He admitted putting more than $200,000 into a bar in Panama that had since gone bust. A further $750,000 was lost in a failed merger with another investment fund.
"I got behind the eight-ball ... I need to face up to the allegations and see what can be resolved," he said last month.
Mr Lusby said he was scared of being sent to jail, but planned to return to New Zealand last month to put things right.
Mr van Leewarden said he had not heard from Mr Lusby since, and it was unlikely he would return.
Mr Lusby lives in Panama with his wife and twin infant sons.
His mother, Lynette Muir, a nurse from Orewa, told the National Business Review she became concerned about her son's "lavish lifestyle".
"He had a little airplane, a boat and a beach house - oh yes, he spent it up and lived it up really high. He had a motorbike, a Porsche and a BMW.
"I went over there [to Panama City] last year when my grandchildren were born, and he picked me up in a Porsche - I knew then something was going on," she said. "It's just horrific what he's done, I can't believe it. I want Tony brought home, and if there needs to be consequences, he has to face them.
"If he's got to go to jail, so be it. We're all very broken-hearted over here. We'd love for him to come home. It's no good trying to hide from what I know he's got to face up to."
In 2007, Mr Lusby set up a Samoa-based fund called Lifestyles Investment Group and promised investors he would deliver returns of 28 to 32 per cent a year by trading equities.
Mr van Leewarden said the scheme "ticked along" until October last year, when the money and Mr Lusby vanished.
The Serious Fraud Office began an investigation but could not act as the alleged actions did not occur in New Zealand.
However, the agency will assist ASIC in its investigations.
