How Jasmine Vella-Arpaci swindled millions from hardworking Aussies

A Melbourne woman has been jailed for her role in a cyber crime syndicate that stole millions of dollars from innocent Australians.

Jasmine Vella-Arpaci, 24, admitted playing a central part in the fraudulent scheme, which targeted superannuation and share trading accounts.

The syndicate succeeded in defrauding $3.238 million, while there were further attempts to obtain $1.8 million from super funds and $5.7 million in shares.

Stolen funds were deposited into newly opened bank accounts and debit cards were sent to false addresses in Hong Kong, where $2.5 million was laundered.

Vella-Arpaci’s role included setting up a phishing scam to access account login details, and targeting admin, HR and bookkeeper usernames in the hopes of accessing superannuation account details and identification documents.

Judge Todd said Ms Vella-Arpaci’s ‘phishing’, which included enticing people to enter their personal information through Google advertisements resembling their super companies, was ‘effortful and sophisticated’. 

Jasmine Vella-Arpaci, 24, (pictured) was a part of an international fraud syndicate who stole millions from Australian superannuation and share accounts

Australian Federal Police and the Australian Securities and Investments Commission began investigating the syndicate in late 2018.

Vella-Arpaci was arrested at Melbourne Airport in April 2019 as she returned to Australia from Turkey.

The 24-year-old last month pleaded guilty in the Victorian County Court to two charges of conspiracy to defraud and one of conspiring to deal in proceeds of crime.

She was sentenced on Friday to five years and six months in jail, with a non-parole period of four years.

Friends and family of Ms Vella-Arpaci, who sat silently throughout her sentencing with her hands clasped at her lap and her eyes fixed intently at Judge Fiona Todd, shed tears outside court once the sentence was handed down. 

The victims, whose names are suppressed by order of the court, included a couple in their late 80s and early 90s, and another whose super was razed a year before their retirement. 

The court heard that at the time of the offending, Ms Vella-Arpaci, was living with the now-imprisoned husband of her child, and financially supporting his gambling addiction. 

In her sentencing remarks, Judge Todd said Ms Vella-Arpaci was not living a ‘luxurious existence’.

She said Vella-Arpaci, who attended Rosehill Secondary College in Niddrie, Victoria has become a frequent user of valium, xanax and benzodiazepine, at times taking as many as 10 pills a day, in order to deal with her anxiety.

Australian Tax Office deputy commissioner and chief of the Serious Financial Crime Taskforce, John Ford, welcomed the sentence, saying police would continue to crack down on cyber crime.

The syndicate succeeded in defrauding $3.238 million, while there were further attempts to obtain $1.8 million from super funds and $5.7 million in shares. Pictured is Vella-Arpaci in court today

Stolen funds were deposited into newly opened bank accounts and debit cards were sent to false addresses in Hong Kong, where $2.5 million was laundered. Pictured is Vella-Arpaci in court today

‘Today’s outcome demonstrates that for those who seek to cheat the system, especially at the expense of others, there really is no place to hide,’ Mr Ford said on Friday.

‘We will take firm action.’