Did James or Kerry Packer watch Business Sunday
on their own network yesterday? If they did, they would have seen Terry
McCrann commenting on the 2005 budget and an interview with the NAB’s
John Stewart – oh, and a story on 3G an an outfit called Slice
Wireless.

So what? Why should the Packers care? Well, the guy from Slice
Wireless was a chap called Brad Keeling – the same Brad Keeling who,
along with Jodie Rich, “profoundly misled” James Packer, his father,
and Lachlan Murdoch over the disastrous collapse of One.Tel four years
ago, which cost PBL $400 million. And although the Packers were only up
for 37% of that loss, they footed 100% of the loss of face.

Here’s ASIC’s statement on the settlement of its action against Keeling in 2003. Here’s the key section of that announcement:

Pursuant to the orders, Mr Keeling:

is
banned from being a director, or otherwise being involved in the
management of any corporation, for ten years. Mr Keeling has been
granted a two-month stay of the order to allow him time to organise his
affairs;

is liable to pay compensation of $92 million to One.Tel
(ASIC claims that all four defendants are jointly and severally liable
for this compensation); and

has agreed to pay ASIC’s costs of $750,000.

On the Slice Wireless website,
Brad is described as working in marketing business development – but of
course, under the agreement with ASIC, he can’t be involved with any
management, so he cannot make any decisions or own any sort of equity.

The appearance was amazing, both from the point of view of Business Sunday’s credibility and the Packer connection. Is it a case of forgive and forget? We hardly think so.