Lambo driver hits back at auction rumours

The man at the centre of one of the most controversial episodes of The Block has hit back after viewer following the shocking result of the show’s final auctions.

During Sunday night’s chaotic finale, Omar Slaimankhel and Ozman ‘Oz’ Abu Malik were dubbed the winners of The Block 2022 after selling their house for $5.6m.

The staggering price tag made the Sydney-based friends instant millionaires with an eye-watering profit of $1.68m between them.

It’s the single largest win in the history of The Block, but some viewers were quick to suggest it was a set up.

Omar and Oz were the first contestants to go to auction, with a number of interested bidders trying to stake a claim to their four-bedroom, 10-acre property in Gisborne, Victoria.

The auction quickly became contentious as the bidding soared and a back and forth began between wealthy would-be buyers.

One of the men, Adrian Portelli, knew Omar and Oz – which fuelled baseless rumours he was a fake bidder planted to push up the price for the rural home.

Mr Portelli, who was known as “Lambo Guy” throughout the auction because of the flashy car he arrived in, took to social media to rubbish the rumour.

“For everyone questioning the legitimacy of the auction, I was a genuine buyer with every intention to purchase that property,” he wrote in an Instagram story late on Sunday night.

“Nobody is to blame for what happened. It’s an auction.”

Mr Portelli went head to head with serial Block buyer Danny Wallis in the auction as the price climbed well beyond the $4m reserve.

He hit back at critics who questioned his interest in the house and suggested that he didn’t have the funds to back up his sky-high bids.

“Believe it or not but if you’ve got two people that genuinely want the property a bidding war will happen,” he said.

“I’m happy to show my bank account for anyone that suggests these were dummy bids.”

The Block winners appeared on Nova’s morning radio show to reiterate the same message.

Omar told radio host Michael “Wippa” Wipfli that the newly-minted millionaires had not conspired with “Lambo Guy” to inflate the house price.

“That couldn’t be farther from the truth,” he said.

“We reached out to everyone that Oz and I knew. We reached out to a mutual friend and they suggested (Mr Portelli) might be interested.”

The winner said he and Oz were really happy to have had three wealthy bidders and maintained that Mr Portelli “absolutely loved the house”.