Max Green
Encyclopedia
- This article is about the lawyer. For the musician, see Max Green (musician)Escape the FateEscape the Fate is an American post-hardcore band from Las Vegas, Nevada formed in 2005 and originally from Pahrump, Nevada. They have released three EPs and three full-length studio albums. Dying Is Your Latest Fashion was the band's debut album and only album to feature vocalist Ronnie Radke...
.
Max Green (1952 - 25 March 1998) was an Australian lawyer who embezzled millions of dollars and was later murdered in Cambodia
Cambodia
Cambodia , officially known as the Kingdom of Cambodia, is a country located in the southern portion of the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia...
.
Early life
He was born in LondonLondon
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
and moved to Australia when he was 5 and grew up in Sydney. He graduated from law school, moved to Melbourne and married Louise Giselle Baron in 1976.
He joined the board of Emma Page, a fashion jewellery concern, in 1981. He spent the years from 1985 to 1989 in Austin, Texas
Texas
Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...
, working fulltime for Emma Page.
In 1991, Green became a partner of Gary Vernon Shugg, in a law firm in Melbourne
Melbourne
Melbourne is the capital and most populous city in the state of Victoria, and the second most populous city in Australia. The Melbourne City Centre is the hub of the greater metropolitan area and the Census statistical division—of which "Melbourne" is the common name. As of June 2009, the greater...
Shugg & Green. Green left this firm in late 1993. In 1995, a partner of the firm (Shugg) was suspended from practice for three years. It was alleged, but never proved, that the firm sold weapons to Cambodia. The firm was placed into receivership in June 1994 at the request of Shugg.
Green became a partner in Melbourne law firm Aroni Colman shortly after his departure from Shugg & Green.
Tax Minimisation
Australian tax law allows equipment purchases that are below a certain purchase price to be entirely depreciated in the first year. Green founded an investment scheme during the 1990s designed to help investors minimise tax legally. The scheme would buy equipment and lease it to CityLinkCityLink
CityLink is a system of tolled urban Highways in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. The company Transurban was awarded the contract to augment two existing freeways and construct two new Toll roads—labelled the Western and Southern Links—directly linking a number of existing freeways to...
for the construction of highways in Melbourne.
The scheme involved borrowing four times as much money as the initial capital from a Hong Kong
Hong Kong
Hong Kong is one of two Special Administrative Regions of the People's Republic of China , the other being Macau. A city-state situated on China's south coast and enclosed by the Pearl River Delta and South China Sea, it is renowned for its expansive skyline and deep natural harbour...
bank. AUD $42 million was invested in the scheme, mainly by private individuals. Most of the investors were Jewish businessmen from Melbourne. Green promised a 15% per annum return on investment, as well as allowing investors to legally write off some of the investment as a tax deduction.
Green created fraudulent documents that appeared to show equipment purchases, but the fund never actually purchased any equipment and CityLink did not lease any equipment from it. A considerable quantity of money disappeared from the trust accounts used to hold the investors' capital. The movement of the money was subsequently traced through an elaborate network of bank accounts.
However, Green ultimately laundered all the money that he stole and police were never able to recover any of it. It is thought that he purchased some US $20 million of gems from various gem traders in Cambodia, and later sold the gems in Israel
Israel
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
.
The Victorian Lawyers RPA Ltd, the regulatory arm of the Victorian Law Institute, began an investigation of 'trust account irregularities' in accounts associated with Green and Aroni Colman.
The Murder
On 24 March 1998, Max Green stayed overnight at the Sofitel Cambodiana. He had booked a flight at 11am the next day to Hong KongHong Kong
Hong Kong is one of two Special Administrative Regions of the People's Republic of China , the other being Macau. A city-state situated on China's south coast and enclosed by the Pearl River Delta and South China Sea, it is renowned for its expansive skyline and deep natural harbour...
.
His body was found by a maid the next day, face down on the bed, with massive injuries to his skull and face. The cause of death was strangulation by a necktie. His laptop was stolen (but not his cash or credit cards). His face was disfigured so badly that after he was buried in Melbourne, his body was exhumed so that the Coroner could make doubly sure that it was him.
His killer or killers were never found, although police suspect that it was done by professional 'hitmen' contracted by one of his many victims.