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Sacre Bleu! Faux French fraudster in hot water over $115k legal nib

For those who take come up across the notorious man of affairs in recent decades, he goes past Henri-Claude Louis Philippe Du Pont.

He insists on the authentic French lilt 'On-ree'.

Mr Du Pont in 2012. Credit:A Current Affair/Nine News

But Mr Du Pont was born into a small Tasmanian family as Phillip Wickham.

While the name has evolved during a long and dubious business concern career, the 64-year-former moustachioed fraudster has for decades stirred controversy and scandal along Australia's eastward coast, leading one ex-employee to describe him as "charismatic, convincing and very, very shifty".

Starting with a rocky career in real estate in Launceston in the 1980s, he was jailed on the Sunshine Coast for fraud, once claimed to be the primary executive of a multi-million dollar company who was buying an island in Queensland, and was busted in Victoria for interim as a real estate agent'south representative while ineligible to do and so.

At present, Mr Du Pont is in strife with his quondam lawyers and is beingness sued alongside his wife Soledad Degendorfer and son Karl Degendorfer for more than $100,000 in unpaid legal fees.

Mr Du Pont with his wife Soledad Degendorfer at the ballet. Credit:Facebook/Soleded Degendorfer

It'south the latest controversial chapter for the convicted fraudster who, over many years has registered dozens of at present defunct businesses, with at least 10 of them listing their principal place of business every bit Paris – including addresses on the famous Artery Charles De Gaulle.

Onetime staff say he was insistent people used the French pronunciation of Henri, and claimed he had been sent to a boarding school in France past his parents while he was growing up.

Mr Du Pont'due south wife, who is from the Philippines, is also no stranger to controversy.

Last year the pair's at present-deregistered business Solene Paris was blasted for "abysmal conduct" and fined $20,000 by the Off-white Work Commission over the unfair dismissal of an employee at a Melbourne smash salon.

Documents filed in the County Court allege Ms Degendorfer and her other company Solene Investments retained lawyers Dan Minogue and Joanne Hazeldene (who both declined to annotate) every bit their solicitors from mid-2016.

Past Feb 2017, Ms Degendorfer and Solene Investments allegedly owed approximately $50,000, leading the lawyers to suspend the retainer. The family then allegedly agreed that their joint visitor DD Gold Holdings would mortgage a property in Ballarat.

All the same, the lawyers claim that despite taking out the mortgage, Mr Du Pont and his family "failed to pay the monies secured by the guarantee to the plaintiffs". The lawyers are challenge $115,011.32.

Mr Du Pont and his wife live in Box Hill Southward, and bulldoze a Range Rover and a silver Mercedes.

Henri-Claude Philippe Du Pont, pictured in October. Credit:Facebook/Soledad Degendorfer

Ms Degendorfer'due south social media profile shows the couple travel extensively across Victoria with their dog Maxx, staying at retreats in rural locations such as Jamieson and going to the Peninsula Hot Springs almost Mornington.

They are also pictured enjoying Melbourne'south arts and civilization scene, going to run into Hugh Jackman at Rod Laver arena, the ballet Swan Lake at the Arts Centre Melbourne and dining at upmarket restaurants such equally Chez Olivier and Nobu.

Meanwhile, Mr Du Pont'south meat and poultry business PQM (Vic) Pty Ltd has gone into liquidation afterward Elders Rural Services Commonwealth of australia – which is owed virtually $lxx,000 – won an application in the federal court to wind the company up in September.

Heard Phillips Lieberenz was appointed every bit the liquidator on Oct xvi and the meat watchdog Primesafe withdrew the business organization' license to operate and closed it down on October 29. Mr Du Pont had only acquired the business eight months before.

Soledad Degendorfer and Henri Du Pont. Credit:Facebook/Soledad Degendorfer

Liquidators have had difficulty creating a full listing of creditors after they found that invoices appeared to have been deleted from the visitor's accounting software in the months earlier its collapse.

A quondam staff member at the company who did not want to be named for fear of retribution past Mr Du Pont told The Age and The Sydney Morn Herald they were asked to delete invoices, leading some to resign considering they felt so uncomfortable.

"He's very convincing, he's the almost manipulative human being you've ever met in your life. He was very charismatic, you get sucked in past him," the one-time staff member said.

"He was just shifty, very, very shifty," they said. "Champagne taste on a beer upkeep. He lives a fairytale in his head and has destroyed lots of people's lives. Such a conman."

In a letter sent to creditors in early November, liquidator Anthony Phillips said "regrettably" he has had no help from Mr Du Pont with the wind-up process.

"Whilst this liquidation is merely at an early on stage, serious misconduct has been identified, and I have reported that misconduct to ASIC," he said.

Mr Du Pont's meat and poultry business PQM (Vic) collapsed several months ago.

In September, Mr Du Pont and PQM (Vic) were ordered past the Federal Court to stop selling, promoting or distributing products under any proper noun similar to "Lilydale free range meats" after poultry company Baiada Pty Ltd claimed information technology was trademark infringement.

Several businesses endemic by Mr Du Pont and Ms Degendorfer are registered to a multi-million dollar mansion in Toorak. When The Historic period and The Sydney Morning Herald spoke to the owner of the home, she said she had never met and had no clan with Mr Du Pont or his wife.

"We don't know him at all," she said. "Every day we have had piles and piles of letters, registered in different names. People knock on the door looking for him, debt collectors."

Mr Du Pont and Ms Degendorfer did not respond to requests for annotate from The Historic period and The Sydney Morning Herald.

In 2012, Mr Du Pont pleaded guilty and was fined $17,000 by Consumer Diplomacy Victoria for acting as an agent'south representative during the sale of a historic holding near Colac in early on 2011 while he was ineligible to do so due to his prior convictions.

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Source: https://www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/sacre-bleu-faux-french-fraudster-in-hot-water-over-115k-legal-bill-20191209-p53i67.html

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