A former girlfriend of underworld killer George Marrogi has avoided jail on money laundering charges after a court accepted she was simply his ‘patsy’.
On Monday, one of Marrogi’s former girlfriends, Jessica Homa, pleaded guilty to unknowingly helping the crime boss launder $100,000 through her wedding events company.
She walked free from the Melbourne Magistrates’ Court on Wednesday without conviction on a two-year good behavior bond.
Melbourne woman Jessica Homa was pictured accepting bundles of ill-gotten cash from the Marrogi clan
George Marrogi, 33, masterminded a $50 million drug deal behind bars
In releasing her, Magistrate Kieran Gilligan accepted that the then 24-year-old had been used by Marrogi to do his evil bidding.
“The circumstances of this case show that the crime was committed under extenuating circumstances,” he said.
“I think you were Marrogi’s idiot and simply the conduit for him and his associates to launder money from these illegal activities.”
The 27-year-old was Marrogi’s second girlfriend to be jailed for her involvement with Marrogi and his Melbourne Notorious Crime Family gang.
Homa had found out how Marrogi was playing her while she was doing it with another woman.
She also found out that a relationship could have landed her in jail for up to a year.
In February, Marrogi’s other girlfriend, Antonietta Mannella, 28, was sentenced to 13 years in prison after admitting helping him run his international drug importing syndicate.
Marrogi was sentenced last year by the Supreme Court of Victoria to a total of 32 years in prison for the cold-blooded public execution of a drug rival.
The court heard the crime boss had sunk his claws into Homa, manipulating and isolating her from her family in a bid to help him hide the proceeds of his methamphetamine trafficking in prison.
Her lawyer, Doctor Mark Gumbleton, said Homa had been a director of a legitimate wedding company when Marrogi persuaded her to accept $105,000 in cash.
Jessica Homa, a Melbourne woman, was also accused of doing Marrogi’s orders
In sentencing, Mr Gilligan accepted that Marrogi had demanded Homa pay him back the money, which she had used as wages for her wedding business.
He further accepted that Marrogi Homa had her name put on a $3 million property, which she had to transfer upon sale and pay the capital gains tax to the tax authorities out of her own pocket.
‘You have not achieved any financial benefit and have in fact incurred a debt to the tax authorities. Otherwise the company had been operating legally,” Gilligan said.
The court heard that Homa’s reputation was left in tatters after the media reported her role in Marrogi’s money laundering operation.
Dr. Gumbleton had argued that an “entire page” published in Melbourne’s Herald Sun had contributed to “extra-curial punishment” of his client – a submission accepted by the magistrate.
“You will see that Mrs. Homa is pictured from head to toe on Page 7 of our most widely circulated newspaper,” Dr. Gumbleton said.
Charity worker Antonietta Mannella was jailed after helping Marrogi run his business from prison
Homa’s sentence is the first of a dozen people charged over Marrogi’s money laundering activities through a police operation codenamed “Steelers.”
Marrogi’s brother Jesse Marrogi will appear in court Thursday for his alleged involvement in the crime.
Mannella, who appeared in court from prison on Monday, and Marrogi’s own mother Madlin Enwiya have both pleaded guilty to money laundering, and their cases will go to trial in December.
The County Court of Victoria heard in January that Mannella was the best friend of Marrogi’s late sister when she inexplicably contacted the prison officer.
She was caught trying to transport 800 liters of the drug Butanediol from South Australia to Victoria.
The court heard that Australian Federal Police had tapped Mannella’s phone and listened to every conversation she had with the crime boss.
