Judge slams Ponzi scheme investigation

A Supreme Court judge has compared an investigation into a $4.8 million Ponzi scheme to a Monty Python skit, saying police and legal bodies should be ashamed.

Melbourne lawyer Alan John Munt ripped off retirees, charities and trust funds in the decade-long scheme.

But despite reporting himself to the Law Institute of Victoria in 2009, Munt was not charged until 2014.

Justice Betty King said the investigation had been shunted between the LIV, the Legal Services Board and Victoria Police, while victims who had lost their life savings waited for closure.

"Are you sure this isn't Monty Python?" she said on Thursday.

"It's an absolute indictment on all of the organisations involved that this is just shunted around like a football.

"You should all be ashamed of yourselves."

Munt, 61, took money from clients under the guise of a legitimate investment scheme but spent it to prop up a failing soft drink company and his legal practice.

He also funnelled funds to other victims to keep his Ponzi scheme alive and diverted inheritance money pledged to charities to his own bank account.

Chief crown prosecutor Gavin Silbert SC said Munt invested $1.65 million into Geelong-based Noddy's Soft Drinks, which collapsed in 2009.

He spent a further $1.1 million to maintain his Ponzi scheme but the rest of the money was unaccounted for, Mr Silbert said.

Munt pleaded guilty to 26 charges relating to the fraud between 1998 to 2009, including theft and obtaining property by deception.

Munt's barrister, Greg Lyon, said his client was remorseful, as evidenced by his confession and co-operation with the investigation.

He said Munt was motivated by greed and maintaining an outward appearance of success.

Munt reported himself to the LIV in September 2009 as his scheme unravelled, handing it reams of documents on his long-running fraud.

The LIV took it to police in December 2009, who delegated the investigation to the Legal Services Board.

But without the expertise, the board hired a contractor, Stopline, to carry out the investigation. It handed over a brief of evidence to Victoria Police in 2012.

Police took a further 15 months to lay charges.

"This is really Python-esque in its nature," Justice King said.

"This seems to me an incredibly long (investigation) on someone who has provided all these documents."

Justice King will sentence Munt at a later date.