Peter Foster
| Peter Foster | |
|---|---|
| Born |
26 September 1962 Queensland, Australia |
| Criminal status | Conditional release (October 2015) |
| Parent(s) | Louise Poletti (mother), aka Luigina Pelotti, Louise Pelotti |
| Conviction(s) | Breaches of Trade Practices Act, breaches of Trade Descriptions Act, forgery, fraud, money laundering, immigration offences, contempt of court, assaulting police officers, resisting arrest |
Peter Clarence Foster (born 26 September 1962) is an Australian career criminal who has been jailed in Australia, Britain, the United States and Vanuatu for a variety of offences related to weight loss and other scams as well as absconding from justice. His convictions range from fraud and money laundering to contempt of court and resisting arrest.
Foster was also in the headlines for his role in helping Cherie Blair, wife of British prime minister Tony Blair, buy properties in Bristol at a discounted rate. Foster has described himself as an "international man of mischief".
Foster began marketing and selling products at 19 years of age. Nicknamed "kid tycoon" and the "milkshake tycoon", Foster was promoting themed nights at a Gold Coast discothèque two years before he was legally allowed in the club and became a boxing promoter at 17.
At 20, Foster was fined £75,000 by an Australian court for attempting to make a fraudulent insurance claim when a boxing match he was promoting fell through.
The following year, Foster became a television producer and filmed a documentary with Muhammad Ali while living several weeks with him in his home in Los Angeles. He was declared bankrupt after promoting an Ali bout in Australia that did not eventuate and marketing a method for quitting smoking.
Foster was also known for his relationship with model Samantha Fox, whom he hired to promote his weight loss tea. She later distanced herself from him and remarked:
I'm old enough now to know that I'd never be taken in again by the likes of Peter Foster. But then, I was 22 and impressionable. My parents had split and here was a man who was clever, manipulative and domineering. I came close to marrying him because I was so vulnerable.
A number of years later, Foster suggested that he and Fox make a film about their lives, but she sent a refusal via her lawyer.
Muhammad Ali’s third wife, model Veronica Ali, introduced him to Bai Lin tea, which Foster went on to market in Australia as an "ancient Chinese diet secret" for weight loss. The company went bankrupt while under investigation by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC), whereupon he took the tea to the United Kingdom, hiring Samantha Fox to promote it. Under testing, the tea was proven to be ordinary black China tea and Mr Foster's company was fined £5,000 in 1988 for breaching the UK Trade Descriptions Act. However, Foster fled Britain to the United States where he remarketed it as Chow Low Tea. Advertisements in The New York Times and The Washington Post claimed the tea lowered the cholesterol levels of its consumers no matter what they ate. The fraudulent claims saw him convicted for conspiracy to commit grand theft and he served four months in a Los Angeles prison. Fraudulently stating that a food product could lower cholesterol was an offence under California law (Sherman Food and Drug Act).
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Wikipedia