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John Friedrich (also known as Johann Friedrich Hohenberger and by the codename Iago), born in South Australia or Germany, was Managing Director of the Victorian division of the National Safety Council of Australia during the 1980s.

On April 6, 1989, John Friedrich was arrested when it was exposed he had used empty storage units as collateral to take out a number of large bank loans. He was later described as Australia's greatest conman.

On July 23, 1991 he appeared in court to face 91 fraud related charges involving over AUD$293 million.

On July 27, 1991, he was found dead on his farm near Sale, Victoria with a single gunshot wound to his head. His death was ruled a suicide.

The Life and Death of Johann Friedrich Hohenberger

Born on September 7, 1950 in Munich, to Elisabeth Hohenberger, not much is known about the early life of Johann Friedrich Hohenberger.

According to his friends, Hohenberger acted like a "modern-day Robin Hood," giving money to other people and living a simple life. Between 1968 and 1972, his passport shows he entered East Germany on three occasions, and Hungary on another. At the time, these were communist countries. He also made short trips to London and Greece. The nature of these trips is unknown.

In the August of 1972, Hohenberger began working as an independent contractor with the German road construction company Strassen and Tearbau. Around July 1974, using a number of different companies, Hohenberger arranged for bills for earthworks and road building materials to be forwarded to Strassen and Tearbau. He also forged road building orders from distant mountain towns and used them to order Strassen and Tearbau to build roads. Unbeknownst to Strassen and Tearbau, no roads were ever built, and no earthworks or materials were ever bought. Instead, Hohenberger pocketed nearly $200,000.

It didn't take long for the scam to be uncovered, and when it was, the police were immediately called. Unfortunately, Hohenberger was spending a long weekend at a ski resort in Italy, where German police had no jurisdiction. Hohenberger never returned to Germany - it soon emerged that Hohenberger had gone out onto the slopes and, having not returned, was feared to have perished. Although German police were skeptical of his disappearance, believing that somebody had tipped him off to the investigation, the discovery of his bags over a year later reinforced the theory that he had either suicided or had an accident.

Strassen and Tearbau later filed civil actions against the companies Hohenberger had used in the fraud and most of their money was repaid, however the $200,000 which Hohenberger had embezzled was never recovered.

THGRER ARE SO MANY INCONSISTENCIES ON THIS PAGE, IT IS INCREDIBLE!

The First Life of John Friedrich

John Friedrich was born in Mt. Davies, South Australia in 1945 to German parents, who had expatriated to Australia in 1931. He was christened with a name other than John Friedrich, though his true name is not known. His father worked as a mining engineer (though he had initially driven camels upon his arrival) and his mother worked as a school teacher. In 1954, Friedrich's father died, and between 1956 and 1960 he attended boarding school in South Australia.

In 1960, Friedrich and his mother returned to his mother's hometown of Munich, West Germany. His mother died shortly afterwards, whereupon Friedrich's grandparents supported him through boarding school in Germany. Friedrich left school in 1963 and supported himself with odd jobs while he studied engineering at the Technische Hochschule.

Upon completing his engineering degree, Friedrich was employed by a major American construction and project management company. While working for this company, Friedrich was recruited by the C.I.A. While working for the C.I.A., Friedrich used the codename Iago.

Codename Iago

In 1968, Iago trained at Camp Pearce, Virginia, and at Fort Bragg and Albuquerque.

In the early 1970s, Iago worked in Laos, where he described his work as being that of a "facilitator" - moving material from place to place, or retrieving men and materials - towards the ultimate goal of preventing North Vietnam using Laos as a corridor into South Vietnam.

After Laos, Iago worked in Vietnam, Egypt, America, New Zealand and Europe. While working undercover against far left extremists in Germany in 1975, a close friend of Iago's was captured and tortured to death.

The death of his friend affected Iago deeply, and he decided he needed a break from his intelligence work. Remaining contracted to the C.I.A., but on an indefinite break, he took on the identity of the recently deceased Hohenberger.

Hohenberger's Last Trip

On 20 January, 1975, some months after his death, Johann Friedrich Hohenberger arrived in Melbourne, Australia on a flight from Auckland. According to Department of Immigration records, Hohenberger left Australia on a flight to Singapore on 22 January, 1975. Remaining in Melbourne was a man called John Friedrich.

A New Life

Upon his arrival in Australia, Friedrich obtained a contract with an international construction company called Codelfa Cogefar, working on part of the Melbourne underground loop. Although Friedrich enjoyed his work with Codelfa, he quickly tired of it, as Friedrich's employers spoke only Italian, leading to frequent miscommunications. After seven weeks, he left his job.

For a time, Friedrich lived in a pub and searched for work from a telephone booth, before eventually applying for an engineering job with the Board of Ecumenical Missions and Relations (BOEMAR), a Uniting Church organisation which was responsible for the Church's Aboriginal missions. He was offered the position of community adviser at Ernabella in South Australia, where he was to assist the Aboriginal community with its development and to supervise civil works.

While working in Ernabella, Friedrich became ill with a serious infection, and was treated by Sister Shirley Manning. Upon his recovery, Friedrich and Manning fell in love and became engaged in October 1975. On 10 February, 1976, they were married in Strathfield, Sydney.

Shortly after their marriage, the Friedrichs were transferred to the BOEMAR mission on Mornington Island where Shirley Friedrich was to work as a nursing sister and John as the manager.

During his time on Mornington, Friedrich was responsible to the Government as well as to the Church. While the Church was only concerned with the day-to-day running of the island, as an agent of the government he acted as a coastal watcher for the Navy, a fisheries officer, a licensee for the government-owned pub, an agent for the shipping company and the airline which serviced the island, a reporting officer for the Department of Civil Aviation, and more.

Friedrich also began studying again while at Mornington, working on an external masters degree in engineering science with the University of Queensland.

The Friedrichs resigned from BOEMAR in late 1976, but stayed to oversee relief opportunities through January 1977 after Cyclone Ted destroyed 90 per cent of all buildings on the Island on 1 January.

Old Friends and a New Calling

In November 1976, the Friedrichs had taken a holiday to Victoria. While there, having seen an advertisement in The Age, Friedrich applied for the position of safety engineer with the National Safety Council of Australia (NSCA) Victorian Division, to be based at the State Electricity Commission of Victoria (SECV) Yallourn power station in the Latrobe Valley.

Upon returning to Mornington, Friedrich was informed that the job in Yallourn was his if he wanted it. At around the same time, he was contacted by his former colleagues at the C.I.A. who wanted him to divorce his wife and return to service.

In February, 1977, Friedrich began working for the NSCA.

The Shooting

On 4 February, 1990, Friedrich was fired upon at his home in Seaton. Friedrich was woken by his wife at around midnight after she heard noises outside their house. When Friedrich opened the front door to investigate, he was fired at from close range with a .45 pistol. All shots missed, though one bullet hole was found six inches from where Friedrich had stood. The shooter had also cut the phone line of the house with an axe-like instrument.

Shortly afterwards, Friedrich and his wife recieved a number of disturbing phone calls, and decided it would be for the best if they moved to Friedrich's brother-in-law's house near Bankstown in Sydney.

The Death of John Friedrich

On 26 July, 1991, John Friedrich left his home on foot and walked for about an hour across his farm until he reached a place called Harper's Hill. He then fired a single shot into the left side of his head with an antique .38 pistol, killing himself instantly.

John Friedrich was cremated on 1 August, 1991, the same day he had been due to face the Supreme Court. Prior to his cremation, samples of Friedrich's blood and full X-rays of his body and teeth were taken. The fingerprints of his corpse were also taken to aid in any future questions of his identity.

External link

• John Friedrich: Catch Me if You Can website
• Social Media Network
• National Safety Council of Australia website

References

• Friedrich, John (1991). Codename Iago: The Story of John Friedrich. Port Melbourne, Vic.: W. Heinemann Australia. ISBN 0855614528. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
• Thomas, Martin (1991). The Fraud: Behind the Mystery of John Friedrich, Australia's Greatest Conman. Melbourne: Pagemasters. ISBN 1875575014.