Marc Fennell unravels $900 million mystery in ‘Australia’s Greatest Conman?’

In the 1980s, John Friedrich ran a team of sea and land nurses in Victoria, winning the Order of Australia, top secret government contracts and hundreds of millions of dollars in debt.

But no one knew that John Friedrich was not who he pretended to be. His takedown revealed one of the biggest scams in Australian history, worth $900 million in today’s money.

In Australia’s Biggest Conman?Walkley award-winning journalist and presenter Marc Fennell sets out to uncover the truth about the man who deceived the nation. Through exclusive interviews with Kerry O’Brien, Hugh Riminton and Richard Fidler, as well as Friedrich’s closest associates and bitter rivals, Marc uncovers a story that is less well-known than fiction in this true-crime thriller that will keep audiences guessing.

Presenter and producer Marc Fennell said: “The most interesting criminals are the ones whose motives remain elusive.” John Friedrich pulled off fraud on a scale Australia had never seen, but achieved very little.

So, what was in his case? Why has such a strange web of lies and money been created? That’s the part that impressed me even today.”

The Rise of John Friedrich

In 1977, a man calling himself John Friedrich joined the National Safety Council Victoria Division (NSCA). Within a few years, he transformed a sleepy organization into the most advanced search and rescue operation Australia had ever seen.

Friedrich pioneered unheard-of techniques – rescue nurses jumping out of airplanes and search dogs, pigeons guiding search operations, firefighting helicopters – and earned NSCA international acclaim.

No one knew a single detail about John Friedrich beyond the day he joined the NSCA. But the success of the rescue movement made him famous, he gained the favor of bankers, and politicians like Bob Hawke. As the size and influence of the NSCA grew, skeptics began to ask: Where did all the money come from?

To fall

John Friedrich’s funding proved as unlikely as the man himself. Competitors calculated that NSCA was running at least $33 million a year short, but banks continued to lend him hundreds of millions of dollars. While Friedrich deflected the probing questions of senior Australian journalists, rumors of foreign intelligence and military involvement abounded.

Then in 1989, when the chairman of the NSCA asked him to explain accounting irregularities, Friedrich disappeared. As the police patrolled the country, questions filled the nation. How did a man with no past impress Australia’s leading politicians, bankers and even the military? Where did all the money go? Was he a brilliant criminal, a Robin Hood hero, or a spy?

Who was John Friedrich really?

‘Australia’s Biggest Conman?‘ is an in-house production of SBS, and will be written in five languages, broadcast on SBS On Demand in Arabic, Cantonese, Mandarin, Korean, and Vietnamese.

SBS is German will launch an accompanying podcast, Der Fall John Friedrich (The Case of John Friedrich) on Monday 2 March, offering further insight into Australia’s most influential man.

‘Australia’s Biggest Man?’ starts on Tuesday 24 February at 8.30pm on SBS and SBS Wantedwith the second and final episode airing on Wednesday, 25 February at 8.30pm on SBS and SBS On Demand.