A food blogger, including her father, tried to escape to other states after allegedly deceiving 17 people for 1.9 million yuan.
Twenty-six-year-old Amy. Purley. Pitman (Aimee Ploi Pitman), from Darwin, who runs blogs about life and popularity, was denied bail after she was accused of participating in the Ponzi scheme.
Pitman was reportedly charged with seven counts of fraud after persuading victims to invest in an ATM that never existed or was owned by others.
Attorney David. Motes (David Morters) told court that police believe Pitman and her partner, 32-year-old Colin. Woicke (Colin Voeuk), took one million eight hundred and ninety five thousand nine hundred and ninety nine dollars from 17 victims, including her own father.
Only a small portion of the money was invested in the scam, but much of it was still unaccounted for.
Police don't know if the money was buried in the backyard, Mr. Mortes said on court.
Police say it was part of a Pitman scam, which she stole at least three hundred thousand yuan from her father.
But Pitman's lawyer, Matt. Harper (Matt Hubber) told court that her father denied the claim and said he gave her money to help her business.
While convinced that Pitman's father was not lying, Mortes said he had changed his story since he first spoke to the police, perhaps fearing that his daughter might be in jail.
It was also noted that Pitman's father had offered a $ one hundred thousand guarantee for his daughter's release.
"our suspicion is that he has been deceived in the past, but there is no reason why he will not be deceived in the future." "this is an ongoing scam and requires two defendants to tell us a lot of the lies," Mortes said.
Court learned that Pitman had served as an administrative assistant at the Royal Darwin Hospital but was recently fired after allegedly trying to persuade her colleagues to invest in the scheme.
After the fraud surfaced, Pitman and her partner tried to escape the state and move to Melbourne, Mortes told court.
He also told court they planned to go to Melbourne to look for jobs and houses after the victims threatened to call the police.
Deputy Chief Justice Elizabeth. Morris (Elizabeth Morris) refused bail, saying she feared Pitman might commit another crime.
Pitman and Woicke will appear again in August.
At the time of their arrest, the police believed the scheme had been in place for more than two years and that there might still be some unknown victims among them.
Police chief Sanderson said in a statement: "Northern Territory police believe there may be other victims, we urge those who have invested in the ATM in the past two years, if they are worried about the investment, Please contact the police at 131,444 or the anti-crime hotline at 1800 333,000. "