John Friedrich (fraudster)
John Friedrich | |
|---|---|
Federal Republic of Germany | |
| Died | 27 July 1991 (aged 40) Sale, Victoria, Australia |
| Cause of death | Suicide |
| Occupation(s) | Engineer and executive director of the National Safety Council of Australia |
| Criminal charge | Fraud involving over AUD$297 million |
Johann Friedrich Hohenberger
Early life
Hohenberger was born on 7 September 1950 in Munich, West Germany. He was the second of two sons born to Elisabeth (née Wehner) and Johann Christian Hohenberger.[1]
Hohenberger was a
Hohenberger was on a skiing holiday in Italy at the time German police issued a warrant for his arrest. He never returned to Germany; having gone out onto the slopes and not returned, he was presumed to have died. Although German police were sceptical of his disappearance, believing that somebody had tipped him off to the investigation, the discovery of his bags over a year later reinforced the theory that he had either had an accident or committed suicide.[2]
Move to Australia
On 20 January 1975, Hohenberger arrived in Melbourne on a flight from Auckland, New Zealand. According to Department of Immigration records, Hohenberger left Australia on a flight to Singapore on 22 January. It is thought he tricked Australian Customs into believing he had boarded a plane but remained in Australia.[3]
Using the name John Friedrich and fake qualifications, Hohenberger gained a contract with construction company Codelfa Cogefar, working on part of the
While working in Ernabella, Friedrich became ill with a serious infection and was treated by nurse Shirley Manning. Friedrich and Manning became engaged in October 1975 and married on 10 February 1976 in Sydney.
National Safety Council
In November 1976, the Friedrichs had taken a holiday to
Friedrich became executive director of NSCA in 1982 and began to transform it into a national
Following the financial collapse of NSCA in 1989, Friedrich went into hiding.[4] After a nationwide and international manhunt, involving all Australian police forces and Interpol, he was arrested in Perth on 6 April 1989. He was initially charged with one count of obtaining financial advantage by deception. On 1 November, he was charged on a further 91 counts of obtaining property by deception.
In subsequent investigations, it was discovered that Friedrich was not an Australian citizen, did not possess any valid birth certificate, and did not appear on any electoral roll. This caused considerable embarrassment to the Department of Defence, which had given him a security clearance and almost unlimited access to Royal Australian Air Force bases.[3]
The Friedrichs lived with Shirley's brother in Sydney until the start of the trial. On 23 July 1991, Friedrich appeared in court for fraud involving $297 million.[2]
Death
On 27 July 1991, Friedrich was found dead in a muddy field on his farm near Sale, Victoria, with a single gunshot wound to the head. His death was ruled to be suicide.[6]
Autobiography
Friedrich was writing an autobiography with the assistance of Richard Flanagan at the time of his death.[7] It was published posthumously.[8] In it, he claimed to have been born in South Australia in 1945 to German parents, attended boarding school in West Germany and studied engineering at the Technische Hochschule. Friedrich also claimed that, while working for an American construction company, he was recruited by the Central Intelligence Agency and, under the codename "Iago", worked in Laos, Vietnam, Egypt, New Zealand and West Germany against far left-wing extremists before returning to Australia in 1975.[8] Simon Caterson, writing in The Australian, described it as "one of the least reliable but most fascinating memoirs in the annals of Australian publishing".[9] A subsequent 2017 essay by Caterson likening Friedrich to Jeff Tracy is titled "John Friedrich: Australia's Most Altruistic Fraudster".[10]
References
- ^ Bongiorno, Frank (2016). "John Friedrich (1950–1991)". Australian Dictionary of Biography.
- ^ ISBN 1-875575-01-4.
- ^ a b Chandler, Jo (29 July 1991). "Friedrich's Official Identity". The Age.
- ^ a b Myles McGregor-Lowndes (1993), The National Safety Council Fraud – Regulatory Slip or Systemic Regulatory Failure?, Criminology Research Council
- ^ "It's an Honour – Honours – Search Australian Honours". Retrieved 11 August 2011.
- ^ "Twenty years on". ABC News. 6 April 2009. Retrieved 26 December 2017.
- ^ Friedrich and Flanagan: the con-man and his ghostwriter October 16, 2017 Conversations Retrieved October 16, 2017
- ^ ISBN 0-85561-452-8.
- ^ Caterson, Simon (12 April 2008). "All memoirs are verily unreliable". The Australian.
- ^ "John Friedrich: Australia's most altruistic fraudster". dailyreview.com.au. 2 September 2017.
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