A client has been ditched by her lawyer after allegations of bigamy and fraud were made against her. Perth solicitor John Hammond was representing Ashton Foley, a whistleblower, when her identity began to spectacularly unravel.
Foley had been hired as the chief operating officer of Peel Health Campus but quit last October alleging that its parent company engaged in workplace bullying and corruption, including bribing doctors and paying backhanders to its major shareholder. Foley had become something of a national darling after her claims of malpractice sparked a government inquiry. Clayton Utz was pilloried in the press as a bully when it won the right to search her home on behalf of her ex-employer.
But now Foley's halo is slipping, if not disappearing down the drain. When confronted by reporters the US-raised emmigrant confessed that she spent six weeks in a Georgia jail for fraud and identity theft in 2008. Now it turns out she's wanted on fresh theft and identify charges laid in 2011. And in a further colourful development it's been alleged that she was once arrested in Georgia for bigamy.
It all got too much for Hammond. The lawyer refused to say exactly why he ditched Foley, but teased that "When I finish my legal career I am going to have plenty of information for a book". Apparently the revelations also came as a surprise to Wayne Foley, one of her husbands, who said "This has turned into astral dimensions". Indeed.
Meanwhile Foley, who has used the aliases Michelle Ritter, Michelle Gonzalez and Michelle Ariotti, is currently somewhere in the Victorian outback in an overdue hire car, on the run from authorities who want to question her about her visa and the professional qualifications she used to get her job. It's all gone a bit Thelma and Louise.
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Foley had been hired as the chief operating officer of Peel Health Campus but quit last October alleging that its parent company engaged in workplace bullying and corruption, including bribing doctors and paying backhanders to its major shareholder. Foley had become something of a national darling after her claims of malpractice sparked a government inquiry. Clayton Utz was pilloried in the press as a bully when it won the right to search her home on behalf of her ex-employer.
But now Foley's halo is slipping, if not disappearing down the drain. When confronted by reporters the US-raised emmigrant confessed that she spent six weeks in a Georgia jail for fraud and identity theft in 2008. Now it turns out she's wanted on fresh theft and identify charges laid in 2011. And in a further colourful development it's been alleged that she was once arrested in Georgia for bigamy.
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Some of Foley's husbands react to the news |
It all got too much for Hammond. The lawyer refused to say exactly why he ditched Foley, but teased that "When I finish my legal career I am going to have plenty of information for a book". Apparently the revelations also came as a surprise to Wayne Foley, one of her husbands, who said "This has turned into astral dimensions". Indeed.
Meanwhile Foley, who has used the aliases Michelle Ritter, Michelle Gonzalez and Michelle Ariotti, is currently somewhere in the Victorian outback in an overdue hire car, on the run from authorities who want to question her about her visa and the professional qualifications she used to get her job. It's all gone a bit Thelma and Louise.
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