Peter Foster has launched legal action against Today Show host Karl Stefanovic and the Nine Network, alleging they conspired with a rogue police officer to orchestrate his wrongful arrest for the benefit of a television exclusive. The high-profile lawsuit, filed in the NSW Supreme Court, seeks more than $4 million in damages.
The case follows a recent legal win for Foster who was awarded over $170,000 in costs after a magistrate found he had been unlawfully arrested and imprisoned in 2020. That arrest—captured live by 60 Minutes cameras and Stefanovic himself—took place on a beach in Port Douglas and later featured in the follow-up report ‘Despicable Him‘.
Foster was accused of masterminding a sophisticated sports betting scam that allegedly defrauded a former fighter pilot and Hong Kong-based investor of millions in Bitcoin. According to 60 Minutes and private investigator Ken Gamble, Foster had promised high returns through a betting syndicate but failed to deliver.
However, Magistrate Jennifer Atkinson criticised NSW Police’s handling of Foster’s 2020 arrest, saying it was based on a brief of evidence from Gamble that relied on hearsay, not facts.
“I am not satisfied it was carried out in a reasonable and proper way,” Magistrate Atkinson said in her findings. She found police had passed off Gamble’s investigative work as their own and failed to properly verify it.
An internal police review also found Detective Sergeant Roland Winter authorised Foster’s arrest without proper approvals and had improperly shared information with Gamble. Atkinson granted Foster $168,752 to be paid from public funds, considering that Foster had employed barristers to manage the complex case.
Following the case being dropped, Foster is reportedly seeking legal action against Stefanovic and the Nine Network for conspiring against him in a “made for TV arrest”,
“We’re pursuing Channel Nine and Stefanovic, and… it’s not just for your simple old defamation because, you know, my reputation isn’t worth a hell of a lot,” Foster told Daily Mail Australia. “What we’re aiming for is [suing over] the arrest on the beach in Port Douglas.”
Foster claims the arrest was “coordinated” between Nine, Stefanovic, private investigator Ken Gamble, and a police officer.
“They orchestrated [the arrest] on the Thursday morning so they could put their story to bed for that Sunday night’s 60 Minutes, and it was a mad dash without authority,” he said.
“Forget the injury—I mean, I walk like a crippled crab now—they f***ed my knee right up—but forget that, it was the intentional infliction of emotional distress”.
According to Foster, Channel Nine acted as “a willing participant” and failed in its duty to conduct proper checks. “Channel Nine put fuel on the fire… and the bottom line is, I wrongly copped seven and a half months of imprisonment.”
He alleges that Stefanovic led the charge to pursue the story and collaborated closely with 60 Minutes producers and Gamble. “We believe Stefanovic drove this himself. He wanted the story,” Foster said.
“He’s been playing the same old silly boy next door for 20 years. It’s a tired old act. And all of a sudden he realised that he had to try and get some credibility… They saw me as a soft target, but they didn’t follow the proper channels, and they got it wrong.”
“Karl Stefanovic thought he could walk over my body to promote his career, and I’m just not going to cop it… and now I’ve got a multimillion-dollar action.”
“It was all b***ocks… and as far as I see it, if they can do it to me, they can do it to anybody… it’s all just got to come out,” Foster said.
Stefanovic’s original 60 Minutes report claimed to include covert audio recordings of Foster allegedly seeking to hire a hitman to target Gamble. Foster denied the claim, saying the recordings were “fabricated.”
In a televised encounter, Stefanovic told him: “I’ve heard this tape, Peter, and it’s not good—you ordering a hit on Ken Gamble.” Foster responded: “Well, it’s serious if you publish such a defamatory false allegation.”
Nine told the Daily Mail that it is unaware of any legal proceedings initiated against the network or Stefanovic, who has been on leave for two weeks and was back on air this morning. B&T contacted Nine, which declined to comment at this time.
Foster, however, took to Facebook earlier this week to declare he was “currently trying to serve legal papers on Karl Stefanovic,” and posted a meme parodying Where’s Wally? titled Where’s Karl? He wrote: “Funny thing is, he’s suddenly gone off air for two weeks during the biggest TV cycle of the year… Karl—if you’re reading this, you can run but you can’t hide. Believe me… I should know.”
Ken Gamble also said he was unaware of any action initiated by Foster.
While NSW Police dropped their charges against Foster in early 2021, Queensland Police have since laid similar charges, which he is currently contesting.
