John Friedrich (fraudster)

John Friedrich
John Friedrich c. 1988
Born	Johann Friedrich Hohenberger (1950-09-07)7 September 1950 Munich, Federal Republic of Germany
Died	27 July 1991(1991-07-27) (aged 40) Sale, Victoria, Australia
Cause of death	Suicide
Occupation	Engineer and executive director of the National Safety Council of Australia
Criminal charge	Fraud involving over AUD$293 million

Johann Friedrich Hohenberger OAM (7 September 1950 – 27 July 1991), also known as John Friedrich, was executive director of the National Safety Council of Australia during the 1980s. He was the subject of Victoria's biggest fraud case and known as "Australia's greatest conman".

Hohenberger was a West German national. In August 1972, he began working as an independent contractor with the German road construction company Strassen und Teerbau. Around July 1974, he forged road building orders from distant mountain towns and used them to order Strassen und Teerbau to build roads. No roads were ever built, and no earthworks or materials were ever bought. Hohenberger embezzled DM200,000 from the company.

Hohenberger was on a skiing holiday in Italy at the time German police issued a warrant for his arrest. He never returned to Germany. Having gone out onto the slopes and not returned, it was thought he had died. Although German police were sceptical 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 had an accident or committed suicide.

On 20 January 1975, Hohenberger arrived in Melbourne on a flight from Auckland, New Zealand. According to Department of Immigration records, Hohenberger left Australia on a flight to Singapore on 22 January. It is thought he tricked Australian Customs into believing he had boarded a plane but remained in Australia.

Using the name John Friedrich and fake qualifications, Hohenberger obtained a contract with construction company Codelfa Cogefar, working on part of the Melbourne underground rail loop. He subsequently worked for the Board of Ecumenical Missions and Relations (BOEMAR), a Uniting Church in Australia organisation 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.