islamic law does not allow me to pay interest. Instead, I share the returns with the people who have given me money.

"I know how it must seem but at this time I don't want people to know how I have got where I am. I don't want to say too much about my wealth until a more appropriate time when all will be revealed."

Yusuf, a cabinet-maker who went to Broadmeadows High School, agreed to the interview after a three-week wait because he was setting up an important deal and had to go to China.

His website is designed to create the appearance of immense wealth, a luxurious lifestyle and great generosity. It shows pictures of the "prince" at the door of executive jets he claims to own and one of him with his pharmaceuticals chief, Fernando Cortizo, and corporate lawyer, Rodrigo Arellano, in front of a helicopter which he agreed he had chartered to visit HUP Pharmaceutical's factory in Albury.

Other pictures show Yusuf arriving for work in Collins Street in a $600,000 Lamborghini Murcielago that the Melbourne Lamborghini dealership confirmed he had taken for a short test drive from their showroom in Clarendon Street a few weeks ago.

"I have since bought a Lamborghini," he said, producing a pink purchase order while masking most of the details.

He was, however, able to produce a worn-in pair of Islamic Sports shoes from his Ferrari, a passport with its pages filled with visa stamps for China and Asia, and from his wallet he pulled out gold and platinum credit cards from Hong Kong banks and a Chinese Airports VIP card.

He produced copies of signed and stamped oil and iron ore "contracts" written in English and Chinese and said that three tankers were in the Black Sea ready to transport oil from Russia to China.

The website claims he owns a coffee plantation, a NSW timber plantation with 4 million trees, a Tasmanian salmon farm, three islands off the Australian coast and over 300 properties in Australia, none of which have been found through Titles Office searches or industry directories.

The titles search disclosed just two properties: a disused double shopfront and residence in the Melbourne suburb of Glenroy which Yusuf bought in 2002 with a $296,000 Commonwealth Bank loan; and a new but modest house in Roxburgh Park, in Melbourne's outer north, which he bought in January with a $245,000 loan from Banksia Mortgages.

Corporate affairs records show that Yusuf first became a company director in 2002, when he registered On The Go Transport with a paid-up capital of $1 and then took over a courier company with a similar name. He has since registered six business names and in March and April this year registered eight companies, including his flagship Yusuf Holdings, the Australasian & Arab Oil Corp, Yusuf Airlines, HUP Pharmaceuticals, Magnum Sports and Arab Fashion House, each with a paid-up capital of $100. A villa unit in Glenroy remains on file as their registered office and principal place of business.

When asked why he had not raised a corporate profile before this, he said it had not been necessary. He had worked through other companies in other people's names.

Yusuf's increasingly extravagant claims have led to concern among a group of Sydney investors that On The Go Transport may not be sustainable. One of the investors, who asked to remain anonymous, said he had spoken to corporate lawyer Arellano in Melbourne.

"When I was talking to them Omar was not a prince and they didn't say anything about him being the fifth richest man in the world. I am concerned now that Omar has come up with this crap.

"In June there was some talk about getting into an oil refinery and now he says he owns five refineries and Rodrigo Arellano, a barrister who would know nothing about the oil industry, is running the business."

According to Ian James, head of Kaizen Enterprises, an inquiry agency acting for the Sydney investors, they had signed their agreements earlier in the year but none had received any registration details to prove their ownership of trucks.

While the investors had received their monthly payments they were anxious because, should there be a default, they would not be in a position to seize their property.

Their solicitor, Stewart Levitt, said he was concerned about a lack of specificity in the agreements, which could mean they were not binding.

When raised with Yusuf, he said it was an oversight and James later confirmed that the investors had since been supplied with registration numbers.

Yusuf said he had done nothing wrong and that the trucks were earning their keep, with taxi truck and logistics operators at $36 an hour for 10 hours a day, five days a week.

Despite his website's claims that On The Go Transport had a fleet of 265 trucks and had contracted to add another 600 next year, he said he had never promoted the business and had only received money from 20 to 30 investors in Melbourne and Queensland and five in Sydney.

"Everybody has been paid on time but if anyone wants their money back I am quite happy to give it to them - less, of course, what they have already received," Yusuf said.

The day after the interview, Yusuf Holdings sent a letter advising that when On The Go was approached by any party interested in a financial arrangement, company policy would require them to take independent legal advice.

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The next sequel:

Prince' leaves paupers smarting
By David Elias
April 6, 2005

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Self-Styled prince Omar Yusuf, who claimed to prospective investors that he was one of the richest men in Asia, has quit his prestigious Collins Street office and moved to Hong Kong.

Scores of investors who paid up to $36,000 each for a slice of the action in his suburban On The Go Transport company have received letters advising they will get their money back in 60 days.

But this may be too late. A group of Sydney investors who have been pressing unsuccessfully for the return of their money since late last year met yesterday and decided to take court action to wind up the Campbellfield transport business.

The investors each paid more than $28,000 for a taxi truck but, following defaults on promised payments, Mr Yusuf's company had failed to return their money on Monday when a legal 120-day deadline expired.

After the Sydney group invested, the "prince's" now-defunct internet site Yusufholdings.com, increased its threshold to $36,000 for each truck. It promised extraordinarily high returns - 46 per cent a year and repayment of 90 per cent of the capital at the end of five years.

In an interview with The Age last November, the 36-year-old Mr Yusuf said he was canvassing investments because all his money was tied up in business ventures in China. He said he had structured the loans to get around Islamic usury laws that forbid interest payments on bank loans.

He boasted he had international interests in oil, pharmaceuticals, aviation, property, textiles, timber, coffee, sugar, salmon farming and perfume and had acquired his title in the Middle East for the help he had given the region.

He said he had arrived in Australia as a five-year-old migrant from the Turkish-controlled north of Cyprus and, after leaving Broadmeadows High School, started work as a cabinet maker.

He said he had made his fortune making and selling Islamic sports shoes to Asian Muslims and controlled an $800 million a year empire of 200 businesses with 6500 employees. It supposedly included four oil refineries in China.

But Mr Yusuf was unknown in Melbourne business circles and there was no tangible evidence of any of the businesses he claimed to own.

The Yusuf Holdings website claimed that On the Go Transport had a fleet of 265 trucks and had contracted to add another 600 during 2005.

However, Richard Gellie, "Prince Omar's" former business development manager, conceded yesterday that the fleet never had more than 50 trucks.

Mr Gellie confirmed that Mr Yusuf had decided to move to Hong Kong and had left the country last week. He said this was because his business interests were centred in China and the Department of Transport had refused to let him import the Chinese-made Omare trucks the "prince" had ordered for On The Go Transport.

He said On The Go Transport had written to investors last week offering to repay their money, but he was unable to say how many investors there were or how much they were owed.

Asked if Mr Yusuf had disposed of his bank-mortgaged Roxburgh Park home and whether his wife and family were with him in Hong Kong, Mr Gellie said he had no information. He added that he was no longer employed by Yusuf Holdings full-time but was hoping to continue as a consultant.

"I am sure he will be back soon and that the investors will get paid." Mr Gellie called back later to say he did not know how long it would be before investors received their money.

Rodrigo Arelano, a former Melbourne barrister and until recently an executive in Mr Yusuf's corner suite on the 50th floor of 101 Collins Street, said he and members of his family had invested a total of $144,000 - $36,000 on each of four trucks - and he did not know where the "prince" was.


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Investors keep an eye on 'Prince Omar'
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Photo: The Age
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AdvertisementBy David Elias
December 13, 2005

PRETEND Middle East prince Omar Yusuf who fled Australia in April owing millions to investors in his On The Go taxi truck business has resurfaced in Malaysia.

According to sources in Kuala Lumpur, the man from Roxburgh Park is once again telling people of his fabulous wealth acquired through various non-existent business ventures — like the five oil refineries in China no one could find, the Islamic sports shoes no one seemed to be wearing, and a perfume label in Paris where everyone eventually managed to smell a rat.

His setbacks in Australia have done nothing to diminish the style of the former Broadmeadows High student (real name Hasan Bulli).

Outside the Selangor business centre, where he rents a ninth-floor office, his kerbside car park space shows it is reserved for "Prince Omar".

Our picture shows a parked Mercedes S280 with the licence plate WMJ 3902, but parked at his home in suburban Damansara Heights there is also a Kia Carnival MPV, licence plate WMQ 4730.

When Omar announced he was relocating to Hong Kong in April he promised an early return to pay back the investors who had pumped in about $90 million to buy taxi trucks built in China to Omar's specifications badged with the name Omare.

His defunct Yusufholdings .com.au website claimed he was operating a fleet of more than 250 trucks but members of the head office coterie he left high and dry in his serviced office at 101 Collins Street later admitted there were never more than 30.

More than 80 people who had invested between $36,000 and $250,000 turned up at a meeting in South Melbourne in June when they decided to chip in $100 each to employ a solicitor to liquidate On The Go Transport.

Some had already complained to the Australian Securities and Investments Commission and others to the police. A former employee, who asked not to be named, said ASIC had told him it could not take up the case and handed him the file. "I took it straight round to the police," the man said.

The investors' solicitor, Danielle McCredden, of law firm White Cleland, said the process of liquidating On The Go Transport was still in the pipeline.

Thus far The Age has been unable to tie the prince down to an exact date for his return with a fistful of dollars for his investors. Unfortunately he is not taking our calls


"I don't know what I can say. I am just waiting for my money to be paid. I, more than anyone, am hoping everyone gets their money back," he said.

Mr Arelano, one of at least two former employees of the disgraced property developer Henry Kaye who went to work for Mr Yusuf, said he had given up his legal career. "There was always the dream of making more money, and work as a barrister is not easy. He said there were plenty of opportunities in the Middle East and we would have a Coca-Cola office."

Mr Arelano said he had been employed by Mr Yusuf to advise on international contracts and had not discovered until he read The Age report that he was supposed to be running the "prince's" oil business. "I didn't know anything about it, but it seems oils ain't oils. You seem to know more about him than I do."

Calls to On The Go Transport yesterday were answered by an employee who said he did not know what was happening. The business manager, Paul Runco, was unwell and did not return calls