Aaron Thomas, a 26-year-old former contestant on MasterChef Australia, has been accused of embezzling more than $US7 million ($7.57 million) from his own company to fund a lavish lifestyle for himself and his fiancee, Brazilian-born Thaiana Rodrigues.
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In 2010, Thomas founded Oakmont Resources, a mining company which owns iron ore operations in Brazil.
Oakmont has since filed a lawsuit against Thomas, who was sacked as its CEO earlier this year, in the Manhattan Supreme Court.
It claims an internal investigation, assisted by forensic accountants, uncovered Thomas' extravagant spending including a luxury jet charter worth $US30,000, a Tiffany & Co. engagement ring for Rodrigues worth $US171,000 and an Australian holiday worth $US53,000.
The lawsuit claims those are just "a few examples of a widespread pattern of misappropriation uncovered by the forensic accountants".
"Thomas used the company bank accounts as a personal piggy bank, withdrawing substantial sums of money and transferring them to his personal accounts and to family and friends," the lawsuit says.
Thomas made those transfers either as "salary" or as "director's remuneration", without authorisation or justification, the lawsuit states.
Other personal expenses charged to the company, according to the lawsuit, include over $US91,000 spent in Las Vegas, a holiday in Greece and a payment of $US27,317 to a New York family law firm "in respect to what appears to be a custody matter for Rodrigues".
The 26-year-old Melburnian appeared in the first season of MasterChef and at the time his occupation was listed as "student".
He was eliminated from the series in the sixth week, after failing to get the correct balance of spices in his paella. The 2009 series was eventually won by contestant Julie Goodwin.
The lawsuit says Thomas induced shareholders to invest in his company "based in part on representations ... concerning his experience running companies of this kind". It also claims he "purported (erroneously) to be a trained geologist".
According to the lawsuit, when the company confronted Thomas with evidence of financial mismanagement, he produced a "service contract" which he said proved he was entitled to the compensation he claimed. The document "lacks a company seal, counter-signature of any other director, and does not exist in the company records," the lawsuit alleges.
The Oakmont board fired Thomas in January, 2014.
According to The New York Post, Thomas has said the lawsuit is an attempt by the Oakmont board to get the roughly 25 per cent of the company he still owns.
Thomas told The New York Post he was planning to file a countersuit.
