A Melbourne insurance broker has been charged with 17 counts involving the alleged misuse of millions of dollars of client money and inflated insurance invoices. 

Renato De Maria, the sole director of Melbourne-based Alliance Insurance Broking Services (AIBS), is charged with the misuse of monies held in trust accounts between July 2016 and April 2021. The offences can incur large fines and a jail term of up to 15 years. 

The 17th charge says that over three years to February 2019, Mr de Maria used his position dishonestly to "gain advantage for himself, namely $14.7 million".  

In a court appearance via video link in the Melbourne Magistrates’ Court last week, Mr De Maria’s lawyer Tony Hargreaves requested a six-week period to prepare his defence. He will next appear on August 14.  

Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions Senior Federal Prosecutor Kathy Piechutowska is prosecuting the matter following an investigation by ASIC, which two years ago obtained urgent orders in the Federal Court restraining  Mr De Maria from transferring funds from five business accounts or disposing of assets. 

ASIC alleges Mr de Maria “caused substantial client money held by AIBS to be improperly paid into a bank account for his own personal benefit. It says the orders were made “to preserve assets for the benefit and protection of AIBS’s insured clients and insurance providers”. 

It says Mr De Maria, who last year was convicted for publication of an intimate image of his former wife, invested $7.9 million of client money into an account held by Clients Link Investments, which shares the same director as Fair Link Investments, which had lent Mr De Maria at least $7.9 million. 

ASIC investigated whether this “was an arm’s-length investment arrangement”. It says the arrangement appears to have been arranged by Mr De Maria to enable him to borrow funds for the personal use of him and his wife. 

"ASIC has alleged that the $7.9 million of client money has been misused by Mr De Maria for his personal benefit,” the regulator says.  

Mr De Maria, who goes by the name of Rennie, was a manager at GE Capital Fleet Services for more than seven years until he founded Alliance almost 25 years ago, according to LinkedIn, which also states he was a director at Safe-Guard, which provides vehicle insurance. 

A second LinkedIn entry says he is self-employed and based in Georgia in the US, where Safe-Guard is headquartered.  

Local media has previously reported Mr De Maria sold a property in Toorak for around $9 million in 2021 and was living on a large property near the regional town of Mansfield.