Former ATSIC head guilty of fraud

Former Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission chief Geoff Clark has been found guilty of 25 charges, over 25 years, including about $1m of fraud allegations.

Clark faced a series of trials over long-running allegations of fraud, relating to about $1 million illegally obtained from his community’s Aboriginal trust.

Juries across four trials found Clark had acted illegally to obtain money from the trust.

A Melbourne court placed a suppression order on the charges in August last year to allow five consecutive jury trials to taken place, with no media coverage permitted.

After the fourth trial had found Clark guilty of perjury, obtaining financial advantage by deception, theft, and giving false testimony, the prosecution yesterday announced it would not pursue a fifth trial, allowing for media to report on all four previous cases.

Clark pleaded guilty on Monday to obtaining financial advantage by deception.

In December last year, a jury found Clark guilty of 19 charges that included using trust money to pay for his legal fees, 15 counts of theft, three counts of obtaining financial advantage by deception, and a single count of perjury.

The second trial related to Clark’s son Jeremy and his role in siphoning off money to his father to pay for legal fees.

He was found guilty in March on six counts of theft and one count of false accounting.

The third trial in April found Clark guilty of theft and of handling the proceeds of crime related to rent on a trust-owned property.

And in the fourth trial Clark was found guilty of perjury, obtaining financial advantage by deception, theft, and giving false testimony.

Clark will be back in court on September 11 ahead of sentencing.