Whilst ASIC should be blasted for its failure to stop Firepower from raising $100 million from gullible investors with little more than newsletter concoctions and kickbacks to a particularly dodgy financial planner, the corporate plod’s leadership of the day has well and truly moved on.
Underwhelming Adelaide accountant Jeff Lucy headed ASIC from 2004 until 2007 and his replacement Tony D’Aloisio is now shaking up ASIC. Last night’s belated court action to ban Firepower founder Tim Johnston from being a director was still rather pathetic as that particular galloping horses is nowhere to be seen.
Graeme Samuel also has a lot to answer for because the ACCC routinely prosecutes companies for making false and misleading claims about its products.
For instance, yesterday Samuel warned consumers about phone plans and on Friday the ACCC launched court action against ATS All Trade Services for the following:
It is alleged that ATS All Trades and Services made misleading representations regarding the quality and nature of the list of job opportunities provided to members, the availability of discounts to members and the provision of a webpage that would be displayed after conducting a Google search.
So why did it take Gerard Ryle’s great work for The SMH to bring the Firepower empire down?
Ryle was certainly unlucky not to win the business Walkley last year when the three judges — The Australian’s Adele Ferguson, Channel Nine’s Ross Greenwood and The AFR’s Mark Skulley — felt Anthony Klan’s Fincorp collapse coverage for The Australian was more worthy.
It does say something about Western Australia when the two best business stories of the year are about exposing leading Perth-based crooks.
Michael Pascoe was absolutely right yesterday in suggesting there is something fundamentally rotten about Perth, with The West Australian newspaper heavily in the frame.
Our other major corporate problem is Australia’s tendency to forgive and forget. Larry Adler, Alan Bond, Jodee Rich, Brian Burke, Warren Anderson, Brian Burke and now Tim Johnston are all examples of people who the system allowed to bounce back from early troubles that would have seen their career’s ended in more sophisticated countries.
I can remember having a conversation with a young Rodney Adler in 1989-90 when he blasted the collapsed stockbroker Jacksons for dealing in “rubbish stocks”. The Perth office of Jacksons was run by a certain Andrew Forrest who later went on to blow up almost $500 million in nickel play Anaconda. Even after two disasters, Twiggy somehow surfaced again to become Australia’s richest man, partly thanks to the brilliant lobbying of Brian Burke in getting speedy government approvals for Fortescue’s Pilbara iron ore dreams.
It’s a story that could only happen in Perth, just like the extraordinary tale told by Four Corners last night.
*The link works today for this video stringing up Oxiana chairman Barry Cusack over Owen Hegarty golden goodbye.
Matt, that’s a bit harsh. Steven’s famous defamation run-ins didn’t cost investors other than Steven’s own family, as I understand it. Defamation and misleading investors are not in the same ball park.
Stephen, your recurring theme that people should not be forgiven or dealt with again is tiresome and, lets face it, completely hypocritical. How many times was Crikey pinged for defamation when you ran it? How many close calls? Yet not only did you continue, you off-loaded it for $1 million! If you applied your standard then Crikey should have been shut down the moment you defamed Steve Price and you should have been shunned by Melbourne society. Standards are a lot harder when we place them on ourselves rather than others aren’t they Stephen…!
True Dave but why must be always go down the “nanny state” route? Why can’t people take responsibility for their investments? If Alan Bond spruks a new company people are free to invest or to ignore it. I think Stephen’s main issue is with the bankruptcy laws (although that doesn’t explain his obsession with Burke).
What I can’t work out is Stephen’s bizarre story about Rodney Adler. It makes Adler look like the good guy and Twiggy look like a spiv. That is journalism worthy of the Daily Telegraph! Twiggy may have his faults and does have his past, but only a blind monkey would suggest Fortescue is not the real deal. This is a good example of why Mayne’s hobby horse should be discounted. If Twiggy was shunned, tarred and feathered as Mayne suggests then Fortescue, and the benefits it is bringing to WA and Australia, would not exist. This is the mark of a “sophisticated” country – people who assess risk (including the person running the show) and invest accordingly. Its unfortunate Mayne cannot grasp this (especially as he passes himself as a financial journalist).
In many countries, including post-communist ones to our north, there is the concept of economic crimes – those illegal acts that can negatively affect a considerable number of ordinary people. Some years ago I remember a Perth journalist outlining the economic and social costs to ordinary people (not just direct investors) in the wake of the financial collapses of so-called financial whizzes of WA. Why would we want to forget these people? We don’t seem to want to forget rapists and pedophiles – the perpetrators of individual crimes/serial crimes, but we have a different mindset about economic criminals and the intertwined circles of business, social and political influence they move in.