John Friedrich
Encyclopedia
Johann Friedrich Hohenberger OAM (7 September 195027 July 1991), also known as John Friedrich, was executive director of the National Safety Council of Australia
during the 1980s. He the subject of Victoria's biggest fraud case and known as "Australia's greatest conman
".
He was on a skiing holiday in Italy
at the time German police issued a warrant for his arrest. He never returned to Germany. Having gone out onto the slopes and not returning, it was thought he had died. Although German police were skeptical of his disappearance, believing that somebody had tipped him off to the investigation, the discovery of his bags over a year later reinforced the theory that he had either had an accident or committed suicide.
, Australia
on a flight from Auckland
, New Zealand
. According to Department of Immigration records, Hohenberger left Australia on a flight to Singapore
on 22 January. It is believed he tricked Australian Customs into believing he had boarded a plane but remained in Australia.
Using the name John Friedrich and fake qualifications, he obtained a contract with construction company Codelfa Cogefar, working on part of the Melbourne underground rail loop
. He subsequently worked for the Board of Ecumenical Missions and Relations (BOEMAR), a Uniting Church in Australia
organisation which was responsible for the Church's Aboriginal
missions. He was offered the position of community adviser at Ernabella in South Australia
, where he was to assist the Aboriginal community with its development and to supervise civil works.
While working in Ernabella, Friedrich became ill with a serious infection and was treated by nurse Shirley Manning. Friedrich and Manning became engaged in October 1975 and married on 10 February 1976 in Sydney
. They moved to the BOEMAR mission on Mornington Island
where Shirley Friedrich was to work as a nursing sister and John as the manager. During his time on Mornington, Friedrich was responsible to the Australian Government
as well as to the Church. While the Church was only concerned with the day-to-day running of the island, as an agent of the government he acted as a coastal watcher for the Royal Australian Navy
, a fisheries officer, a licensee for the government-owned pub, an agent for a shipping company and the airline which serviced the island, a reporting officer for the Department of Civil Aviation
. Friedrich also began studying again while at Mornington, working on an external masters degree in engineering science with the University of Queensland
. The Friedrichs resigned from BOEMAR in late 1976, but stayed to oversee relief opportunities until January 1977 after Cyclone Ted destroyed 90 per cent of all buildings on the island.
. While there, having seen an advertisement in The Age
, Friedrich applied for the position of safety engineer with the National Safety Council of Australia
(NSCA) Victorian Division, to be based at the State Electricity Commission
of Victoria (SECV) Yallourn power station
in the Latrobe Valley
. Upon returning to Mornington, Friedrich was informed that the job at Yallourn was his if he wanted it. Friedrich began working for the NSCA in January 1977.
Freidrich became executive director of NCSA in 1982 and began to transform it into a national search and rescue
organisation. He built up the company with loans in which 27 banks agreed to lend millions of dollars with little more surety than Friedrich's word. McGregor-Lowndes attributes this lack of probity to the halo effect
of NCSA and Friedrich himself. In 1988 he was awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) "in recognition of service to the community, particularly in the area of industrial safety and search and rescue services".
Following the financial collapse of NCSA in 1989, Friedrich went into hiding. After a nationwide and international manhunt, involving all Australian police forces and Interpol
, he was arrested in Perth, Western Australia on 6 April 1989. He was initially charged with one count of one count of obtaining financial advantage by deception. On 1 November he was charged on a further 91 counts of obtaining property by deception.
In subsequent investigations it was discovered that he was not an Australian citizen, did not possess any valid birth certificate did not appear on any electoral roll. This caused considerable embarrassment to the Department of Defence which had given him a security clearance and almost unlimited access to Royal Australian Air Force
bases.
The Freidrichs lived with Shirley's brother in Sydney until the start of the trial. On 23 July 1991 he appeared in court for fraud involving $
296,662,436.99.
with a single gunshot wound to the head. His death was ruled to be suicide
.
at the time of his death. It was published posthumously. In it he claimed to have been born in South Australia
in 1945 to German parents, attended boarding school in West Germany
and studied engineering at the Technische Hochschule
. He also claimed that while working for an American construction company he was recruited by the Central Intelligence Agency
and under the codename "Iago" worked in Laos
, Vietnam
, Egypt
, New Zealand
and West Germany against far left-wing extremists before returning to Australia in 1975. Simon Caterson
, writing in The Australian
, described it as "one of the least reliable but most fascinating memoirs in the annals of Australian publishing".
National Safety Council of Australia
The National Safety Council of Australia is a nonprofit organisation in Australia promoting safety awareness and offering consulting, auditing and training services. For much of its life NCSA was a volunteer organisation concerned largely with accident prevention...
during the 1980s. He the subject of Victoria's biggest fraud case and known as "Australia's greatest conman
Confidence trick
A confidence trick is an attempt to defraud a person or group by gaining their confidence. A confidence artist is an individual working alone or in concert with others who exploits characteristics of the human psyche such as dishonesty and honesty, vanity, compassion, credulity, irresponsibility,...
".
Early life and career
Hohenberger was a West German national. In August 1972 he began working as an independent contractor with the German road construction company Strassen and Tearbau. Around July 1974, he forged road building orders from distant mountain towns and used them to order Strassen and Tearbau to build roads. No roads were ever built, and no earthworks or materials were ever bought. Hohenberger embezzled DM200,000 from the company.He was on a skiing holiday in Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
at the time German police issued a warrant for his arrest. He never returned to Germany. Having gone out onto the slopes and not returning, it was thought he had died. Although German police were skeptical of his disappearance, believing that somebody had tipped him off to the investigation, the discovery of his bags over a year later reinforced the theory that he had either had an accident or committed suicide.
Move to Australia
On 20 January 1975, Hohenberger arrived in MelbourneMelbourne
Melbourne is the capital and most populous city in the state of Victoria, and the second most populous city in Australia. The Melbourne City Centre is the hub of the greater metropolitan area and the Census statistical division—of which "Melbourne" is the common name. As of June 2009, the greater...
, Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
on a flight from Auckland
Auckland
The Auckland metropolitan area , in the North Island of New Zealand, is the largest and most populous urban area in the country with residents, percent of the country's population. Auckland also has the largest Polynesian population of any city in the world...
, New Zealand
New Zealand
New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...
. According to Department of Immigration records, Hohenberger left Australia on a flight to Singapore
Singapore
Singapore , officially the Republic of Singapore, is a Southeast Asian city-state off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, north of the equator. An island country made up of 63 islands, it is separated from Malaysia by the Straits of Johor to its north and from Indonesia's Riau Islands by the...
on 22 January. It is believed he tricked Australian Customs into believing he had boarded a plane but remained in Australia.
Using the name John Friedrich and fake qualifications, he obtained a contract with construction company Codelfa Cogefar, working on part of the Melbourne underground rail loop
City Loop, Melbourne
The City Loop is a mostly-underground, partly surface-level and partly elevated railway around the central business district of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia....
. He subsequently worked for the Board of Ecumenical Missions and Relations (BOEMAR), a Uniting Church in Australia
Uniting Church in Australia
The Uniting Church in Australia was formed on 22 June 1977 when many congregations of the Methodist Church of Australasia, the Presbyterian Church of Australia and the Congregational Union of Australia came together under the Basis of Union....
organisation which was responsible for the Church's Aboriginal
Indigenous Australians
Indigenous Australians are the original inhabitants of the Australian continent and nearby islands. The Aboriginal Indigenous Australians migrated from the Indian continent around 75,000 to 100,000 years ago....
missions. He was offered the position of community adviser at Ernabella in South Australia
South Australia
South Australia is a state of Australia in the southern central part of the country. It covers some of the most arid parts of the continent; with a total land area of , it is the fourth largest of Australia's six states and two territories.South Australia shares borders with all of the mainland...
, where he was to assist the Aboriginal community with its development and to supervise civil works.
While working in Ernabella, Friedrich became ill with a serious infection and was treated by nurse Shirley Manning. Friedrich and Manning became engaged in October 1975 and married on 10 February 1976 in Sydney
Sydney
Sydney is the most populous city in Australia and the state capital of New South Wales. Sydney is located on Australia's south-east coast of the Tasman Sea. As of June 2010, the greater metropolitan area had an approximate population of 4.6 million people...
. They moved to the BOEMAR mission on Mornington Island
Mornington Island
Mornington Island is the northern most of 22 islands that form the Wellesley Islands group. The island is located in the Gulf of Carpentaria at and is part of the Gulf Country region in the Australian state of Queensland. The Manowar and Rocky Islands Important Bird Area lies about 40 km to...
where Shirley Friedrich was to work as a nursing sister and John as the manager. During his time on Mornington, Friedrich was responsible to the Australian Government
Government of Australia
The Commonwealth of Australia is a federal constitutional monarchy under a parliamentary democracy. The Commonwealth of Australia was formed in 1901 as a result of an agreement among six self-governing British colonies, which became the six states...
as well as to the Church. While the Church was only concerned with the day-to-day running of the island, as an agent of the government he acted as a coastal watcher for the Royal Australian Navy
Royal Australian Navy
The Royal Australian Navy is the naval branch of the Australian Defence Force. Following the Federation of Australia in 1901, the ships and resources of the separate colonial navies were integrated into a national force: the Commonwealth Naval Forces...
, a fisheries officer, a licensee for the government-owned pub, an agent for a shipping company and the airline which serviced the island, a reporting officer for the Department of Civil Aviation
Civil Aviation Safety Authority
The Civil Aviation Safety Authority is the Australian national aviation authority , the government statutory authority responsible for the regulation of civil aviation.-History:...
. Friedrich also began studying again while at Mornington, working on an external masters degree in engineering science with the University of Queensland
University of Queensland
The University of Queensland, also known as UQ, is a public university located in state of Queensland, Australia. Founded in 1909, it is the oldest and largest university in Queensland and the fifth oldest in the nation...
. The Friedrichs resigned from BOEMAR in late 1976, but stayed to oversee relief opportunities until January 1977 after Cyclone Ted destroyed 90 per cent of all buildings on the island.
National Safety Council
In November 1976, the Friedrichs had taken a holiday to VictoriaVictoria (Australia)
Victoria is the second most populous state in Australia. Geographically the smallest mainland state, Victoria is bordered by New South Wales, South Australia, and Tasmania on Boundary Islet to the north, west and south respectively....
. While there, having seen an advertisement in The Age
The Age
The Age is a daily broadsheet newspaper, which has been published in Melbourne, Australia since 1854. Owned and published by Fairfax Media, The Age primarily serves Victoria, but is also available for purchase in Tasmania, the Australian Capital Territory and border regions of South Australia and...
, Friedrich applied for the position of safety engineer with the National Safety Council of Australia
National Safety Council of Australia
The National Safety Council of Australia is a nonprofit organisation in Australia promoting safety awareness and offering consulting, auditing and training services. For much of its life NCSA was a volunteer organisation concerned largely with accident prevention...
(NSCA) Victorian Division, to be based at the State Electricity Commission
State Electricity Commission of Victoria
The State Electricity Commission of Victoria was a monopoly electricity generation, transmission and supply utility located in Victoria, Australia...
of Victoria (SECV) Yallourn power station
Yallourn Power Station, Victoria
Yallourn Power Station was a complex of six brown coal fuelled power stations built progressively from the 1920s to the 1960s. Located in Victoria's Latrobe Valley, the complex was situated beside the Latrobe River, with the company town of Yallourn located to the south west...
in the Latrobe Valley
Latrobe Valley
The Latrobe Valley is an inland geographical region and urban area of Gippsland in the state of Victoria, Australia. It is east of the City Of Melbourne and nestled between the Strzelecki Ranges to the south and the Great Dividing Range to the north – with the highest peak to the north of the...
. Upon returning to Mornington, Friedrich was informed that the job at Yallourn was his if he wanted it. Friedrich began working for the NSCA in January 1977.
Freidrich became executive director of NCSA in 1982 and began to transform it into a national search and rescue
Search and rescue
Search and rescue is the search for and provision of aid to people who are in distress or imminent danger.The general field of search and rescue includes many specialty sub-fields, mostly based upon terrain considerations...
organisation. He built up the company with loans in which 27 banks agreed to lend millions of dollars with little more surety than Friedrich's word. McGregor-Lowndes attributes this lack of probity to the halo effect
Halo effect
The halo effect is a cognitive bias whereby one trait influences another trait or traits of that person or object. This is very common among physically attractiveness...
of NCSA and Friedrich himself. In 1988 he was awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) "in recognition of service to the community, particularly in the area of industrial safety and search and rescue services".
Following the financial collapse of NCSA in 1989, Friedrich went into hiding. After a nationwide and international manhunt, involving all Australian police forces and Interpol
Interpol
Interpol, whose full name is the International Criminal Police Organization – INTERPOL, is an organization facilitating international police cooperation...
, he was arrested in Perth, Western Australia on 6 April 1989. He was initially charged with one count of one count of obtaining financial advantage by deception. On 1 November he was charged on a further 91 counts of obtaining property by deception.
In subsequent investigations it was discovered that he was not an Australian citizen, did not possess any valid birth certificate did not appear on any electoral roll. This caused considerable embarrassment to the Department of Defence which had given him a security clearance and almost unlimited access to Royal Australian Air Force
Royal Australian Air Force
The Royal Australian Air Force is the air force branch of the Australian Defence Force. The RAAF was formed in March 1921. It continues the traditions of the Australian Flying Corps , which was formed on 22 October 1912. The RAAF has taken part in many of the 20th century's major conflicts...
bases.
The Freidrichs lived with Shirley's brother in Sydney until the start of the trial. On 23 July 1991 he appeared in court for fraud involving $
Australian dollar
The Australian dollar is the currency of the Commonwealth of Australia, including Christmas Island, Cocos Islands, and Norfolk Island, as well as the independent Pacific Island states of Kiribati, Nauru and Tuvalu...
296,662,436.99.
Death
On 27 July 1991 he was found dead on his farm near Sale, VictoriaSale, Victoria
Sale is a city in the Gippsland region of the Australian state of Victoria. It is the seat of the Shire of Wellington as well as the Roman Catholic Diocese of Sale and the Anglican Diocese of Gippsland. It has a population of around 13,336, and is expected to reach a population of 14,000 soon...
with a single gunshot wound to the head. His death was ruled to be suicide
Suicide
Suicide is the act of intentionally causing one's own death. Suicide is often committed out of despair or attributed to some underlying mental disorder, such as depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, alcoholism, or drug abuse...
.
Autobiography
Friedrich was writing an autobiography with the assistance of Richard FlanaganRichard Flanagan
Richard Flanagan is a novelist from Tasmania, Australia.-Early life:Flanagan was born in Longford, Tasmania, in 1961, the fifth of six children. He is descended from Irish convicts transported to Van Diemen's Land in the 1840s. His father is a survivor of the Burma Death Railway. One of his three...
at the time of his death. It was published posthumously. In it he claimed to have been born in South Australia
South Australia
South Australia is a state of Australia in the southern central part of the country. It covers some of the most arid parts of the continent; with a total land area of , it is the fourth largest of Australia's six states and two territories.South Australia shares borders with all of the mainland...
in 1945 to German parents, attended boarding school in West Germany
West Germany
West Germany is the common English, but not official, name for the Federal Republic of Germany or FRG in the period between its creation in May 1949 to German reunification on 3 October 1990....
and studied engineering at the Technische Hochschule
Technische Hochschule
Technische Hochschule is what an Institute of Technology used to be called in German-speaking countries, as well as in the Netherlands, before most of them changed their name to Technische Universität or Technische Universiteit in the 1970s and in the...
. He also claimed that while working for an American construction company he was recruited by the Central Intelligence Agency
Central Intelligence Agency
The Central Intelligence Agency is a civilian intelligence agency of the United States government. It is an executive agency and reports directly to the Director of National Intelligence, responsible for providing national security intelligence assessment to senior United States policymakers...
and under the codename "Iago" worked in Laos
Laos
Laos Lao: ສາທາລະນະລັດ ປະຊາທິປະໄຕ ປະຊາຊົນລາວ Sathalanalat Paxathipatai Paxaxon Lao, officially the Lao People's Democratic Republic, is a landlocked country in Southeast Asia, bordered by Burma and China to the northwest, Vietnam to the east, Cambodia to the south and Thailand to the west...
, Vietnam
Vietnam
Vietnam – sometimes spelled Viet Nam , officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam – is the easternmost country on the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia. It is bordered by China to the north, Laos to the northwest, Cambodia to the southwest, and the South China Sea –...
, Egypt
Egypt
Egypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world...
, New Zealand
New Zealand
New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...
and West Germany against far left-wing extremists before returning to Australia in 1975. Simon Caterson
Simon Caterson
Simon Caterson is an Australian writer focusing on literature, art, ideas, history and popular culture for various newspapers and magazines. He was born in Melbourne, Australia where he currently lives, and trained there as a lawyer before traveling to Ireland where he completed a postgraduate...
, writing in The Australian
The Australian
The Australian is a broadsheet newspaper published in Australia from Monday to Saturday each week since 14 July 1964. The editor in chief is Chris Mitchell, the editor is Clive Mathieson and the 'editor-at-large' is Paul Kelly....
, described it as "one of the least reliable but most fascinating memoirs in the annals of Australian publishing".