Aaron Salvestrin did not attend the court hearing. Photo: LinkedIn.
A lawyer representing a former Griffith winemaker accused of fraud says the court case isn’t ready to proceed because the brief of evidence is impossible to understand and he doesn’t have the password to open some documents.
Aaron Salvestrin, 31, has been charged with 16 counts of dishonestly trying to obtain a gain from a Commonwealth entity and one count of using a forged document for a public official to accept as genuine.
At a Sydney court hearing on Tuesday (9 December), the Commonwealth prosecutor confirmed she had certified all 17 charges against Mr Salvestrin, meaning the Commonwealth decided there is enough evidence to proceed with trying to prosecute the charges, and has sent a brief of evidence to his defence lawyer Russ Johnson.
The next stage of proceedings is supposed to be a case conference, where Mr Johnson meets with prosecutors to discuss the charges and decide whether his Griffith client will plead guilty or not guilty.
“Has a date been fixed for case conference?” Magistrate Clare Farnan asked Mr Johnson.
“The position of Mr Salvestrin is that the matter is not ready to proceed to a case conference,” Mr Johnson responded.
The Sydney-based lawyer told the court the brief of evidence presented to him by prosecutors was “impossible to understand”.
“I don’t understand what you mean by that. Do you mean that it’s written in a foreign language? Or you can’t read it because the computer’s not capable of opening it? What’s going on? What’s the problem?” Magistrate Farnan asked.
Mr Johnson said there were many problems with the electronic files given to him.
“About half of the links in the index are broken. Some of the files you attempt to open are password-protected and I don’t have the password,” he said.
Magistrate Farnan responded: “Would you like me to order the Commonwealth serve a paper copy of the brief on you? What do you want me to do?”
Mr Johnson said: “I would like an adjournment to 3 February so [prosecutors] can get their house in order and I’ll write to them telling them what the problems are.”
The Commonwealth prosecutor agreed to the postponement and said she would do all that was necessary to ensure problems with the brief of evidence were addressed.
Mr Salvestrin, who did not attend Tuesday’s hearing, will remain on bail in the meantime.
At a previous court hearing, in August 2025, he was granted bail under the condition he report to Dee Why Police Station (in Sydney) once daily between 8 am and 8 pm.
He was also ordered to surrender any passports he held to any police officer at the Dee Why Police Area Command within 12 hours; to not apply for any passport or travel document; and to not enter any point of departure (such as an airport) in Australia.
Under his bail conditions, he is to remain within the Sydney Northern Beaches postcode 2099, but can travel to Griffith provided he notifies police of his intention to do so 24 hours in advance.
Mr Salvestrin founded the Hanwood-based winery San Pareil Estate in 2018. Four years later, the company went into liquidation with alleged debts of more than $30 million.
