Aged care mogul Peter Arvanitis, who has come under fire for his lavish lifestyle, has resigned from the top role of director of Heritage Care due to an increasing focus on his wealth and wife Areti’s lifestyle at the time when the aged care industry claimed it was going bankrupt.

Heritage Care chief executive Greg Reeve confirmed that Mr Arvanitis resigned last week because he did not want to be “a distraction to the good work of the staff”.

“Peter has decided to resign as a Director of Heritage Care effective immediately, but will maintain his partial ownership in the business,” Mr Reeve told News Corp.

It has been made clear that Mr Arvanitis acquired his wealth before his time at Heritage Care with past business ventures which had nothing to do with Heritage Care, which he joined a little over a year ago. Before that, he was the founder and director of nursing home giant Estia. His shareholding was sold in 2016 for $55 million when he quit the company.

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In 2018, Mr Arvanitis also sold a shopping centre and a thoroughbred horse breeding farm for $21 million. The family’s Toorak mansion was sold in May for $13 million and it became notoriously known during the aged care crisis as ‘the Melbourne mansion with Gucci in almost every room’, according to descriptions in Vogue Living.

Described as a high-flyer with luxury cars and mansions, he came under fire after families of Epping Gardens in Melbourne’s north west complained about inadequate staffing and care at the facility linked to 212 COVID-19 cases and at least 28 deaths.

The Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission has taken action against Epping Gardens for breaching 16 care and management standards, according to an announcement made last week. Possible violations being investigated include requirements that have to do with residents getting safe and effective clinical care so that the risk of infection can be minimised, as well as the requirement to have systems in place for ‘identifying and responding to abuse and neglect of consumers’.

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Among the scenes of neglect are one man’s claims that his mother lay dead in the home for 26 hours as he tried to make arrangements to pick up her body.