{"id":869555,"date":"2026-08-26T23:02:22","date_gmt":"2026-08-26T23:02:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/869555\/"},"modified":"2026-08-26T23:02:22","modified_gmt":"2026-08-26T23:02:22","slug":"how-dinkdonk-brought-down-australias-self-proclaimed-wolf-of-wall-street","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/869555\/","title":{"rendered":"How \u2018DinkDonk\u2019 brought down Australia\u2019s self-proclaimed Wolf of Wall Street"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Sarah<\/p>\n

August 27, 2026 \u2014 8:55am<\/p>\n

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A financial trader who bragged he was involved in a scheme that was bigger than the Wolf of Wall Street has been sentenced for laundering millions of dollars for a heroin trafficker known only as \u201cDinkDonk\u201d.<\/p>\n

Former Berndale Securities boss Stavro D\u2019Amore was jailed for three years and six months at the County Court of Victoria on Wednesday on two charges for laundering $2.5 million for the Sydney-based mystery drug importer he met on an encrypted app.<\/p>\n

\"StavroStavro D\u2019Amore (right) with Angelo Venditti in a social media snap.Fairfax media<\/p>\n

While D\u2019Amore sobbed last month<\/a> when he was sentenced to nearly four years\u2019 jail, with a minimum term of 23 months, over separate embezzlement charges, he was stoic when he learnt he would spend a further nine months in prison.<\/p>\n

The court heard D\u2019Amore agreed to help DinkDonk exchange $75 million in cash into bitcoin in 2021 by laundering $1.5 million to $2 million a week, despite not knowing why his new acquaintance was so cashed-up.<\/p>\n

D\u2019Amore, who pleaded guilty on the eve of an expected six-week trial, agreed to never meet DinkDonk.<\/p>\n

Instead, D\u2019Amore arranged for either himself or an associate to pick up the cash in black sports bags that were delivered to locations, including a Sydney car park and a petrol station in Melbourne\u2019s south-east.<\/p>\n

The court heard D\u2019Amore was careful to ensure the locations for the \u201cdead drops\u201d \u2013 an arranged meeting to exchange goods without the two people ever meeting each other \u2013 had multiple exits and were heavily surveilled in case anything went wrong.<\/p>\n

On two occasions, D\u2019Amore attended the dead drop personally, with four security guards in tow.<\/p>\n

After picking up the bags, D\u2019Amore then moved the money into the bank accounts of a company he had set up in the name of his then girlfriend, model and beautician Natalie Turnour, and then into cryptocurrency exchanges.<\/p>\n

\"StavroStavro D\u2019Amore and Natalie Turnour. Instagram<\/p>\n

Turnour was initially charged<\/a> by Australian Federal Police before the case against her was dropped. D\u2019Amore now has a new partner.<\/p>\n

Prosecutors accepted that D\u2019Amore did not know the big bags of cash were the proceeds of a drug haul, but the court heard he also refused to hand over the pin of a \u201ccovert\u201d phone to police when requested.<\/p>\n

D\u2019Amore provided false documents to the cryptocurrency exchanges that stated the money had been made from abalone fishing.<\/p>\n

Judge Anthony Lewis said there were many signs that indicated D\u2019Amore was aware the money was the proceeds of crime, especially given the former Berndale boss\u2019s financial trading history.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou have significant experience in the financial services industry, and you must therefore be taken to have an understanding of how commercial transactions are ordinarily undertaken,\u201d Lewis said.<\/p>\n

Editor’s pick\"Stavro<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cOverall, in my view, your offending is objectively very serious. Your ongoing and obviously trusted involvement in the offence, involving such a large sum of money and a high degree of recklessness, necessarily involves a high level of moral culpability on your part.\u201d<\/p>\n

D\u2019Amore\u2019s lawyer Alexander Patton had told the court his client had begun abusing cocaine and alcohol, and had developed a gambling problem after his marriage ended and his business collapsed amid an investigation by the corporate watchdog.<\/p>\n

Berndale\u2019s collapse<\/a> wiped out nearly $9 million in client funds.<\/p>\n

An examination by liquidators into the group in 2020 probed their ties to colourful Melbourne figures including Carlton Crew member Angelo Venditti.<\/p>\n

They also revealed Berndale, which was formerly known as Forex TG, had links to other international trading schemes that stood accused of misusing investor money.<\/p>\n

This included Aviv Talmor, who was D\u2019Amore\u2019s business partner at Forex TG and later Berndale, and is now serving a five-year sentence in Israel over his involvement in a dodgy trading scheme.<\/p>\n

It was during this examination that D\u2019Amore was asked about visiting Talmor\u2019s office in Tel Aviv, where he described what he was involved in as bigger than the Wolf of Wall Street.<\/a><\/p>\n

Start the day with a summary of the day\u2019s most important and interesting stories, analysis and insights. Sign up for our Morning Edition newsletter<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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\"SarahSarah Danckert<\/a> is a senior reporter who specialises in investigations and corporate wrongdoing. She is a two-time Walkley Award winner, and has won six Quill Awards and two Kennedy Awards.Connect via X<\/a> or email<\/a>.From our partners<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"August 27, 2026 \u2014 8:55am Save You have reached your maximum number of saved items. Remove items from…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":869556,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,44],"class_list":["post-869555","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/869555","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=869555"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/869555\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/869556"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=869555"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=869555"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=869555"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}