AustraliaThe Age

Senior National Gallery of Victoria staffer stole $8m from workplace: IBAC

A former senior National Gallery of Victoria employee has been charged by IBAC after allegedly stealing $8 million by buying and reselling mobile phones over six years.

The former National Gallery of Victoria employee has been charged by the state’s corruption watchdog after allegedly siphoning $8 million from the gallery over four years.

The Long Sip
What happened

Victoria's corruption watchdog IBAC has charged a former senior NGV employee with seven counts of theft after he allegedly siphoned $8 million from the gallery over six years.

The detail

The man is accused of using an NGV account to buy mobile phones and then selling them for personal profit, while using his position to cover up the alleged conduct.

And then

The NGV fired the employee in September 2025 and has since introduced new financial controls, with the matter now before the courts.

Full story at The Age

What readers are saying

Laz
The detail that this went on for six years before being caught is the most concerning part of the investigation. It suggests a massive failure in internal oversight if millions can be siphoned off over such a long period without raising any red flags.
BelconnenMark
The fact that he allegedly used the gallery account to buy mobile phones for resale shows how easily basic procurement systems can be exploited if there is no secondary verification. Operation Sonder will likely find that the cover-up was possible only because one person had far too much administrative control over the digital purchasing logs.
Coralaroo
Eight million dollars is an incredible amount of money to go missing.

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