'This guy is evil'
A new podcast is set to drop on Barry Kloogh
Barry Kloogh in the Dunedin District Court: Photo Hamish McNeilly
It was a weird time.
It was February 2020, and the news was largely about a virus sweeping the globe.
But in Dunedin something else had emerged. leaving dozens of victims in its wake.
Enter Barry Kloogh.
The failed Dunedin financial advisor first appeared in the Dunedin District Court on February 20, 2020 on a raft of charges following a Serious Fraud Office probe.
While he did not enter a plea at that appearance, he was remanded to appear the following month.
Months before, I door-knocked his rental home where some of his luxury European vehicles had been repossessed.
Kloogh declined to come out and be interviewed. Fair.
Possibly my favourite ever file picture. Barry Kloogh performs as Rene in Allo Allo. Photo: Supplied
So after his first court appearance it was my only chance to get a camera in his face.
I ran out of court, got my camera ready and made a nuisance of myself.
‘Hey Barry, what do you say to your investors?’ was the opening line in the 30 second video.
He said nothing.
‘You got nothing to say, Barry?’
Still nothing, as he crossed lower Stuart St, but I recall his fists clenching.
‘How was your experience today?’
That was the question which made him grimace
‘Is this a big fall from grace for you?’
Still nothing, as he scratches his nose as he gets to the other side of the street,
‘Any idea how many million?’
And only one further question over the last 15 seconds of video, as Kloogh makes his way outside the Otago Daily Times’ and into the backseat of a humble red station wagon driven by his wife.
‘Are you going to talk at all, Barry?’
Months later Kloogh was sent to jail for eight years and 10 months, with a minimum non-parole period of five years and four months.
He left behind dozens and dozens of out-of-pocket investors, who he fleeced $16 million from as part of the Ponzi scheme.
‘‘You sir, on your own omission, have not worked an honest day in 25 years,’’ the sentencing judge told Kloogh.
His sentencing wasn’t the end of the story of Barry Kloogh, as a major podcast series: Klooghless: The Long Con is about to go live.
That podcast series is by former Dunedin woman Sarah Ferris, now in London.
She was behind the podcast series Conning the Con, about her sister’s experience with a serial conman, which has been downloaded over a million times.
Now Ferris has turned her attention to Kloogh, and it turns out there is another family connection.
‘‘It is just crazy, you wait for a bus for two hours then all of a sudden two come along at once . . . how the hell do two con stories happen in my family . . . it just doesn’t seem real.’’
Her parents-in-law were swindled by a man they thought had their best interests in mind: ‘‘It was gob-smacking and infuriating and angering that people can be victimised like that and that there are these wolves in sheep clothing hidden in plain sight’’.
Ferris said the victims still carried Kloogh’s offending ‘‘with them every day’’.
‘‘It is very heavy on their shoulders.’’
When her parents-in-law heard about the offending they were left broken.
‘‘The injustice of it enrages me.’’
‘‘For me, if there is something wrong in the world, there is something in me that just wants to stand-up and stamp my feet a bit.’’
A psychologist on Conning the Con told Ferris that these con men, whether it be a love rat or a financial guru, all made their victims feel euphoric ‘‘because they are charming and super engaging’’.
‘‘That is what Barry was, but when you walk away from them you are left feeling discombobulated.’’
Unless people had experienced first-hand that level of grooming it was very difficult to understand, she said.
Ferris believed the Ponzi scheme effectively sucked the money out as fast as it was going in, with Kloogh splashing cash on clothes, trips and vehicles.
This car was repossessed not long after this photo was taken.
Most people would be ‘‘s****ing themselves’’ over spending all the money, but Kloogh - at the time of the SFO raid - had made an offer on one of Dunedin’s finest homes.
‘‘Previously everyone had been hidden in the shadows because they were embarrassed they were conned, and now people are sticking their heads above the parapet and saying: ‘I’m not the gullible, naive person here . . . it should be the other way around this guy is evil, these people are not right, they are the bad guys’.’’
And another.
Ferris said as more victims found their voice it helped strip away some of the shame they felt ‘’because the more we can expose their tactics and their ploys, the less likely they are to get away with it’’.
Ferris, who had approached Kloogh for comment via the Department of Justice, said there was not one thing she would ask that “would come back as of value to me’’.
‘‘I put zero worth in his words.’’
The experience of one victim in Klooghless: The Long Con included him confronting Kloogh outside his house, with the conman telling him: ‘‘Don’t worry . . . good news is coming’’.
That promise included Kloogh swearing on his own mother’s grave, and ‘‘that is just evil’’, Ferris said.
One lesson she wanted everyone who listened to the podcast to take home, was for people to look at their savings and double-check ‘‘where you’ve got it right now’’.
For those who want to listen to the podcast, they can subscribe now with the trailer now live on Apple, Spotify and where ever you get your podcasts (I’ve always wanted to say that).
Apple link below:
The first three episodes (of the seven + bonus episode series) will be released on April 27, which coincides with Ferris attending Crime Con Vegas).
Looking forward to it, apart from the brief moment when you hear my voice….
ICYMI Last week I wrote a story about a chef causing some issues around Dunedin.
Those issues include multiple personal grievances and confidentiality clauses.
That story has led to dozens of tip-offs, and I’m following-up a few leads.
So stay tuned.
But as always, if you know anything. Hit me up at hamish.mcneilly@stuff.co.nz
As if the week in Dunedin couldn’t get weirder, there was also this:
Here is a background on the sea shanty.
Now, let us all sing…
Soon may the Wellerman come
To bring us sugar and tea and rum
One day, when the tonguing is done
We'll take our leave and go
Da-da-da-da-da
Da-da-da-da-da-da-da
Da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da
And my Tweet of the Week goes to this gem
Man, that looks like a good beer.
Here’s is a 1988 film, The Grasscutter, shot largely in Dunedin, and featuring Boba Fett himself Tem Morrison. A hit squad tracking an informant all the way to Dunedin? Sign. Me. Up.
To finish here is a new song from Dunedin-raised Judah Kelly, one to watch.
And it is a big week for the Wild Dunedin Festival, I’d recommend heading to St Kilda on Friday to see Dunedin's first land art sculpture.
It is the work of Wānaka artists Martin Hill and Philippa Jones, and coincides with Earth Day. But if you can’t make it, try this livestream.
https://livestream.com/accounts/15197514/wilddunedin22
Enjoy your long weekend.
I believe his first wife is now married to an outspoken regional councillor (ex Mayor) based in central Otago. I wonder what she knew and why this hasn’t been mentioned in the news.