Media Releases
Drug and alcohol counsellor from St Paul's Prevention Rehabilitation ordered to pay half a million dollars of misappropriated funds
The County Court of Victoria has ordered Anthony Dieni to pay $448,805.76 as part of a Pecuniary Penalty Order relating to a charge of false accounting. Mr Dieni misappropriated the government funds while employed as a drug and alcohol counsellor and coordinator at St Paul's Prevention Rehabilitation, a Strathmore-based charity.
Mr Dieni was sentenced to 14 years imprisonment with a nine-year non-parole period following an investigation (Operation Murano) by the Independent Broad-based Anti-corruption Commission, IBAC, into allegations that Mr Dieni deliberately misled the court in bail applications and sentencing hearings in exchange for cocaine and other drugs of dependence.
IBAC's Operation Murano resulted in 20 people being charged with a range of offences including attempting to pervert the course of justice, trafficking in a drug of dependence and fraud offences.
Media contact: 0427 480 840 or media@ibac.vic.gov.au
Related resources
-
Drug and alcohol counsellor from St Paul's Prevention Rehabilitation convicted and sentenced to jail, 4 September 2020
-
Former client of a St Paul's drug and alcohol rehabilitation charity service sentenced following IBAC investigation, 4 June 2020
-
Former client of St Paul's Prevention Rehabilitation sentenced following IBAC investigation, 7 February 2020
-
Former client of St Paul's Prevention Rehabilitation jailed following IBAC investigation, 20 December 2018
-
Former client of St Paul's Prevention Rehabilitation jailed following IBAC investigation, 5 October 2018
-
Drug and alcohol counsellor charged following IBAC investigation, 12 September 2017