A young ‘cyber security expert’ accused of trying to con The Block with fake bank slips has broken her silence to tell her side of the story from a remote island paradise off the coast of Portugal.
Alleged ‘international conwoman’ Emese Fajk, 29, flew 18,000km to the other side of the world earlier this year in the wake of her failed purchase of the Channel Nine show’s $4.2million winning home.
The Hungarian-born accused fraudster has broken her silence in an Instagram video addressing the allegations and accusing the media of bias while insisting all she wants is for the saga to be over.
She begins the ‘unedited and unfiltered’ video by addressing recent claims made by Steve Silva, a cryptocurrency trader whom she met on Tinder while setting up her life in Madeira.
He claimed to Daily Mail Australia the pair briefly dated and supplied an email dated April 15 from the accused Block scammer claiming that she had to leave Australia ‘because it got to the point where I just couldn’t exist there anymore’.
Fajk insists Mr Silva isn’t a former flame.
Emese Fajk (pictured) has told her side of the side in what she describes as an unedited and unfiltered video
‘I met him very briefly. He was not my boyfriend and would not take no for an answer in any situation,’ she claims in the video.
‘He knew about my previous scandal and tried to pressure me by threatening to go to the press if he didn’t get what he wanted.’
She also denied allegations she pulled the same scam on her landlord in Madeira that she allegedly used on The Block’s producers last December.
She is accused of sending her Portuguese landlord fake ‘proof of payment’ screenshots – just as she allegedly did to Channel Nine to ‘prove’ she could pay for Jimmy and Tam’s Palm Springs style Brighton home last year.
Fajk also denies she fled Australia to escape The Block scandal.
‘The reality of this situation is that I didn’t not flee Australia, I didn’t need to flee and I only left at the end of February,’ Fajk claimed.
‘I travelled to Europe, which as always my primary home ground. This trip was initially planned for the spring of 2020 but was postponed due to the pandemic.’
So much for that: ‘Cyber security expert’ Emese Fajk placed the winning $4.2million bid on Jimmy and Tam’s carefully renovated Block house
‘I needed to be with the people who I love and have supported me from day one.’
Fajk also denied claims of a criminal investigation or legal action against her, claiming she ‘was never subjected to such proceedings.’
She appears almost unrecognisable in recent pictures sporting long blonde hair extensions.
In the second half of the six minute video, she broke her silence on The Block scandal.
‘So instead of talking about my hair extensions – which, by the way, I got in Australia along with my new nose piercing – let’s talk about the seemingly-invisible elephant in the room: the house,’ Fajk continues.
‘The bottom line is that I got the details far too late. Someone left things to the last minute and there was no way to make the settlement happen on time.
‘How can anyone get anything ready for a settlement of this magnitude in just one business day? That’s how much I had.
Emese Fajk (pictured recently) claims she got her hair extensions before she left Australia earlier this year
‘Throughout the purchase process, I was never in direct contact with Channel Nine or the Melbourne based law firm who handled the process.’
‘All communication was through my conveyancer.’
Fajk ends the video by admitting she was naive going into the process as she hinted more details will be revealed in the coming weeks ‘on my terms, on my platform’.
‘My fault in all this was that I did not know the purchase process and therefore was unable to spot mistakes or know what information was missing,’ she said.
‘I’m a 29-year-old girl building my own life and I will not continue to suffer in silence and let this hang above my head as some sort of dark cloud,’ she said.
‘I spent the last few months not in hiding, but trying to work out what my next steps should be.
‘There is more to come in the next few weeks and in the meantime I will publish all the evidence to support these claims,’
Fajk, 28, left and right, has found a hobby in deep sea diving. On left she holds a diver’s log book and on right she takes a selfie in a wetsuit
Allegedly now going by the name of Abigel Fuchs, Fajk is believed to be living in Funchal, the largest city of Madeira, a chain of islands in the north Atlantic Ocean.
She claimed in an Instagram story posted on Sunday her recent video wasn’t shot in Madeira but ‘on a long sandy beach’.
She has also wiped all photos from her Instagram except the video and a photo from the ‘fun’ video shoot.
Boyfriend’s sinking feeling about new Madeira love
On February 18 – just days after publicly announcing she was ‘giving up’ on The Block house – Fajk left Australia for Europe.
Later that month, while setting up her new life in Madeira, she met cryptocurrency trader Steve Silva on Tinder.
‘(She said) she was working with Apple and the United Nations, the same crap,’ the ex-boyfriend in an interview.
‘I sat in the hospital’s cafe and was like, s***, what did I get myself into?’
‘She said she was a CEO and I was the first boyfriend she’d had who made more money than her.’
But their short-lived relationship took a turn last week after Fajk claimed that she’d gone into isolation because her landlord had registered a positive Covid test.
In WhatsApp messages, Fajk claimed she was going to the hospital to get tested. But a suspicious Mr Silva said he waited for Fajk to turn up there for ‘hours’ and she never showed.
As he waited, Mr Silva looked up the rental where Fajk was staying and found she had left a review with her normal picture, but an unfamiliar name: Emese. A Google search of Emese’s name led him to discover a disturbing trove of news stories, including a series published by Daily Mail Australia recently.
‘I sat in the hospital’s cafe and was like, s***, what did I get myself into?’ Mr Silva said.
Good place to escape to: The archipelago of Madeira (lower right, in green circle) is off the coast of Portugal and the north-western tip of Africa – far away from Australia
Some of the coastline of Madeira – a chain of islands in the North Atlantic – which Fajk is now calling home
ANZ Bank scam: A repeat offender?
Fajk, 29, has repeatedly been accused of using faked bank receipts
What Mr Silva discovered was that Fajk had repeatedly been accused of sending fake bank screenshots to acquaintances in the past.
Last December, she sent The Block’s producer Julian Cress screengrabs of her ANZ online bank account as proof that she had paid the $426,500 deposit and $4,072,951 final settlement for Jimmy and Tam’s Palm Springs style home.
The money famously never arrived, with Fajk blaming an unnamed lawyer for the failed payment and claiming she didn’t have enough time to get the deal done.
Mr Silva soon learned that Fajk was – at that exact moment – accused of doing the same thing with her landlord in Funchal.
Her apartment’s owner – who Daily Mail Australia agreed not to name – said Fajk recently sent him a screengrab showing an alleged $4,215 ANZ Bank transfer she had paid for rent.
But the money never came. All he has received is 200 Euro in cash.
‘She gave me 200 Euro only in cash. She said 200 more on Wednesday.’
Above is the ANZ Bank screenshot Emese Fajk sent to her landlord in Madeira, Portugal, recently, as proof of payment for the apartment she is living in
This is the ‘proof of payment’ Emese Fajk sent to Channel Nine last year as proof she had paid $4,072,951 to buy Jimmy and Tam’s property on The Block
After Fajk’s bizarre Block scandal was exposed in the Australian media, two former associates also came forward with similar allegations against Fajk.
A British ex-boyfriend said he received a payment slip showing she had transferred him 50,000 pounds from Coutts Bank.
That money never arrived and an independent analysis showed the bank statement had clearly been photoshopped. (Fajk said the man’s claims were ‘vexatious and false’).
A Hungarian graphic designer likewise received an allegedly fake ANZ Bank slip from Fajk for a $AUD1000 bill. It also never arrived, despite Fajk claiming in messages that she had called her bank and was told transfers were taking longer than usual.
Mr Silva, Fajk’s new boyfriend, was enraged when he confronted Fajk about her alleged deception in WhatsApp messages last month. He warned her that she was ‘in so much trouble’.
Fajk then blocked him, he said.
Date night! Fajk shares a meal with her ex-boyfriend in Madeira above. On right, she smiles for the camera during another meal
The ex-boyfriend then went to the local police station as she still had at least two of his possessions: a GoPro and a diving watch.
In WhatsApp messages obtained by Daily Mail Australia, Fajk warned her landlord that Mr Silva had brought police to her apartment.
‘I sat in the hospital’s cafe and was like, s***, what did I get myself into?’
Emese Fajk’s ex-boyfriend Steve Silva
‘Steve is here with the police … I spoke to a lawyer, they can’t enter the building but the police won’t talk to me.
‘What he is saying is all BS but I don’t want to see any doors kicked in’.
The landlord replied: ‘Scammer! …. You bailed without paying’.
On advice from police, Mr Silva emailed Fajk a formal demand on Friday April 16 asking she return the possessions to him by 6pm on Sunday or he would press matters further.
Fajk replied at 5.22pm that day: ‘I literally just saw your email. My lawyer will contact you tomorrow.’
Fajk did not directly address several written questions posed to her by Daily Mail Australia last month, except to say she had nothing in her possessions that didn’t belong to her, deny she had ‘fled’ Australia and accuse her boyfriend of contacting the media to ‘pressure’ her.