There are a couple of ways to view bankruptcy. On one hand, the modern-day notion of bankruptcy is necessary to allow entrepreneurs to take risks and try to create long-term businesses and employment. In the event that the business fails, it is understandable that the risk-taker be given another chance, not face a life-long burden of a debt that can never be repaid. However, bankruptcy also involves a significant breach of trust – many creditors, who extended funds on the basis of promises made by the bankrupt have in effect, been victims of a “theft” of sorts.

It is especially galling therefore when creditors of a bankrupt (who themselves may have lost a significant amount of money from their own businesses) see the bankrupt apparently living a relatively comfortable existence, simply using bankruptcy to avoid debt legally owed.

In that regard, one hesitates to think what former creditors of former millionaire, turned bankrupt, turned millionaire turned almost bankrupt again, Craig Gore, would be thinking.

Last year, Gore entered into a remarkable scheme with creditors in which he was able to pay $3.3 million to settle debts of $489 million. This allowed Gore to avoid the ignominy if a second personal bankruptcy (Gore was declared bankrupt in 1992).

Gore’s deal meant that he paid creditors less than one cent out of every dollar owed. The practical effect of the arrangement was that anyone who lent money to Gore (such as Trilogy Funds Management, Mayfair, and Amex) or who provided a service and was awaiting payment would never see any of that money again. (It wasn’t only businesses who were stiffed by Gore’s fate, Gore’s ex-wife was also a creditor to the tune of $800,000).

Gore’s predicament didn’t appear to be caused by terrible luck or honest business ventures gone awry. Rather, the son of former white-shoe developer Mike Gore (who himself fled Australian in 1989) was accused by a court-appointed liquidator of running “something akin to a Ponzi scheme”. The liquidator also found that Gore and his former partner John Atkinson, should possibly be held be liable for civil or even criminal claims for a range of offences including failure to prevent a company from trading while insolvent, unreasonable related party transactions, breaches of their directors’ duties and potential breaches of the Trade Practice Act.

But while Gore was able to avoid paying almost $500 million in legally owing debts, it appears that the former rich-lister hasn’t had to give up some of life’s finer things.

James McCullough reported last week in Queensland’s Courier Mail that Gore has recently moved into “a massive home” on Queensland’s exclusive Sanctuary Cove. The pool on the property is believed to be something “you would find at a hotel in Fiji or Asia” while “an old race car is parked in the garage, alongside a Mercedes E55 … and a new BMW X6”. The home had originally been listed for $3 million, but McCullough noted that the asking price had dropped to “only” $2.6 million prior to Gore moving in. It appears to have been a remarkable turnaround for Gore, who less than six months ago claimed to only have “$100 cash, a negative bank balance of $2.1 million, no superannuation and just a few toys left over from his glory days”.

Fortunately for Gore, because of his 2010 settlement, creditors have no future recourse.

Not since Alan Bond’s personal bankruptcy of $1.8 billion, and subsequent rebound onto the BRW Rich List years later, has a struggling businessman appeared to have such good fortune so soon after calamity.