A former senior employee of Melbourne’s National Gallery of Victoria (NGV) is charged by Victoria’s anti-corruption watchdog, IBAC, over an alleged theft scheme involving about $8 million. Multiple outlets report the matter centres on misuse of NGV accounts and the alleged diversion of funds for personal benefit.
ABC and The West Australian describe an allegation that the employee used an NGV account to buy millions of dollars in mobile phones, which were then sold for private gain. Other reporting also frames the alleged conduct as siphoning money from the gallery over multiple years, with one account citing a four-year period and another referencing a six-year span. The Guardian similarly reports the phone-purchasing and resale allegations, including that IBAC brings multiple counts.
Separately, The Age and the Sydney Morning Herald report related IBAC allegations against the former NGV head of IT, including hundreds of fake invoices used to steal $8 million. Artforum references both timeframes and the general allegation of draining funds for phone purchases, attributing details to earlier reporting. Outlets do not fully align on the specific mechanism—phone resale versus invoice fraud—but agree on the size of the alleged loss and IBAC’s involvement.
