It was once overdue on Saturday afternoon in April remaining 12 months, when billionaire philanthropist Judith Neilson raised her glass to rejoice her personal secretary’s fiftieth birthday at a lavish birthday party within the McRae Bar on the five-star Capella lodge in Sydney’s CBD.
Birthday lady Annalouise “Lou” Spence was once resplendent in a shimmering sequined polyester robe on which she’d splurged $1200. She’d additionally spent $10,000 on Jimmy Choo stilettos and an identical gold night time bag. And that was once only for her first outfit for the evening.
As Neilson rested her cocktail glass on a linen serviette embroidered along with her secretary’s title and initials, she had no concept that she was once footing the $40,000 birthday party prices, which integrated $1000 for the monogrammed napkins, the luxurious outfits and equipment, in addition to $6000 for her secretary’s two-night keep on the Capella along with her husband, Adam Spence.
However the birthday party was once simply the end of the industrial-scale fraud that her secretary were allegedly perpetrating for years.
For 8 years, the 79-year-old Neilson, who does no longer use e-mail or certainly a pc, had entrusted Spence with get admission to to her intimate private and monetary main points.
Through impersonating Neilson and forging authorisations, Spence is said to have spent an estimated $1.5 million on top notch go back and forth, extravagant lodge remains, dressmaker garments, equipment, jewelry and paintings.
Aside from reserving top notch air go back and forth, Spence may be purported to have transferred virtually 1 million of Neilson’s Qantas common flyer issues for her private use. Spence would additionally guide flights for Neilson after which cancel them, allegedly the usage of the credit herself.
She may be purported to have redeemed 7.2 million American Specific Club Rewards issues, which belonged to Neilson.
Having organised extravagant foods, lodging and tickets to rock concert events for her buddies, allegedly the usage of her employer’s budget, Spence would then get her buddies to reimburse her, successfully perpetrating two frauds.
Pretending to be her boss, Spence may be purported to have received 1000’s of greenbacks in money and foreign exchange, which she claimed was once for Neilson’s in another country go back and forth.
As an example, in April 2024, the finance staff gained an e-mail purportedly from Neilson requesting $10,000 to be put onto Spence’s bank card. “Lou will then withdraw that cash for me over the following 5 days in $2000 increments in order that I’ve money readily available.”
The e-mail went on to mention that since Neilson’s native financial institution department had closed, “Lou will deal with this for me someday in order that I don’t want to pass all of the approach into town as a way to get cash. Thanks, Judith.”
“I used to be sickened and so damned harm,” stated Neilson on finding Spence’s alleged frauds.
Neilson described feeling a “profound sense of betrayal” as a result of for years she had entrusted Spence to organise go back and forth logistics, oversee family operations and philanthropic actions.
Spence and her husband had additionally lived rent-free in premises owned through Neilson, subsequent door to Neilson’s personal Chippendale house, which has gained a large number of architectural awards.
However what angers the philanthropist maximum is that Spence was once stealing cash that can differently have long gone to deprived folks in Africa and Australia, by way of the charities Neilson budget.
“Each cent is going to folks in want, and she or he is stealing from those folks,” Neilson advised this masthead.
As a kid, Annalouise Brown immigrated from Eire along with her folks and two sisters. After leaving Jamison Top Faculty in Penrith in 1992, Spence’s CV signifies she later labored as an government assistant after which trade analyst on the Starlight Basis.
In 2014, she married rally automotive driving force Adam Spence.
Earlier than becoming a member of the Judith Neilson Circle of relatives Place of work in 2017, Spence’s LinkedIn profile stated she spent two years as “Government Assistant to Her Majesty’s Ambassador at British Embassy, Qatar”.
Neilson now questions the veracity of Spence’s claims about her bothered youth, together with that her mom’s forget had brought about a facial scar “which dragged down the nook of her mouth.”
Spence additionally confided to Neilson that her mom handled her youngsters like slaves. “Lou was once having to try this washing and ironing from the age of 5 whilst her mom lay within the pool and drank field wine and smoked,” Neilson recalled being advised.
Nevertheless it was once in fact Neilson who had the “barefoot youth”.
Born in Rhodesia, now Zimbabwe, Neilson is without doubt one of the maximum influential figures within the Australian arts and philanthropic worlds.
She was once one in all 4 sisters. Her mom was once a instructor and her father a mechanic who later specialized in automotive radiators.
“The whole lot was once humble and lovely,” she lately advised this masthead. “It was once circle of relatives. You loved what you had.”
At 17, she moved to South Africa to review graphic artwork and textile design. In 1983, she and her husband, Kerr Neilson, who would develop into probably the most giants of Australia’s budget control business, moved to Sydney.
Following the a success 2007 waft of Platinum Asset Control, the corporate co-founded through her husband, the couple’s blended fortune catapulted them into the highest 10 wealthiest Australians.
Even after their 2015 divorce, every nonetheless options in the once a year wealthy listing, with separate fortunes exceeding $1 billion.
Neilson has used her fortune to fund philanthropic endeavours, together with the White Rabbit Gallery, which homes one of the vital collections of Chinese language recent artwork. Admission is loose. Neilson additionally constructed and continues to fund Phoenix Central Park, a surprising acting arts venue.
Whilst her structures have gained more than one architectural awards and her personal artwork assortment is astonishing, Neilson herself isn’t showy. She eschews the glitzy social international to which her wealth would routinely ensure an access. She famously does no longer put on jewelry. On her wrist is an ivory colored Swatch watch.
The Black Amex card
The American Specific Centurion card, unofficially referred to as the Black Amex, is so unique that you need to be invited to use. With its $5000 becoming a member of rate and $6500 annual rate, it’s rumoured that most effective 6000 folks in Australia have one.
Neilson gained her Black Amex in February 2023. A fortnight later, her secretary referred to as American Specific to request a supplementary bank card in her personal title.
Amex indicated by way of e-mail that Neilson had most effective implemented for 2 playing cards in her title and that Neilson must authorise any longer playing cards.
An e-mail in the hunt for affirmation was once despatched to Neilson. On March 7, Spence is said to have emailed Amex pretending to be her boss. “I perceive the phrases and comply with have Annalouise as a supplementary cardholder and because the account supervisor for my account.
Sort regards, Judith.”
Having received her personal supplementary card, Spence lied to different team of workers, claiming that Neilson was once insisting on keeping up her privateness about her private expenditure and had delegated Spence to care for the Amex. On the finish of the month, Spence would advise the finance staff of the volume had to pay the Amex account.
Neilson advised this masthead she didn’t authorise Spence’s supplementary card, and she or he had no concept that Spence had got rid of the finance staff’s oversight of the Amex account.
With out scrutiny, over the following two years, Spence clocked up slightly below $400,000 on home and world go back and forth, frequently in firstclass. An extra $335,000 was once spent on model pieces and $184,000 on jewelry.
One of the vital privileges of the Centurion card is its concierge carrier. Earlier than her card had even arrived, Spence was once asking for 2 live performance tickets to peer The Treatment in Seattle, USA, in June 2023. “The perfect you’ll be able to get – there is not any funds,” she stated in an e-mail to the corporate’s “Centurion Way of life Staff”.
She then used the cardboard to shop for a Qantas top notch go back price ticket to Seattle, by way of Los Angeles. The Seattle go back and forth value $45,000.
Whilst in the USA, she used Neilson’s cash to shop for a $16,000 piece of artwork for a male pal she had met thru Neilson.
All through her Seattle talk over with, the pal refused to just accept her reward of the paintings and insisted on paying its value. The cash went into Spence’s personal account.
She later handled her and her male pal to a five-night keep within the Rosewood suite at The Carlyle in New York, which value greater than $6500 in keeping with evening. Neilson’s Centurion card was once billed $38,757.85 for her secretary’s October 2023 sojourn.
“I used to be paying for Bennett to get his hair completed weekly,” complained Neilson of Spence’s canine’s weekly talk over with to the puppy parlour for grooming. When Spence went away, her canine was once chauffeured to a puppy lodge in Terrigal.
There was once additionally the $40,000 Spence allegedly spent on attractiveness merchandise for herself.
On most sensible of that was once the $4500 she spent on subscriptions to media, way of life and model magazines, a $12,000 racing motorcycle for her husband, and greater than $100,000 on paintings.
In September 2024, Spence handled herself to $23,000 value of brogues and garments from the ultra-luxury dressmaker emblem Loro Piana. Per week later, she’d spent any other $30,000 at on-line retailer My Theresa.
Spence, who was once about to accompany Neilson on an ocean voyage on The Global, organised for her new purchases to be brought to Neilson’s rental at the ultra-luxurious personal yacht on which the who’s who of the wealthy and well-known sail around the world for a number of months every 12 months in their very own personal apartments. The most costly sale thus far on The Global was once $21 million.
Previous that 12 months, whilst her employer was once on The Global, Spence indulged herself and her husband with a $23,000 VIP hospitality bundle for the 2024 Melbourne Method One Grand Prix the usage of Neilson’s Centurion account. This bundle equipped luxurious trackside get admission to, culinary reviews, helicopter flights and five-star lodging. She repeated the time out the next 12 months.
Stuck out
Because of a restructuring of Neilson’s place of business, Spence’s eight-year stint with the philanthropist got here to an finish on September 12 remaining 12 months.
Best 4 days into her new function as Neilson’s government assistant, Katy Lloyd Jones was once reconciling Neilson’s accounts when she spotted a maximum ordinary fee on Neilson’s AmEx invoice.
The itemised Amex invoice confirmed that on July 19, 2025, $58,593 were spent on a unprecedented pink-gold Rolex wristwatch from the Antique Watch Corporate in London.
Alarm bells have been ringing as a result of within the transient time she’d spent along with her new boss, she knew Neilson “doesn’t put on any jewelry and she or he indubitably doesn’t put on pricey watches,” Lloyd Jones advised this masthead.
As she scanned the Amex account, Lloyd Jones noticed that two days after the vintage watch acquire, $21,000 were spent on the luxurious Knightsbridge division retailer, Harrods.
Neilson was once no longer in London on the time.
After passing on her considerations to the accounts division, it didn’t take lengthy to spot the lately departed Spence.
On September 17, Ben Walker from Neilson’s finance staff contacted Spence in regards to the London transactions that were flagged.
Spence apologised, claiming it were a mix-up. She repaid the cash.
However through now, the finance division was once interested in an in depth audit of Neilson’s private funds. As extra discrepancies got here to mild, in November remaining 12 months, Neilson’s staff employed chance and disaster supervisor Marnie Edwards, who additionally occurs to be a former detective inspector with the NSW Police.
For the previous six months, Edwards and Simon Freeman, the executive government of the Judith Neilson Basis, were running carefully with investigators from the NSW police.
“The investigation into the habits of Annalouise Spence has printed a sustained, refined and intentionally hid trend of monetary fraud towards Judith Neilson,” stated Edwards.
“This was once no longer a unmarried episode of misconduct however a chronic, escalating and calculated scheme involving over 350 purchases the usage of more than one credit score tools, praise techniques, go back and forth credit, cast authorisations, impersonation, private reimbursements, luxurious purchases and world go back and forth,” the previous detective stated.
Remark has been sought from Spence.
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