User:Rebecca/Drafts/Andrew Theophanous

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

You have new messages (last change).

Andrew Charles Theophanous is an Australian politician. He was an Australian Labor Party member of the Australian House of Representatives from 1980 to 2000, and an independent member from 2000 to 2001. He subsequently achieved notoriety in 2002 when he was convicted on fraud charges and sentenced to three and a half years in prison, later halved by the Court of Appeal.

Theophanous was born in Cyprus into a Greek Cypriot family. His family moved to Australia at a young age, and he initially became an academic. He later switched to politics, however, and was first elected as the Labor member for the Melbourne electorate of Burke in 1980. In the same year, he wrote the book Australian Democracy In Crisis: A Radical Approach To Australian Politics. In 1984, Burke was severely affected by a redistribution, and Theophanous switched to the new safe Labor electorate of Calwell in 1984.

Theophanous was heavily interested in immigration matters, and was known for his advocacy on behalf of migrants in his electorate. In 1989, he was appointed as the Chairman of the Joint Standing Committee on Migration. In 1992, while in this role, he earned the support of many in the Chinese community when he openly opposed the committee's recommendation that 20,000 students who had remained in Australia after the Tiananmen Square massacre should be sent home when their visas expired. Theophanous' intervention was critical in the Keating government's subsequent decision to allow most of those students to remain in Australia.

In 1993, Theophanous was promoted to his first parliamentary position, as Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Community Services and Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Health.

  • corruption allegations

In December, he lost the health portion of his portfolio, but retained the remainder.

Theophanous was again promoted in March 1994, when he was appointed as the Parliamentary Secretary to Prime Minister Paul Keating.

  • defamation action against Ruxton

He was to return to the backbenches, however, after the Keating government's defeat at the 1996 election.


  • March 4, 1999 - NCA raids his offices
  • July 12, 1999 - Theophanous summonsed to appear in court on 27 charges of accepting more than $35,000 from people wanting assistance with immigration problems. The charges are later reduced to six.
  • March 10, 2000 - Theophanous committed to stand trial

During 1998 and 1999, Theophanous came under suspicion for being involved in migration fraud, and the National Crime Authority launched an investigation, codenamed Operation Legume. Firstly, Theophanous' phones were tapped - somewhat controversially, as he remained a sitting MP. When this failed to produce any evidence, the NCA launched a sting operation, with the assistance of a convicted heroin dealer turned informer, who was given the fake name of Frank Cheung. Cheung approached Theophanous and asked for his assistance in securing a short-term visa for his girlfriend in exchange for sexual favors.

In late June 1999, the NCA investigation became public knowledge. Theophanous angrily denied any wrongdoing in a heated exchange in parliament, and the Sunday television program ran the saga as their cover story on June 27.


story first broke in the media

In 1999, June 2000, it was public knowledge that Theophanous was under investigation by the National Crime Authority. On June 28, Theophanous publicly attacked NCA head John Broome and accused the organisation of misusing its powers. Not long after, it became clear that Theophanous would not retain Labor pre-selection to retain his seat at the 2001 election. He unsuccessfully attempted to install his brother, Theo, a member of the Victorian Legislative Council as his replacement. He subsequently resigned from the party on October 18, 2000, and announced that he would serve out his term as an independent. He attempted to recontest the seat himself at the 2001 election, but polled only 9.6% of the vote and was soundly defeated by the Labor candidate, former Theophanous staffer Maria Vamvakinou.

In the aftermath of the NCA investigation, Theophanous was charged with 27 different charges, including allegations of accepting bribes and defrauding the Commonwealth. He was subsequently tried in the County Court, and was found guilty of four charges on May 22, 2002.

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org../../../r/e/b/User%7ERebecca_Drafts_Andrew_Theophanous_db41.html"