The weight loss guru and the alleged plot to blackmail his friend for $9 million home

Self-styled weight loss guru Patrick Naegeli allegedly sat at the dining room table of his flashy millionaire friend last September, handed him a manila folder and imparted an ominous message: “It’s come to this.”

Inside the folder was the transcript of an intimate conversation between the pair that Naegeli had secretly recorded three months earlier, in which his friend bragged about how much money he had spent partying with sex workers, police say.

The friend, who held an extensive portfolio of luxury homes dotted across Melbourne’s inner-east worth tens of millions of dollars, had a family with no idea of his extramarital activities. Naegeli put this to him at one of those homes: think wide streets, mansions with cut lawns and Teslas zipping by outside.

“This is incriminating information about you,” Naegeli allegedly told his friend, according to a police brief of evidence filed in court and released to this masthead. “I’m going to tell you what I want for this information to go away.”

Naegeli’s alleged plan was simple: he would buy a property from his friend for $2 million instead of the $9 million it was worth. The remaining $7 million would act as insurance for his friend and his family’s safety. If his friend refused to comply, Naegeli would send the incriminating folder to the man’s wife.

The alleged blackmail plot was initiated in the months after a separate failed legal bid undertaken by Naegeli. A weight-loss guru and co-founder of the “Human Enhancement Project” with his mother, Naegeli had mixed with the affluent in Sydney and Melbourne and sought to insert himself into the upper echelons of societal power.

But within days of the alleged blackmail, police raided Naegeli’s home, where they say they found the manila folder, two covert recorders, several phones, and hundreds of tablets and vials of steroids and testosterone – some designed for horses – stashed alongside a haul of opioid painkillers inside the walk-in robe and a safe in the garage.

Details of Naegeli’s alleged failed blackmail attempt were revealed during a recent hearing in Melbourne Magistrates’ Court, where the 39-year-old’s lawyers unsuccessfully fought to have his identity suppressed.

But those close to Naegeli detected something was off. “At the end of the day, this guy’s alright, but he’s got a dark side,” a former friend, speaking anonymously to protect their identity, said. “He’s got a dual personality.”

This masthead approached Naegeli and his mother for comment, but did not receive a response.

Patrick’s journey

A central part of the weight loss and fitness guru industry is the mythology of transformation: the personal journey which allows an individual to change from one person to another. The “before and after” narrative to go with the “before and after” photos.

Naegeli lays out his story on a website for his business, Switch Superfoods, in a now-deleted tell-all personal narrative. Switch sold pouches of an “All Natural, Vegan Friendly Superfood” that Naegeli called “revolutionary”.

Entitled “Patrick’s Journey”, in the story on the website, Naegeli says he had struggled with irritable bowel syndrome his entire life, which developed into poor eating habits and caused him to gain so much weight that he “couldn’t weigh ... on regular scales”.

“This was a wake-up call,” he told potential buyers.

Naegeli set up his business through Tom Kotsimbos, who also established shell companies for drug kingpin Tony Mokbel, accused money launderers Tom Karas and Irene Meletsis, and members of the Hells Angels motorcycle club. In doing so, this masthead does not suggest that Kotsimbos has done anything illegal.

Naegeli sold the shakes, which carry the appearance of green sludge, to people across wealthy pockets in Melbourne’s inner-eastern suburbs. With about 10,000 followers on Instagram, the business wasn’t hugely successful, but paved the way for his next extravagant venture.

The ‘Human Enhancement Project’

In September 2013, a decade before the alleged blackmail, Naegeli and his mother, Dita, set up an unrelated entity called the Human Enhancement Project.

Incorporation documents obtained by this masthead show the venture had the “prime intent” of improving “the quality and quantity of life for all humankind through lifestyle, nutrition, exercise, supplementation or implementing scientific breakthroughs”.

He gave himself the title of “Development Primary”, his mother “Communications Primary”, and opened a bank account.

“Since experiencing my own health issues some years back, I developed an interest in regenerative medicine and health … I have been seeking ways to make more of a positive impact in the world,” Naegeli deposed in a lawsuit involving the company.

Seeking research funding, Naegeli met world-renowned art collector John Schaeffer and partner Charles Blinkworth, and a business they were associated with, CRB Investment Holdings.

The pair wooed him with promises of wild returns. Blinkworth dazzled him with a Lamborghini, dropped $500 on lunch paired with a $500 bottle of wine, and promised Naegeli that such luxuries awaited him on the other side of their deal. Schaeffer bragged that a wing at the Art Gallery of NSW was “named after me”.

Naegeli was initially asked to put up $20 million, but eventually they settled on $500,000. The money was lent to CRB on the agreement the company would pay it back at 1200 per cent per annum.

“How is that even possible, 100 per cent per month,” Naegeli said at the time, “did I hear right?”

Schaeffer and Blinkworth both died in 2020, within six months of each other, in unrelated circumstances before the sum could be paid back. Naegeli took legal action through the Supreme Court of NSW against their estates, claiming $6.5 million.

In a judgment handed down in May last year, Naegeli admitted he might have been duped when he went to Blinkworth’s funeral in February 2020 and saw photos of the family absent of extravagant displays of wealth.

“Just the photos were standard family sort of photos ... like there was nothing fancy about it ... it was like I was at somebody else’s funeral,” he told Justice James Stevenson during the civil trial.

The Lamborghini, he figured, may have been rented.

Stevenson pondered Naegeli’s role in the scheme, saying he appeared to be an unsophisticated investor, someone “unworldly and commercially naive”.

Naegeli got his money back, with a much lower rate of interest, but failed to claw back the $6.5 million he sought, the court ruled. CRB went into administration in 2022.

In the months after the judge’s ruling last year, Naegeli was back in Melbourne and put his alleged blackmail plan in motion.

Naegeli’s alleged plan

Filed court documents allege that as Naegeli’s millionaire friend flicked through the pages inside the manila folder, he was overcome by shock. Then, by fear.

“You’re blackmailing me, why?” he asked.

“Stop saying that word,” Naegeli replied, “because you won’t leave here in one piece.”

At Naegeli’s fingertips was a world of luxury – a $9 million house fitted with a swimming pool, a home movie theatre, a gym and a wine cellar crammed full of bottles of Penfolds. A far cry from the Werribee brick home he had lived in years earlier.

“I know about your wife, I know about your brother, I know about your kids, your parents, your wife’s parents,” Naegeli allegedly told his friend.

When the friend revealed that the property already had a $6 million debt attached to it, Naegeli told him to sort it out.

“You’re lucky I don’t ask for more,” he said.

Then Naegeli allegedly gave him a deadline: 1pm on Wednesday, September 20, 2023.

“I want to move in this week. If you don’t, I will execute plan B.”

The alleged victim attempted to defuse the situation, offering to improve the condition of Naegeli’s home instead.

“I don’t want to live here,” Naegeli said. “It’s mouldy.”

As the pair shook hands to end the meeting, Naegeli allegedly leaned in to deliver a final warning: “You’re best to wait here five minutes as I have to call off the guys so that you can get home safely.”

The day before, it’s alleged Naegeli sent his friend a confidentiality deed to sign before the meeting and, upon his arrival, urged the man to leave his phone outside.

But his attempts to keep the meeting secret were futile. His alleged victim, fearing his family was in danger, rushed to the closest police station where he reported the conversation.

One thing that will remain confidential is the identity of his friend. The man, a multimillionaire property owner, is protected by a legal rule colloquially known as the “blackmail victim principle”.

The identity of blackmail victims should be kept secret, the dictum goes, because identifying them would effectively carry out the blackmailer’s threat.

Naegeli is charged with making unwarranted demands with menaces, six counts of possessing a drug of dependence, two counts of possessing a schedule 4 poison and failing to comply with a police order.

He will return to court for a one-day committal hearing in August. He is yet to formally enter a plea.

Get the day’s breaking news, entertainment ideas and a long read to enjoy. Sign up to receive our Evening Edition newsletter here.