Sonray shows private school circles don’t always win. Melbourne Grammar School has produced some of the country’s most influential people, including premiers and prime ministers, but as the sordid tale of the Sonray Capital Markets collapse shows, being involved in such circles does not always end well.

Yesterday, Sonray’s sole director, Russell Johnson, appeared in the Melbourne Magistrates Court, charged with 24 criminal offences over the 2010 collapse of the shadow broker.

He’s likely to face evidence given by former Sonray chief executive Scott Murray, who has already pleaded guilty to charges relating to the collapse, but may receive a reduced sentence in return for co-operating with the Australian Securities Investments Commission in its investigation of Johnson. — Angela Priestley (read the full story here)

Mark McInnes fires back at his critics. Former DJs boss Mark McInnes — who quit following a s-xual harassment scandal last year — has copped a lot of flak over the past 12 months. But he’s still up for a fight with those who dare to question his business acumen.

The Australian Financial Review‘s Tony Boyd last week claimed that McInnes’ business strategy had “led to a blowout in inventory, a decline in profit and the implementation of the largest cost-cutting campaign seen at David Jones for years”.

The feisty CEO, now in charge of retail at Solomon Lew’s Premier Investments, fired back in a lengthy letter to the editor published today. “For the record: I have not been CEO since June 2010,” McInnes writes. “Nor have I participated in any decisions the company has made since that date, at either a strategy or (far more importantly) at an execution level.” — Matthew Knott (read the full story here)

Gillard among union friends in Melbourne. Julia Gillard was among friends yesterday, as she joined union heavy hitters at a Melbourne lunch organised by the Industry Super Network.

In the audience were union powerbrokers ACTU president Ged Kearney, secretary Jeff Lawrence and Industry Funds Management chairman Garry Weaven, according to The Australian Financial Review‘s Rear Window column. One of the architects of superannuation, Weaven recently came in at No. 6 in The Power Index‘s Money Movers Top Ten.

Weaven served time as assistant secretary at the ACTU not long after it signed the accord with the ALP which kicked off super in the 1980s. — Tom Cowie (read the full story here)