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We're a healthy lot here in Queensland, Australia's healthiest state. We've got everything, lifestyle, climate, good food, all the things that give us a healthy start. Our free hospital system is Australia's best. And as Queensland continues to grow, $1.5 billion will be spent over the next 10 years to ensure it remains the best in Australia. Authorized by the Queensland government, Brisbane. In 2003.
The government of Queensland, Australia's third most populous state, spearheaded an effort to centralize and standardize its human resources functions across agencies. The existing system consisted of a mishmash of different, independent technologies that lacked the ability to communicate. This shared services initiative, as it was named,
would drastically improve efficiencies throughout every level of the Queensland bureaucracy. Or that was the vision, at least. The reality would prove to be one of the most significant failures of public administration in modern history. Here's what happened. The project went out for bid in December 2007, and the $98 million contract was awarded to IBM. Yes, the globally recognized multinational technology company. Well, kind of. This was IBM Australia.
and the Queensland government project it had just been assigned was by far the largest and most complicated project this branch of the company had ever undertaken. But it had worked with the state government in the past. In fact, that's how IBM Australia won the bid. The company used its pre-existing access to the Queensland government system to covertly retrieve information related to competing proposals and undercut all the other bids.
IBM also received confidential information about the project from sources inside the government. Had any of this tampering been known during the process, the company would have been disqualified from consideration. IBM Australia was tasked with designing and implementing the new system, and time was of the essence. Support for the legacy payroll system used by Queensland Health, the public sector healthcare provider, was set to expire in 2008.
IBM promised to implement an interim solution by July 2008 until the permanent architecture was ready. Well, July 2008 came and went with neither temporary nor permanent solutions on the horizon. The magnitude of the project had become apparent to IBM, who approached the state of Queensland in October 2008 with a revised budget of almost double. Instead of $98 million, the project would now cost $181 million.
The state declined that offer, but agreed to narrow the project's scope by scrapping the government-wide system to instead focus solely on the Queensland Health payroll system, the most urgent priority. As one of the government's largest agencies with 16 departments, 78,000 employees, and tens of thousands of contractors, QHealth was a complex problem in itself. The budget for the payroll system alone
increased from $6.2 million to $25.7 million. But the hope was that a narrower scope would speed things along. Not even close. The project experienced delay after delay after delay and the budget continued to balloon. There were too many stakeholders involved and there was no clear authority. Confusion abounded until an eight-month project turned into a 20-month project. But there was no turning back. A launch date was set for March 14, 2010.
Even though more than 2,000 defects were discovered during the testing phase just days before, IBM insisted they were minor issues and could be fixed in the near future without much interruption in the Queensland government. had no choice but to believe that to be true. The system went live, and the first pay was run the following fortnight on March 24th, 2010. It was catastrophic. Nearly 18,000 doctors, nurses, and administrators.
were either underpaid or unpaid entirely, while others, some who hadn't worked at Queensland Health in months, received an unexpected windfall. In total, the first pay run of the new system amounted to a $14.5 million mistake. Compounding the cost was that nearly 400 additional staff had to be hired to process the pay forms manually.
Any hope that the kinks would be worked out by the next payday was soon dashed when 300 employees again found themselves without a check. Add another $3.6 million to the cost, which... continued to grow exponentially. Queensland Health has apologised to 100 staff caught up in yet another payroll bungle. Another pay cycle at Queensland Health, another 57 workers who got nothing.
Cycle number nine of the new system and the problems persist. After more than a month of unreliable pay, relative chaos unfolded. 35,000 wage anomalies had resulted in over- and underpayments exceeding $300 million. Some Queensland Health employees were unable to pay their bills. Many of them took out emergency loans from the government.
Others quit and looked for a more reliable job. Protests erupted. There was no solution in sight. I hate it. How am I supposed to pay the rent? I've got bills to pay. I've got food to buy. I put petrol in the car. I don't know what to do. As government officials scrambled to remediate the bungle, Queensland Health's payroll director abruptly resigned, citing unrealistic expectations and departmental bullying.
Opposition leaders encouraged the health minister, Paul Lucas, to follow suit, which he eventually did. Two other senior bureaucrats were fired. The ongoing scandal was a tremendous political black eye for Anna Bly. the 37th premier of Queensland, whose Labour government was soon up for re-election. I acknowledge that we have failed you and that that is unacceptable.
The state briefly considered seeking damages from IBM for failing to deliver on the contract but reconsidered after realizing that doing so would create more harm than good. If sued, IBM would surely walk off the job. and the payroll system would never be fixed. It would cost the government far more money to start from scratch than it would ever recover in a lawsuit. So, in November 2010, the Queensland government announced that it would pay IBM
Another $209 million over the next three years to resolve its payroll problems. This settlement prompted some lively debate in Parliament. What would they have us do? Leave the thing just sit there? Leave the thing just sit there? Don't fix it. Because you don't understand how budget cycles work. You don't. You don't, obviously, because you wouldn't be asking this stupid question. And you, you clown, Mr. Speaker, the honourable loudmouth at the back there.
The Queensland government also announced that it would spend additional resources in its attempt to recover every overpayment of $200 or more from its own employees. Some employees from whom recovery wasn't immediately successful were referred to the police. She says despite trying to pay back the $2,000, she still had police on her doorstep yesterday.
How many more taxpayer dollars are they going to waste dragging this through the courts when I'm happy to give them back what they say I owe them? Give me a figure and I'll pay it back. Good question. How many more taxpayer dollars would be wasted? because of the payroll bungle. A 2013 Commission of Inquiry calculated that total in order to get the system functioning. The payroll system initially slated the cost a little more than $6 million.
would ultimately cost the Queensland government and its taxpayers $1.2 billion. Staggering. To quote the Honorable Richard Chesterman, who headed the inquiry, The replacement of the Queensland Health payroll system must take a place in the front rank of failures in public administration in this country. It may be the worst.
The commissioner's report detailed the systematic failings of both the procurer, the government, and the vendor, IBM. Everyone shared in the blame. The Queensland Health payroll bungle was a quote, damning, continuing reminder. of the waste, inefficiency, and incompetence of the blight labor government, according to Campbell Newman, who spent another $5 million investigating the matter to make a political point after winning the 2012 state election to become Queensland's new premier.
Campbell's liberal national government also decided to sue IBM Australia after all, but lost because of the agreement already in place. And to add salt to the wounds, a judge ruled that the Queensland government... must pay IBM's legal fees related to the matter. A never-ending embarrassment. But believe it or not, the payroll debacle might not even be the most embarrassing scandal Queensland Health was involved in that year.
A health minister's been jailed, a surgeon's been convicted of manslaughter, and the department has allegedly been robbed of millions of dollars by a fake Tahitian prince. Choices, choices. We'll get to those other ones later, I promise. But for now, a fake Tahitian prince gets a government job and still $16 million on this episode of Swindled.
They bribe government officials. Clear violations of federal state law. Pay to play is a taxpayer dollars that were wasted. Pay to tens of millions of dollars. Dumping up its books and records to hide the bank. Responsifying its books and records. Responsible for the collapse of the entire system. And in the control of some kind of swing. Is that right?
Back to Australia and $16 million has gone missing and a Queensland health bureaucrat is nowhere to be found. That's the bad news the troubled Queensland government delivered just a short time ago. Belinda Lutz. was at a loss. It was Thursday, December 8, 2011, and the finance officer for the Community Service Purchasing Department of Queensland Health could not understand why the $406,000 grants and aid budget
had become so significantly overspent. Again, the fiscal year wasn't even halfway over. Belinda eventually found the culprit, or culprits, as she pored over the list of transactions. Three payments to an organization named Healthy Initiatives and Choices, two for $500,000 each, and another for a whopping $10.5 million. All three were posted in recent weeks.
and none of them included appropriate supporting documentation. Belinda Lutz decided to present her findings to a superior, finance manager Hojipa Hikero Morhu Barlow. Everyone in Queensland Health's Brisbane office called him Ho. or Joel for short. Ah yes, those are legitimate transactions, Joel explained, much to Belinda's relief. They're part of Q Health's partnership with James Cook University.
to support the dental facilities at the Cairns and Townsville campuses. The funding has been approved at every level, he assured. The supporting documents are right here, he said, waving around a stack of paper. Can I see it? Belinda asked. No. Joel replied, before dismissing her from his office. Well, that was strange, Belinda Lutz thought to herself. Perhaps she had missed something or misunderstood. She returned to her documents, trying to find anything to justify the payments.
Eventually, she simply googled the name of the vendor, Healthy Initiatives and Choices. Suddenly, everything made sense. According to the Australian Business Registry, The Director of Healthy Initiatives and Choices, or HIC, was none other than Hojipa Hikero Morhu Barlow. That afternoon, Belinda Lutz brought her discovery to a different senior manager.
who after some additional research of his own, contacted the Ethical Standards Unit. Meanwhile, Joel Barlow was out to lunch. He returned just in time for his payroll meeting that afternoon. Queensland Health was in the midst of what everyone was calling a bungle. There was a lot to navigate, so Joel was surprised that one of his managers had chosen not to attend. Maybe he had missed an email. Joel Barlow checked his BlackBerry.
The device had been completely wiped. That's odd, he thought, and then went to check his computer. Completely locked out. I'm going to get something to eat, he told a co-worker who had just watched him return from lunch. Investigators worked into the evening, wading through the financial weeds. At 6.05 p.m., a detective from Queensland Police's Fraud and Corporate Crime Unit arrived at Queensland Health HQ. There he met with the Deputy Director of Finance, Neil Castles.
who explained that a massive $11 million payment had been made on November 17, 2011 to a business registered to one of their employees. Castles noted that protocol required a payment that large to contain his signature. Sure enough, the payment in question did. But, Nocastles claimed, that signature wasn't his. How many other transactions were there? How much money had been stolen? By the night's end. Investigators had a rough estimate of $16 million.
The timing could not be worse for Queensland's Labour government, which was planning to announce its efforts to recoup $74 million in salary overpayments related to the payroll disaster the following day. Now, Premier Anna Bly. would have to inform the public about Queensland Health's latest scandal. She held a press conference on December 9th, 2011. She was incensed.
I am very angry about the fact that someone with criminal intent has ripped off our system and ripped off Queenslanders. These monies belong to every Queenslander. And a fraud of this nature may well be the most serious breach. of public administration in the living memory of our state. Premier Bly announced that a full, independent audit would be conducted to detect weaknesses in the corporate governance system.
The Queensland government has in place a very intricate set of checks and balances in its finance area, she said. Clearly, in this case, some of those have failed. As for the person responsible for exploiting those failures, Premier Bly, announced that a nationwide manhunt was underway. The person who has been involved in this fraud
has gone to some length, some intricate lengths involving subterfuge to cover their tracks. This is a fraud of more than $16 million of public funds that appears to have occurred over at least the last two to three years. According to the police description, Joel Barlow. was a 36-year-old Pacific Islander native to New Zealand. He was about 180 centimeters tall, with short black hair and a solid build. Other notable features included a giant tattoo of angel wings on his back.
that extended all the way down to his buttocks. Joel was well known around the Brisbane social scene. He was a gay man and occasional cross-dresser who frequented spas, spray tanning salons, and Botox clinics. Every boutique in the city knew him. as His Royal Highness, the Tahitian Prince who employed a full-time fashion stylist. Joel Barlow was the reserved man who shopped with a phone to his ear and pointed at everything he wanted to buy.
He was the man who signed credit card receipts with the $1,000 gold pin. Louis Vuitton's biggest customer in the southern hemisphere, apparently. The man who traveled to art galleries via private plane. Joel Barlow. was the guy who threw himself a $130,000 birthday party at his favorite nightclub in Fortitude Valley, where he routinely left $1,000 tips. See, the prince wasn't completely self-indulgent. Au contraire. Joel Barlow.
could be awfully generous. Joel Barlow bought his sister a luxury car and flew her, a brother, and his nephew to Paris and gave them each $5,000 in spending money. Joel told his family, who were unaware of his royal connections, that he was part owner of Libertine Parfumery, Australia's most exquisite fragrance emporium. Of course, that wasn't true either. Joel Barlow's family figured that out when the cops came calling after the missing millions were discovered.
but they hadn't seen him recently. One of his aunts told New Zealand Sunday News that if Joel had done what they were accusing him of, well, then quote, he's a naughty boy. It's believed he's still in the country. Police are urging anyone with information to contact them. In reality, Joel Barlow was an imposter, a con man, a crook, and the authorities were confident that he remained in Australia.
They were heavily monitoring air and seaports and had already seized his passport. Within hours, an application was made to the Supreme Court to freeze all of Joel Barlow's assets as well, including nine different bank accounts that contained more than $4 million. several luxury cars, two jet skis, and a new Riverside luxury condo on Moray Street that he had just purchased for almost $6 million. Investigators raided that place, which was full of expensive art furniture.
drug paraphernalia, and even a crown. There was also $27 in loose change and a Medicare check for $35. All seized, but Joel Barlow. was nowhere to be found. The following is a paid advertisement for the Swindle Valued Listener Rewards Program. Are you tired of hearing advertisements in Swindled like this one? Do you wish there was more Swindled content to distract you from your miserable existence? Don't settle for those other inferior podcasts with the annoying hosts.
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Go to valuedlistener.com to sign up using Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or Patreon. No long-term commitments. Satisfaction guaranteed. Foreign currency accepted. Cancel anytime. Please, just give us your money. Police in Brisbane are waiting to question a man wanted over the embezzlement of $16 million from Queensland Health. Joel Barlow managed a finance division of Queensland Health, but he lived a life of luxury, telling people he was a Tahitian prince.
Joseph Hikaro Barlow was born on February 13, 1975, in Thames, New Zealand. His father, Rufus Morahu, a truck driver and alcoholic, was reportedly so physically abusive to his mother, Andre Barlow. that she would often flee the home for weeks at a time. More often than not, Joseph, the oldest of six, was left to fend for himself and his five younger siblings. This meant relying on charity and roaming the streets for food.
a humiliating experience for a child, and a far cry from royalty. You're not related to royalty. He's not a prince. No. No, we're not. Wish we were. As a teenager. Joseph Barlow lived with his grandmother until he graduated from Thames High School in 1993. A few years later, he enrolled at Victoria University of Wellington to pursue a bachelor's degree in business, with post-grad plans to study accounting.
But Joseph never finished. Most likely because Joseph Barlow had gotten himself into legal trouble between semesters. He had taken a part-time job at the New Zealand Inland Revenue Department, where he had stolen over $55,000. Around that same time, He also looted another $32,000 using a fraudulent bank account. 24-year-old Joseph Barlow was arrested, charged, and convicted of those crimes in 1999. He received a suspended eight-month jail sentence.
which he completed before changing his name. Joseph Hikaro Barlow adopted the Maori translation of his first name and included his father's surname to become Huahippa Hikaro Morhu Barlow. He then followed his sister Kelly to Australia in 2003 for a fresh start, and also because he was wanted for questioning and a $100,000 fraud related to his time working as a contractor for the New Zealand Office of the Children's Commissioner.
Fortunately for a whole heap of more Hubarlo, Australia's background checks did not yet extend to New Zealand. In Brisbane, he worked for a bank where he stayed for a few years, until 2005 when, with the help of an employment agency, Joel accepted a temporary administrative assistant position at Queensland Health. By September 2005, Joel Morhu Barlow was offered another temp position as an assistant finance officer, his resume which he provided to Kew Health.
claimed he had a law degree from Victoria University of Wellington, where he had graduated with the honors. None of these claims were verified by his large government employer. Over the next couple of years, Joel bounced around internally to various finance-related roles in different departments at Queensland Health. Eventually, he accepted a permanent position as an assistant finance officer in January 2007. Again, no international background check.
It would have been a fairly straightforward process for us to have checked his background in New Zealand. If we had done that, and if that had occurred, then the outcome could have been different. One of the perks of becoming a permanent employee at Queensland Health was access to the corporate credit card account, which Joel frequently abused. He was also authorized to use a government vehicle.
which led to the first formal complaint against him in August 2007 for receiving a speeding ticket and using the car for an unauthorized purpose. As for informal complaints about Joel Morehu Barlow, those were endless. He would arrive at work late and leave early. He would disappear for hours at a time on lunch. He would no-show meetings, forget to turn in his timesheet, rarely met a deadline, and when he did, his work would be riddled with mistakes.
Barlow was so incompetent that fellow Queensland health staff would make efforts to bypass him altogether to avoid creating more work for themselves. And not only was he not reprimanded for his lousy job performance, but Joel Morehu Barlow was consistently rewarded. He was promoted five times in a two-year period. One Q Health Manager's solution to Barlow's persistent accessibility issues was to provide the rogue employee
with a government-issued Blackberry. But even that didn't help. In fact, as Joel Morehu Barlow's rank increased at Queensland Health, so did his problematic behavior. There were reports that he ordered subordinates to fetch his dry cleaning or bring him coffee, often bullying them to the point of tears. When confronted by senior staff, Joel would excuse his behavior by,
telling them that he was struggling physically and mentally with an unnamed serious illness. Colleagues complained about him from the very beginning. He'd turn up late to work. At lunchtime he'd leave for hours and not come back. He bullied junior staff, making them cry. And when things started to heat up on him, he'd simply take leave, even telling one manager he had a serious illness. The truth, as his Queensland Health co-workers were well aware.
was that Joel did not need that job. Joel had convinced them that he was the first son of the royal family of Tahiti, forced to work as part of an agreement to receive his full inheritance. Even though a simple internet search would have revealed that Tahiti's last king died in 1891, there were signs that what Joel claimed was true. He would sign off on emails with HRH, which meant His Royal Highness.
The same initials could be found on his Black American Express card, for which most mid-level government managers could never qualify. Joel also constantly traveled to attend the weddings of famous people, like Prince William. When asking for time off, he would often attach emails from his father, the king, as proof. Few health managers got used to their employees' unique position, even allowing him time in the morning to write his royal correspondence. That's just Ho.
they would say to explain away his unreliability. Yet, in September 2007, Joel Morehu Barlow was handed even greater responsibility at work. He was promoted to Principal Finance Officer. and placed in charge of reporting and monitoring almost a billion dollars in annual Queensland Health grants to charities and health services vendors. That's when his scheme to defraud his employer grew wings.
On October 3, 2007, 12 days after that promotion, Joel Morhu Barlow created a vendor in Q Health's list of approved organizations called Muse Business Inspiration, or The Muse. The Muse was purportedly a policy and advocacy company that worked with non-profit organizations. It was registered in the names of Barlow's neighbors. No vendor address or Australian business number was attached.
The following day, $2,200 was sent from Queensland Health to the Mews. To process the payment, Barlow used a general-purpose voucher, a document typically used for one-off payments to vendors that is subject to much less scrutiny. Other payment methods required a series of signatures and authorizations, whereas GPVs only required two. Barlow provided one of the signatures.
He would get another accounting officer or subordinate to co-sign by exploiting their trust. Ho would bring the documents to me and just stand there while I signed them, a lower-level employee later said. I would not think of going through the documents as Ho was the manager. and I would have thought that it would have been accurate and appropriate to sign. Well, it wasn't, and that first test payment went through without a hitch.
This emboldened Joel, who processed a series of payments in the following months with gradually increasing amounts. He disguised the payments as consultancy services related to a mobile dental clinic with no supporting documentation included. The payments landed in Barlow's neighbor's bank account without their knowledge. It had stolen their account information while house-sitting Watson would transfer the funds to his personal account before they even noticed. By August 2008,
Joel Moore, who Barlow had paid himself through the Muse seven times, totaling $77,000. Easy money, but risky. To sustain the scam, Barlow knew he should switch up his method. So, on September 26, 2008, using his own name and address, Barlow created his own company called Healthy Initiatives and Choices and opened a bank account. He approved HIC as a vendor in Queensland Health System.
then started siphoning large amounts of money. This time, the payments hit the grants and aid budget, a discretionary fund for Queensland's Minister of Health that provides one-off payments to health-related charities and causes. There are typically no contracts, no assessments, and no payment limits in terms of how the fund is used. The health minister submits a written approval, and the finance team pushes it through.
Joel Morehu Barlow used prior written approvals to push through his own payments to his company, Healthy Initiatives and Choices. By the end of 2008, he had stolen more than $275,000. By the end of 2009, He'd pocketed almost one and a half million. And he did it so casually. Again, all he had to do was find a co-worker willing to sign his pre-approved GPV. Joel would catch someone walking out the door and ask for a quick signature. or attach the form to small talk and emails.
how you doing treasury advises me this is the last i leave tomorrow and i'm back on the 2nd of may right in time for work i'm trying to Joel Morhu Barlow perpetrated this simple scheme for years, benefiting from all the turmoil at Queensland Health at the time. From the payroll bungle to the constant restructures, it seemed like the only consistent aspect of the organization was the payments to the Prince's HIC bank account. By 2010, Barlow's standard monthly, sometimes bi-monthly,
payment from the grants and aid budget had grown to almost $138,000. At the end of 2010, he made three payments of this amount in one month. Why? Because he was being promoted again. and was worried that he would lose access to his slush fund. And technically he did. In his new role as governance manager, Joel was no longer on the team responsible for administering the grants, but he continued to be involved anyway.
One manager even called him out on it at the time, but even that didn't stop him. Barlow just stopped using his made-up grants manager title and his signature on emails to that particular co-worker. As 2010 came to a close, Joel Morehu Barlow had stolen more than $4.3 million from Queensland Health's grant funds. That's more than legitimate organizations like Diabetes Queensland and the Leukemia Foundation received that year. And the outlook for the following year was even bleaker.
because something happened in early 2011 that would only help conceal and perpetuate the prince's deceit. Australia's worst flooding disaster. That's how the situation in Queensland is being described. Three quarters of the state is now a disaster zone. And after 19 days, the human toll has risen dramatically. In January 2011.
A disaster was declared in Queensland after historic flooding impacted 75% of the state. 33 people were killed, including 3 who were never found. That same month, Joel Morehu Barlow made four payments to HIC from the grant's budget, totaling $770,000. The memo line read, quote, flood relief. And no one noticed. The prints felt invincible. However...
There had been some close calls. For example, in fiscal year 2010, a $2.3 million post-budget adjustment was processed to correct the overage in the Grants and Aid Cost Center. Barlow was sure that additional questions would arise, but they hadn't yet. Furthermore, a recent audit of corporate credit cards also flagged Barlow's usage. Nothing related to his greater fraud, but still.
He ignored all requests for documentation related to those transactions to avoid further scrutiny. Barlow took the same approach to an audit of recent grant expenditures, which had him legitimately worried because he had no explanation. so he took a leave of absence to avoid providing one. Normally, one might think Barlow's convenient disappearance alone was enough to raise suspicion, but not in this case. Joel Moore, who Barlow had been missing work reported 28% of the time.
The closest call of all, however, was one of which Joel Moore who Barlow had not even been made aware. In August 2010, Queensland's Crime and Misconduct Commission received an anonymous tip alleging that Joel was ripping off the government for millions using phony grants. The endgame, according to the tip, was that Barlow would leave Australia on August 24th, 2010 to quote,
start a life of luxury in Paris. The CMC officer responding to the tip determined that the threat wasn't serious enough for their agency to handle, so it was forwarded to the Ethical Standards Office of Queensland Health for an internal investigation. That internal investigation determined that it would be impossible for Joel Morehu Barlow to pull off such a scam because A. He did not have access to those kinds of departmental funds and B.
There was adequate separation of duties and internal controls in place to prevent it from happening. Additionally, Barlow had no criminal history in Australia, and he had not fled the country as the tipster has suggested he would. Thus, the anonymous tip was deemed not substantiated, and the investigation was closed on August 30th. Well, there was a complaint that he was behaving in a way that suggested that he may be accessing public funds.
And that was investigated, so I'm advised and found not to be as substantiated at that point. It was investigated by the Ethical Standards Command section of the department on referral, I believe. from the CMC. Truthfully, Joel Morehu Barlow did not know how much money he had stolen over the past three, almost four years. He would just submit another invoice anytime he was running low on funds. He couldn't believe he hadn't been caught.
But Barlow knew that day was coming, sooner than later. And oh, what a relief that would be. No more pretending, no more hiding, no more lies. A way out of the mess that he had conceived. This thought process is the only explanation for Barlow's next decision. Or was it pure greed? On November 14, 2011, Joel Morhu Barlow submitted an invoice for $10.5 million.
and a few days later approved it with his signature and the forged signature of a superior. One last swing for the fences, which would prove to be the prince's final deed. Queensland's Police Minister is Neil Roberts. Well, police obviously had surveillance of a number of properties in the early hours of this morning, a little after 3.30 I understand.
The alleged offender presented himself to try to get into the unit and they were able to apprehend him. The individual has been taken into custody and obviously will be undergoing questioning and police will release further details as they can throughout the day. Around 3 a.m. on Monday, December 11, 2011, Joel Morhu Barlow called for an ambulance. He told the dispatcher he had taken a handful of pills. He said they would find his body in his Riverside condo on Moray Street.
Queensland police had been looking for Joel Barlow for three days when security entered the unit. They found the fugitive on his bed unconscious. The fake prince was rushed to Royal Brisbane Hospital, where doctors managed to keep him alive. Joel Barlow made people believe he had everything to live for but early this morning the man accused of swindling 16 million dollars from Queensland Health tried to take his life. The police had to wait until Joel was released.
before questioning him about the missing millions. Even the suspect's capture had become a source of embarrassment for the Queensland government, after it was revealed that Barlow's main residence had not been under constant surveillance. If I didn't have people at that particular unit, no. Joel Morhoo Barlow was in that particular unit the entire time. When authorities raided the place, Joel was hiding in a laundry chute, peeking through the cracks.
watching them rummage through his princely treasures. I congratulate the Queensland Police Service on some great police work. The fact that Joel Barlow is now in custody means that a lot of questions can start getting answers. It's important to understand exactly how this happens so that we can close any holes in our security system and learn any lessons across the whole of all government departments.
Premier Anna Bly was pleased to have their man in custody, but promised changes were coming to Queensland Health, which had humiliated her for the last time. She proposed separating the organization into two different departments. It is simply too large and too removed from service delivery and in its current form. as a culture that is beyond repair enough is enough from today we begin the process of abolishing queensland health as we know it and giving birth to two separate organizations
People will have an opportunity to consider this next year when they go to an election. The people of Queensland did consider Bly's proposal and a host of other recent scandals when they voted her out of office in 2012. Queensland yesterday voted for a new government, but it also voted to close the book on my era in Queensland politics. A Crime and Misconduct Commission investigation later determined that Joel Morehu Barlow stole $16 million.
$690,037.58 from Queensland Health from October 2007 to November 2011, although the true cost amounted to much more. when investigation and recovery expenses were taken into account. The biggest fraudster in the state's history swindled close to $17 million while working as a public servant for Queensland Health.
The CMC report also concluded that Joel Marhoo Barlow acted independently to carry out the scheme. He took advantage of relationships with colleagues, of organizational confusion, even a natural disaster. but the machinations of the fraud were his and his alone. That said, looking at it all on paper, CMC Assistant Commissioner Kathleen Florian told the press, it does seem extraordinary that this fraudulent activity was not identified earlier.
The report noted multiple opportunities where Joe Barlow's scam could have been stopped in its tracks, starting with the lack of an international background check, the fabricated resume, the irregular work hours, the inadequate performance. the inappropriate use of GPVs, the ignored audits, the anonymous tip, the unbelievable Prince persona. Had any of these aspects of the case been analyzed in greater detail, there's a chance it never happens.
Yet apathetic colleagues, haphazard investigations, and supervisory failures fostered an environment for such financial deception to occur. What good are financial controls if they are so easily manipulated and ignored? Then again, maybe Joel Moore who Barlow's associates had incentive to look the other way. 109 Queensland Health employees have admitted to receiving gifts from Mr. Barlow.
The prince showered his co-workers in gifts, everything from chocolates, flowers, and jewelry to mortgage payments, tickets to sporting events, elaborate parties, international travel and accommodation, and all expenses paid honeymoons. It is reasonable to assume, in those sort of circumstances, that that sort of gift giving could compromise a manager's ability to act objectively and energetically, Kathleen Florian told the media, pointing out the obvious.
And we do have gifts that appear to be quite valuable, including Louis Vuitton clothing, perfumes, colognes, those sorts of things. As part of the financial recovery. The Queensland government seized the physical gifts and added them to the more than 1,500 items of Joel Barlow's that were said to be auctioned off. Some of the more notable items included a $95,000 television, a Steinway Baby Grand Piano,
a massive Louis Vuitton collection, an Hermes saddle, a royal crown, one of those title deeds to a star, and a leather thong with a merry cross on the back. Twinsies. The more than 500 attendees of the auction could also bid on The Prince's half-used bars of soap, half-burned candles, the 1985 charity album We Are The World, and a 2010 Whitney Houston tour book, which I probably only increased in value.
After the singer's untimely death in February 2012, Joel Barlow was reportedly devastated when he learned the news behind bars. It's a blow for the fraudster who's been depressed over the death of Whitney Houston. Barlow claims to have stayed with the star during her tour of Australia. The Queensland government recovered almost 12 million dollars from the sale of Joel Barlow's properties and personal items, almost half of it.
was immediately used to fund programs such as an HPV vaccine program for boys, breast screenings, nicotine cessation initiatives, and clinical cancer trials. The Supreme Court ruled Joel Barlow. still owes millions more after accounting for interest. The likelihood of the government seeing that money anytime soon was slim. Joel Barlow pleaded guilty to five fraud-related charges on February 29, 2012.
His defense team pleaded for leniency, pointing to the 2007 suicide of Joel's younger brother Trevor as the catalyst of his behavior. He felt guilty for not realizing the extent of his brother's depression. and because of his childhood experiences, felt some responsibility for his death. That sense of failure played on his own mind for some months, and as a consequence, his drug use increased. He then resorted to this offending.
Barlow's lawyer also alleged that Joel knew all along he would get caught. It was a simple fraud which involved an extraordinary amount of money, which was bound to be discovered. That behavior can be seen as compulsive and self-destructive. rather than the desire to have money. The judge was unsympathetic. Good evening. The fake Tahitian prince responsible for one of the biggest thefts of taxpayer money has been jailed for 14 years.
Joel Morehu Barlow was sentenced to 14 years in prison on March 19, 2013. He had already spent 18 months in custody and would be eligible for parole in December 2016. When December 2016 arrived, Barlow's parole was denied. He was eligible again in November 2017 and once again was turned down. In a February 2019 letter to his mother, Joel expressed frustration and dismay about the process.
I'm prepared for them to say no again, he wrote, referring to himself as a model inmate. If my crime wasn't against the government, I would be home already. Joel Barlow described to his mother how he had used his skills to help more than 50 inmates with their parole applications, all of which were approved. Yet he was left to languish, even though he had been completely reformed. I know the most precious gift in life is not money.
Wealth, flashy house, or cars. It's people, particularly family, he wrote. I have truly accepted the consequences of my actions. I feel enlightened. I feel like an enormous weight has been lifted off my shoulders. a veil of secrecy removed, I could finally be honest with myself. Joel Morhu Barlow was finally granted parole on February 26, 2020, after serving just eight years in prison, once free.
the 44-year-old New Zealand native, was immediately deported back to Thames to live with his mother. According to the Queensland government, he still owes them about $12 million. A man who claimed to be a Tahitian prince while swindling the Queensland government of more than $16 million has been deported. to New Zealand. Joel Barlow is tonight on a flight to Auckland after serving more than eight years behind bars. Taxpayers are still millions out of pocket from the scam.
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