Convicted conman Peter Foster is suing Today show star Karl Stefanovic and the Nine Network for more than $4million, claiming they colluded with a rogue police officer to have him wrongly incarcerated.
The legal challenge comes little more than a month after the 62-year-old serial fraudster successfully NSW Police for false arrest and wrongful imprisonment, receiving a huge six-figure pay out.
The bombshell action relates to Foster’s arrest on a Far North Queensland beach in August 2020, which played out in front of Stefanovic and Nine’s waiting cameras.
Stefanovic accused Foster of trying to hire a hitman to ‘take out’ his arch enemy, international scam investigator Ken Gamble, during a two-part 60 Minutes exclusive report, entitled ‘King Hit’, in June 2020.
He then had a front row seat as Foster was crash tackled and brought to ground by police officers on a Port Douglas beach, and broadcast the details of the hunt for the con artist in a follow-up 60 Minutes report, called ‘Despicable Him’.
Foster said his lawyers had this week commenced legal proceedings against Stefanovic and Nine in the NSW Supreme Court and were actively searching for the presenter, who has been off-air for the past fortnight, so that they could serve him with legal papers.
‘We’re pursuing Channel Nine and Stefanovic and…it’s not just for your simple old defamation because, you know, my reputation isn’t worth a hell of a lot,’ Foster told Daily Mail .
‘What we’re aiming for is [suing over] the arrest on the beach in Port Douglas.’
‘We believe that [Stefanovic] and Channel Nine coordinated my arrest with a rogue police officer and the private investigator Ken Gamble, that led to my unlawful arrest without the authorisation of senior NSW police officers.
‘They orchestrated [the arrest] on the Thursday morning so they could put their story, to bed for that Sunday night’s 60 Minutes, and it was a mad dash without authority.
‘It was just a made-for-TV arrest: Forget the injury, I mean, I walk like a crippled crab now – they f***ed my knee right up – but forget that, it was the intentional infliction of emotional distress.
‘Channel Nine put fuel on the fire. Channel Nine were a willing participant. They didn’t do the due diligence – and the bottom line is, you know, I wrongly copped seven and a half months of imprisonment.’
Foster said his legal team would argue that Stefanovic had been the driving force behind the story, and worked closely with 60 Minutes’ producers and Mr Gamble.
‘We believe Stefanovic drove this himself. He wanted the story,’ he said.
‘He’s been playing the same old silly boy next door for 20 years. It’s a tired old act.
‘And all of a sudden he realised that he had to try and get some credibility, and that’s why he thought 60 Minutes and being a hard-hitting reporter. They saw me as a soft target, and but they didn’t follow the proper channels, and they got it wrong.
‘Karl Stefanovic thought he could walk over my body to promote his career, and I’m just not going to cop it… and now I’ve got a multimillion-dollar action.
‘It was all b***ocks…and as far as I see it, if they can do it to me, they can do it to anybody…it’s all just got to come out.’
Foster was cagey over the sum he’s chasing from Stefanovic and Nine, and had yet to settle on a final figure, but added: ‘We think it’s over $4 million.’
The n career criminal first hit the headlines when he dated British Page Three glamour model Samantha Fox and used her to promote his fake weight loss diet tea.
He was jailed in the UK over the scam and later absconded back to on a fake passport but has spent years in and out of jails in , the UK and Vanuatu.
He famously returned to the spotlight after he was embroiled in a corruption scandal over allegations he helped UK PM Tony Blair’s wife to buy property at a discount.
Stefanovic’s initial 60 Minutes report on Foster claimed to feature secret audio recordings of him allegedly ‘shopping for a hitman’, and agreeing to pay more than $100,000 to make Mr Gamble ‘completely disappear’.
Stefanovic confronted Foster over the taped conversations after 60 Minutes tracked the him down to a Gold Coast cafe. Foster denied trying to have Mr Gamble killed.
‘I’ve heard this tape, Peter, and it’s not good – you ordering a hit on Ken Gamble,’ Stefanovic told him during the encounter.
Foster then suggested the recordings were ‘fabricated’, before Stefanovic pressed him further: ‘It’s about you ordering a hit on someone, it’s pretty serious.’
Foster then replied: ‘Well, it’s serious if you publish such a defamatory false allegation.’
The 60 Minutes report said Gamble had handed over the covert recordings to Gold Coast police but he was never charged because they had been taped in the Philippines and there were concerns about them being relied on as evidence in .
The follow-up report focused on Foster’s alleged connection to an international sports scam and his Far North Queensland arrest after 60 Minutes and Mr Gamble tracked him down in Port Douglas.
But on Friday, Foster denied he had ever been hiding out in the tropical resort town.
‘I’m up there trying to spread my mother’s ashes,’ he told Daily Mail .
‘I wasn’t running. I wasn’t hiding. You know, I was almost like I was running for mayor up there in Port Douglas. I was on the beach every day chatting to everyone.’
Foster revealed he was hunting for Stefanovic on social media earlier this week, while repeating completely false rumours about the reason for the star’s absence from the airwaves.
‘I’m currently trying to serve legal papers on Karl Stefanovic,’ Foster revealed on his Facebook account on Tuesday, alongside a satirical image of a Where’s Wally? book retitled Where’s Karl? with his post.
‘Funny thing is, he’s suddenly gone off air for two weeks during the biggest TV cycle of the year with the federal election and announcement of the Olympic building plans for Brisbane.
‘Karl – if you’re reading this, you can run but you can’t hide. Believe me…I should know.’
Stefanovic has been off-air for the past two weeks but Nine has insisted it had been for a long-planned break with his family ahead of the Easter holidays – and confirmed he would return to Today next week.
‘Karl is on scheduled leave after a busy start to the year and will be back on Monday,’ the network said.
Sports anchor James Bracey filled in for Stefanovic last week and while Nine political editor Charles Croucher had been scheduled to slide into the role this week.
Bracey’s stint was extended after Prime Minister Anthony Albanese called the federal election.
Nine said was unaware of any legal action having been initiated against the network or Stefanovic by Foster or his legal team.
Mr Gamble told Daily Mail he was equally unaware of any Foster’s claims.
Foster’s accusations against Nine and Seven come six weeks after he was awarded $170,000 in legal costs after over his false arrest.
Foster sued for false arrest and wrongful imprisonment following the arrest which also sparked an internal review and dismantled the Sydney City Fraud Squad.
The lawsuit and reviews exposed years of improper practices on the part of detectives, according to the findings of a magistrate made available this week.
NSW Magistrate Jennifer Atkinson said Foster had been charged based upon nothing but a brief of evidence supplied by a high-profile private eye.
Mr Gamble had been tailing the notorious swindler on behalf of a millionaire Hong Kong creditor who was allegedly defrauded of millions of dollars in Bitcoin through a sports betting scheme.
NSW Police passed off Mr Gamble’s work as their own while building the case against Foster, Magistrate Atkinson found.
‘I am not satisfied it was carried out in a reasonable and proper way,’ she said in her findings.
Magistrate Atkinson said Mr Gamble’s evidence brief was based upon ‘hearsay not evidence’.
She said Mr Gamble’s submission ‘should have been more thoroughly investigated by NSW Police but wasn’t’.
Magistrate Atkinson’s decision was passed down on February 24 in the Downing Centre Court, but remained suppressed until last week.
Undercover police in running gear, Mr Gamble, and a 60 Minutes film crew converged on the Port Douglas beach in August 2020.
Officers pounced on the then-57-year-old, cuffing him and extraditing him back to NSW.
Foster was hit with several charges for the alleged defrauding of the Hong Kong man, a former fighter pilot, who engaged Mr Gamble to try to recover his funds.
However, NSW Police dropped the charges just six months later after Foster’s lawyers argued there was no proof Foster’s alleged offending took place in the state of NSW.
He was later charged with similar offences by Queensland Police, and is now contesting those ones as well.
When Foster filed a suit against NSW Police, his legal team requested a copy of the Professional Standards findings report related to his arrest.
The report found Detective Sergeant Roland Winter signed off on Foster’s arrest warrant without the required approvals from his superiors.
It also found he had improperly shred information to Mr Gamble. However, given the report was so heavily covered in redactions, Magistrate Atkinson said it was of ‘no assistance’.
Ms Atkinson awarded Foster $168,752 to be paid out of public coffers, taking into account Foster had hired barristers to handle the difficult case of his extradition.