Melbourne Billionaire Adrian Portelli to Plead Not Guilty to Lottery Charges
Adrian Portelli faces nine charges related to an alleged unlawful lottery, contesting them in court alongside his company Xclusive Tech Pty Ltd
Melbourne, Australia, Adrian Portelli, Xclusive Tech, The Block, Lottery
Melbourne: So, Adrian Portelli, the billionaire known for his flashy giveaways, is in a bit of hot water. He’s planning to plead not guilty to nine charges about running an unlawful lottery. Sounds wild, right?
In court, it was revealed that both he and his company, Xclusive Tech Pty Ltd, are ready to fight these charges. They didn’t even need to show up for the hearing, which is kind of interesting.
His lawyer, Ben Lodge, mentioned they want to get this sorted out quickly. Xclusive Tech is facing a total of ten charges related to this lottery business.
Portelli made headlines recently for buying up properties from the reality show The Block to give away. But the winner opted for a hefty $8 million cash prize instead of the homes. Talk about a choice!
His company runs a “rewards club” where members can win cars and properties. It’s all part of what they call a trade promotion lottery. But it seems the authorities are not too happy about how it’s being done.
Consumer and Business Services in South Australia looked into some of these giveaways before slapping on 19 charges. The incidents in question happened between January and May of this year.
According to the court docs, one of the big prizes was a property from The Block or a cash prize of $3 million. But they claim Portelli didn’t have the right license to run this lottery in South Australia.
There were also other properties and cash prizes involved, making it quite the situation. His lawyer is pushing for a pre-trial conference to get things moving, but for now, it’s been pushed to March 6.