It may sound like an unlikely hunting ground, but a coastal bowling club full of cash-strapped seniors was the perfect place for Greywolf to find seed investors.
The pensioners there were inexperienced with the stock market and financially vulnerable, anxious to ensure comfort and safety in old age.
Mates Trevor Chapman, Noel Higgs and Tom Cain never suspected their new bowling mate was on the prowl.
"He was such a gentleman, and quiet," 82-year-old Trevor says. "He was very gentle, an English gentleman."
After showing up one "thirsty Thursday", the well-presented "executive type" worked quickly, selling Trevor the dream of life-changing fortunes.
"He really infiltrated the club and became one of us, and we trusted him," Trevor says. "He wormed his way in."
Using that trust, Trevor and his mates say the businessman convinced them to invest chunks of their precious savings in his company.
His spiel was simple: his mining exploration business owned tenements and leases for land containing precious gems, gold, coal, and other minerals. It was all supported by an impressive company website.
"I trusted him as I would Noel and Tom, he was one of us and he was doing us a favour," Trevor adds.
The pensioners say they were also told the company was going to be listed on the stock market within weeks. They could get in on the ground floor.
"There was no grey area, it's going to happen in four or six weeks … it was a sure thing," Tom says.
"The spiel was, 'I'm going to sell [the shares] to you at a cent a share, but they are really worth a dollar'," Noel says.
As far as sales pitches go, for these pensioners, it was irresistible.
Based on the businessman's promises and assurances, Tom and Noel invested. So did Trevor, who sunk $5,000 into the company.
It was money Trevor could barely spare, and which he certainly could not afford to lose.
"I live in a mobile home village. I'm just a pensioner. I've got enough in the bank probably to bury myself," he says.
Four Corners has discovered other elderly bowling club patrons were also persuaded to invest, as were several staff.
Once their money was secured, the businessman did not stick around.
"After we invested our money, I don't recall ever seeing him at bowls. He virtually vanished," Trevor says.
'We will get caught out': Internal company documents
The man who vanished is Edward Lancaster.
A man who has left a trail of financial destruction behind him, spanning decades.
Four Corners has obtained hundreds of internal company documents revealing the "gentleman" has a criminal history from the 1970s in New Zealand, including a prison sentence and multiple convictions for theft by misappropriation and carrying on business while bankrupt.
It was one of many facts never disclosed to the investors in his mining exploration company, Greywolf Resources NL.
Rather, his Greywolf pitch centred on these claims: his company had sure-bet mining exploration projects and was about to list on the stock exchange.
Invest now, shareholders were told. Get in quick. Because once Greywolf hit the market, they would not be able to afford the shares.
Some investors even recall Mr Lancaster carrying around "a big shiny rock" saying, "this is what we're mining".
The Greywolf website also listed dozens of mining exploration projects as "100 per cent Owned", and boasted a map of more than 30 tenements located across Australia.
However, the company advertised several projects it had not fully acquired and others that had expired.
Confidential company documents and internal Greywolf emails obtained by Four Corners further illustrate a pattern of false and misleading statements made by Greywolf.
In one internal email, a concerned company director warned Mr Lancaster about the claims he was making to external parties.
"We do not have 2 billion tonnes of coal in each of the Bowen Basin tenements as they have not been drilled yet. Where did these figures come from?", the director wrote.
He then told Mr Lancaster he "will be seen as a liar or a con man … we will get caught out".
'It's a sure thing'
When Greywolf came into Danny and Beryl Paterson's lives in 2010, they were in financial distress.
Danny and Beryl's two daughters were born with an extremely rare medical condition.
The medical expenses were crippling — every dollar was precious.
Greywolf's pitch was presented as a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for financial salvation.
"That is definitely what was said to me. It's a sure thing and there is no risk," Danny says.
"It was a chance to set us up maybe with a little bit of money and make it so that the girls had money if anything happened to me and Beryl."
He says it looked like "a goldmine".
They scraped together thousands to invest in Greywolf, plus some help from Danny's elderly mother.
Five years after investing, their daughter Becky's health suddenly deteriorated and the family wanted to travel overseas for medical help.
But Greywolf's promised windfall still had not materialised.
"If we got any return with Greywolf, it would've been fantastic. We could have done all that but in the end, it was just too late for her," Beryl says.
Becky died seven years ago, succumbing to encephalitis.
'A vehicle to spend other people's money': Whistleblower
A Greywolf insider has blown the whistle to Four Corners, revealing how the company's finances were run.
Daniel Flett is the former chief financial officer and company secretary of Greywolf and has never spoken publicly before.
"It's setting the truth free. For years, I felt like there was a wrong that needed to be corrected," Daniel says.
He describes his time at the company as "chaotic", and a "clusterf***".
Daniel worked for Greywolf when the money was flowing in from hopeful investors. But according to what he witnessed, it was not responsibly managed or spent.
"They pissed it up a wall, if I'm being crass," he says.
He says money was wasted on first-class flights, private rooms at Chinese restaurants and limousines.
"A lot of it was just all for show. The first-class travel didn't need to happen … it was just for the power and prestige, to keep up the appearance," he says.
While shareholder money was being spent on lavish lunches and luxurious travel, Daniel says little was spent on mining exploration.
"It would equate to approximately 10 per cent of all funds raised, during my time at Greywolf," he says.
"It became more and more apparent that it was just a vehicle for people to spend other people's money.
"It makes me sick to my stomach because I was paid by Greywolf, I collected a wage … I told people that yes, it was a legitimate company, and it did have the assets."
'We're just battlers'
When a customer introduced Lorraine Fitzjohn to the chance of investing in Greywolf, it felt like a gift.
"I felt like I was special. I thought I was blessed," she says.
She wanted to share the blessing with her family.
Lorraine and her husband did their own research, as well as getting their accountant to check Greywolf out.
"The opportunity was to get into a starter mining company," she says.
The shares were super-cheap and the chance to buy them was reserved for only a special few, according to the pitch.
"We'd been promised from day dot that it was going onto the ASX. Right from day dot."
Lorraine says throughout all the promises and the spruiking, risk was never discussed by Greywolf.
"No one ever mentioned it was risky. No one ever said it was a risk."
So she put in more than $100,000, including her superannuation.
Like so many other Greywolf shareholders, Lorraine was unfamiliar with the world of investing.
At least a dozen people in her extended family invested in Greywolf.
Her sister-in-law Christine Holbrook bought in.
Along with her husband and sons, the supermarket worker estimates they invested $61,000.
It was the first time they had ever bought shares.
"We're just battlers. We did what we thought was right, we were led to believe it was going to make money," Christine says.
She has no idea where the money went, and feels disgusted.
"We were just fed lie after lie."
'It makes me sick'
Despite all the promises, Greywolf never listed on the stock exchange.
Daniel Flett blew the whistle to ASIC about Greywolf and Edward Lancaster back in 2012, without success.
"I raised the alarm, gave all the evidence through the proper channels and not even a phone call, email, nothing. I could have given them whatever they wanted. Not a peep from them," he says.
Four Corners has obtained complaints to the corporate regulator, ASIC, about Mr Lancaster's business ventures that span a decade.
Greywolf finally went under in 2019.
Liquidators have found Greywolf was likely trading insolvent since 2014 all the way to the end.
By then, Greywolf had issued more than 411 million shares, totalling more than $7 million.
"Jesus. That's shocking," Daniel says.
"It makes me sick thinking that what … should have been a proper company with assets behind it and a value there, and should have made people money, that Greywolf [was] essentially conning people out of their savings."
Having resigned as a director of Greywolf in 2015, Mr Lancaster has been free to establish a new mining exploration company.
The company is called Lithium Gold Mines Australia, with Mr Lancaster actively courting unsuspecting investors on Facebook and through small businesses around the NSW Central Coast.
When Four Corners contacted him, the company's website was taken down a few hours later.
Mr Lancaster denies misleading shareholders and says his current company is "legitimate and it will list on the ASX".
Asked why investors should trust him now, he says: "I don't care whether they trust me or not. Who cares?"
ASIC said in a statement it had received complaints about both Greywolf and Lithium-Gold Mines Australia.
In one case, the regulator won a court order against Greywolf over its failure to keep proper company records.
ASIC said it had received other complaints against the two companies and determined no further action would be taken.
"This does not mean the companies were cleared of wrongdoing, but that ASIC did not have sufficient information or evidence to pursue the matter," it said.
Watch on ABC iview as Four Corners pursues the elusive businessman and the missing money people invested in his business.
