A former high school captain has been charged with ripping off his old schoolmates for $2million via an elaborate scam through a fake betting site.
Former Ashfield Boys High school captain Chao Wang, known as Charlie Lotzke, was arrested in June after on his return to Australia from Thailand.
Wang is accused of launching his life of crime when he allegedly asked his inner west Sydney schoolmates to invest in his online gambling platform, Lotzkebets, in 2021.
Police allege Wang convinced 13 people, mostly friends, including some he had known since primary school, to hand over a sum of $2,092,075 with the promise they would receive large returns on their investment.
One of his closest friends initially invested $5,000 but was then swindled into sending him a further $450,000 over several weeks in late 2022, police allege.
Another schoolmate allegedly sent him $80,000, and when he requested his money back after not seeing a return on his investment, was given a Rolex watch which was later allegedly revealed to be fake.
Another friend invested almost $500,000 into Lotzkebets but received less than a quarter of that sum back when he and his family sued Wang, police allege.
Wang also hired a personal driver, who he met in 2022 while playing online games, the Sydney Morning Herald reports.
Former school captain of Ashfield Boys High School, Chao Wang was arrested after creating an elaborate scam in which he tricked school mates into investing more than $2million in his fake gambling platform
The driver allegedly poured $223,000 into the fake betting site, lured by the promise of massive returns.
Friends told police he was ‘intelligent, charismatic and well liked’, but allegedly confessed to a having massive gambling problem.
In July 2023, Wang moved to Thailand, where he continued his alleged scam, and is accused of continuing to con friends and strangers.
Wang allegedly convinced one to hand over the equivalent of $47,000 as an investment into Lotzkebets and another old school friend into a further $40,000.
It’s allege Wang offered to repay his investment but the friend would need to pay an upfront fee of $2,655 to get the funds. The friend declined.
‘He would promise large returns on investment and produce falsified documents from banks and other businesses to gain the confidence of would-be victims,’ police documents seen by The Sydney Morning Herald said.
Police claim Wang allegedly used the fake documents to prove he had made large returns on the investments.
However, his victims were allegedly instructed to pay an ‘administrative fee’ before they could unlock their money.
Wang used the money to fund his lavish lifestyle, living in luxury hotels in Sydney’s CBD and had a private driver chauffeur him around in a rented Lamborghini Aventador (stock image)
While in Sydney, Wang allegedly used the money he defrauded from friends to live in luxury hotels in the CBD and rented a Lamborghini Aventador with a private driver.
‘[Wang] lived a life of luxury at the misery of his victims,’ the police document said.
‘[His] conduct is made more heinous by the fact that he exploited his friends’ trust to defraud them, he fully knew that his victims were borrowing from their families to satisfy his own greed.’
Wang’s alleged fraudulent lifestyle and scam betting company began to unravel in 2023 when his investors’ patience ran out while waiting for their promised returns.
Police documents allege his relationship with his driver, who drove him almost daily in the rented Lamborghini, soured when Wang told him he had to pay for repairs.
The documents claim Wang demanded the driver pay $150,000, after he accused him of scraping the bottom of the luxury car in an underground car park.
Wang also allegedly asked for $120,000 from a business partner who had borrowed the Lamborghini, claiming the money was needed to fix an engine problem.
When both men refused to pay, Wang allegedly threatened them.
However the driver had secretly recorded these threats and went to the police to report the incidents in July 2023.
‘The accused states he is a member of an organised crime group and that, if the debt is not satisfied, members of the Hamzy crime family will attend (the driver’s) home and murder him,’ the police document says.
‘The accused threatened (the business partner) claiming that his father was a member of a Triad organised crime group and that he would be shot if the payment was not made.’
Police issued an arrest warrant for Wang and had ASIC deregister his Lotzkebets business.
Wang had moved to Thailand just days before the arrest warrant was issued, forcing police to wait almost two years to take him into custody
His time abroad came to an abrupt end when he tried to reassure his Thai investor with allegedly forged letters from Australian law firms and sports betting company Bet Right.
The investor contacted Bet Right and the Australian Cyber Security Centre, prompting an investigation.
Forced to flee back to Australia, Wang slipped out of Thailand and returned to Sydney earlier this year and was arrested in June.
‘His entire adult life has been spent committing fraud and gambling,’ police warned the courts in their document.
‘He has demonstrated a willingness to flee. Additionally, he states he has access to 1.5millionUSDT [cryptocurrency] which can fund his escape.’
Wang was charged with multiple counts of fraud, forgery and demands with menaces. He was refused bail and is set to face court again on July 30.
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