The porn king and his links to teams
Dylan Welch | smh.com.au July 5, 2009
CONTROVERSIAL links to the sporting and political world, allegations of selling pirated and illegal hard-core films, as well as appearances in sex tapes and a Filipina porn star girlfriend - welcome to the world of Con Ange.
Now hailed as one of Australia's porn kings, Mr Ange is a controversial figure in the already colourful pornography industry.
He also haunts the periphery of the scandal rocking rugby league, with revelations in May of his relationship with disgraced Cronulla boss Tony Zappia and accusations that Ange provided "adult material" to players.
Today The Sun-Herald can reveal Mr Ange is also involved with another of the men involved in the scandal, Vince Lombardo. Mr Lombardo is the property developer friend of embattled Parramatta chairman, Roy Spagnolo.
Mr Ange and Mr Lombardo co-own St Paul's Tavern in downtown Brisbane, which they developed and reopened together in 2002.
Mr Ange, 49, also recently created a weight-loss company with former State Liberals leader Kerry Chikarovski.
Mr Ange was contacted by The Sun-Herald yesterday about this story but declined to answer anything over the phone. He asked that the newspaper instead email questions to him. He did not respond to the email and he did not answer his phone for the rest of the day.
Well-known in the adult industry, the wig-wearing entrepreneur had his beginnings when he opened an adult book store in Sydney two decades ago. Through a series of canny business manoeuvres Mr Ange turned that modest business enterprise into one of Australia's biggest adult store chains.
A senior adult industry source who has known Mr Ange since he appeared on the scene in the 1980s, said Mr Ange represented the "bad" end of the adult industry.
Mr Ange is one of the "top three" adult businessmen in Australia, after the owners of Club X and Sexytime, and has interests in as many as 50 separate adult stores, the source said.
Then there is Mr Ange's business involvement with Ms Chikarovski, which was formalised in February when the pair created a company named Pharmaslim.
Ms Chikarovski, who runs a political lobbying firm, is the sole director and holds a 30 per cent stake in the company. Mr Ange holds the remaining 70 per cent stake.
Speaking from London, Ms Chikarovski said the company was not yet operational. "It's just a proposal at the moment."
The Sun-Herald does not suggest she has any association with any other aspect of Mr Ange's business interests.
Mr Ange's primary business, Everything Adult, is in the top four adult store chains in Australia and has 23 stores across the three eastern states. He has interests in many of the stores either through the freehold or full or part ownership of the business.
His involvement in Everything Adult has also caused him numerous legal headaches. Mr Ange and business partners have been repeatedly fined in Queensland and NSW for selling X-rated videos as well as hard-core films that had already been refused classification.
The most recent fine was in Queensland last September, when he and business partner Costa George were fined $5000 each.
Another area of Mr Ange's life that has attracted controversy is his relationship with the National Rugby League.
Mr Ange has infiltrated the game to such an extent that he travelled with Parramatta players on an overseas tour several years ago, took the Cronulla Sutherland Sharks to a North Sydney restaurant for a slap-up pre-season meal and pays over the odds at Manly Sea Eagles so that he can gain ready access to the dressing rooms.
It is well known among the players that Mr Ange is happy to provide free "product", although when he turned up to the North Sydney restaurant earlier this year with two boxes of condoms, lubricant and adult films the players were nonplussed by at least one genre of movie: several gay porn films were left in the restaurant when the group left.
Mr Ange was well known to the Sharks through his association with Mr Zappia and he was allowed free access into the dressing rooms, sometimes with "friends". But Mr Ange was originally a Manly Sea Eagles fan. He still pays $70,000 a year to the club for season tickets in a corporate box. The largesse allows him a status within the club on par with a major sponsor.
Mr Ange is the co-owner of US adult film production company Wildlife Digital, most famous for its Screw My Wife, Please series of films. According to adult film websites, the company has released about 150 adult films.
Mr Ange, under the stage name "Con Aussie", has also produced dozens of his company's movies. What is less known is that he also features in many of his movies as an extra, although not in any sex scenes.
In one movie, Manila Exposed 1, Mr Ange and his then friend, Connie, are filmed walking in Manila. They hold hands and buy ice-creams. In the next scene Connie and another young Filipina kiss, and proceed to have explicit sex with two men.
A former employee of one of Mr Ange's Sydney adult stores alleged some of the DVDs and video cassettes in the store were pirated.
Mr Ange owns a shopfront only a few roads from his family's $2 million mansion, "St Malo", in North Sydney.
The warehouse was recently moved a few doors up the street. Both the former staffer and a former business partner recall going into the old warehouse and seeing commercial-grade colour printers that were being used to print out facsimiles of movie covers.
The former clerk said several years ago he had seen a bank of DVD and video-cassette machines at the warehouse Mr Ange allegedly used to copy movies he bought overseas.
