The founder of financial tech company Wisr has died of a heart attack at just 46 years old.
Anthony Nantes was one week into his holiday in Sri Lanka when he suffered a fatal medical episode earlier this month.
His loved ones quietly informed family and friends of his passing before the news was aired on Sunday.
Mr Nantes’ death comes a little over a year after he was dismissed as Wisr’s chief executive over a workplace affair in August 2023.
He was later accused of harassing and stalking his mistress.
Mr Nantes’ affair with a younger female colleague began in 2019 while he was married with children.
When the woman threatened to tell his wife of the affair, Mr Nantes sent 50 emails in one day and visited her home.
He spent 11 days in custody on remand before he was released to bail for the matter.
Anthony Nantes (pictured with his estranged wife, Cassi, and their children) died of a heart attack earlier this month
A magistrate later told Mr Nantes he’d ‘brought it on himself’ and sentenced him to a six-month good behaviour bond.
Nantes’ lawyer had submitted a psychiatric report to court as he applied for the matter to be dealt with under mental health provisions.
According to the report, Nantes told his psychiatrist Dr Olav Nielssen that his wife started to suspect he was being unfaithful about six months into the affair when she returned home early one day and saw his mistress leaving their house.
He told Mr Nielssen that after that incident, his relationship with his female staffer became ‘traumatic and abusive’.
‘He said that she repeatedly threatened to tell his wife about their continued contact and also to notify the board of the company, and used those threats to extort sums of money from him,’ the report reads.
‘He said that he paid [her] rent, transferred $10,000 worth of cryptocurrency for her, and spent thousands of dollars in the form of events and trips.’
Nantes further told Mr Neilssen that the staffer’s police report centred on events that took place in the four months leading up to March 2023 – however, the pair remained on good terms afterwards and even holidayed overseas together.
‘They continued to see each other at work most days, and in June 2023, she flew to Italy to meet him and they were again intimate,’ the report continued.
Mr Nantes (pictured in February 2024) was sentenced to a six-month good behaviour bond after stalking his mistress
‘However, he said that two days after she arrived, there was an argument about their future, during which he told her that he was going to confess to his wife and that he would not pay her any more money.
‘He said that she used his credit card to pay for a flight home via Bali, and after she returned to Australia, she went to police.’
Wisr at the time said its board ‘had formed a view over recent months that Anthony was unable to perform the role of CEO to the level required’.
A service for Mr Nantes will be held in mid-May in Sydney’s eastern suburbs.
His football club, Manly Vale, held a minute of silence for him on Saturday.
