Alan Bond

Address: Cottesloe, Perth, WA, Australia
Age: 84
Sex: Male
Build: Stocky
Hair colour: Gray
Occupation: Executive
Ethnic background: British

Convictions

Charges: Fraud
Category: Fraud/Conspiracy/Corruption
Court: Perth District Court
Judge:
Penalty: Sentenced to 2 years

In May 1992, Bond was convicted of dishonestly inducing businessman Brian Coppin to contribute to the October 1987 Rothwells rescue while concealing that Bond Corp was receiving a $16 million fee.

Then in August 1992, Bond was released from Wooroloo prison farm after winning a retrial.

He was aquitted of the charge in November 1992.

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Comments

**"AUSTRALIA`S MOST NOTORIOUS CORPORATE CRIMINAL"** - __The Australian__ (11 March, 2000)

**The man who stole more than $1 billion**

Bond was placed in bankruptcy in April 1992 with debts of almost $600 million. In 1995 Bond struck a deal with his creditors in which he pledged $3.25 million, in payments of $750,000 a year for 3 years, to extinguish his debts. The final instalment was paid by Bond`s son, John in February 1998. Bond was then released from bankruptcy.

Apart from that $3.25 million, the only other big recovery made from Bond`s bankrupt estate was $2.25 million from a superannuation fund.

Other smaller recoveries included $55,000 from Bond`s former girlfriend, Tracey Tyler, as a settlement for a $92,800 Mercedes sports car Bond bought her in June 1990.

According to a report in "The West Australian" in May 1998, Australian Federal Police are continuing investigations into Bond`s financial affairs.

In late March 2000 following Bond`s early jail release, the whereabouts of two famous paintings at the centre of investigations into his missing millions were revealed.

John Webber`s 1782 portrait of Captain James Cook and Chazal`s portrait of Captain Matthew Flinders are in storage in a London warehouse.

The two paintings were amomg 13 that according to liquidator, Richard England, were worth more than $6 million but were sold in an art scam for less than $1 million to offshore companies controlled by Swiss financier Jurg Bollag and Bond`s son, Craig.

The Captain Cook painting was insured for $3.5 million in 1988.

In March 2001 the long running art fraud case was settled in the South Australian Supreme Court. Liquidator Richard England said details of the terms of settlement were confidential.

Mr England said: "The settlement with the Bond family involves the payment by them of a very substantial sum of money."

**In September 2000 a judge put a stop to the family of Alan Bond gaining access to millions of dollars of profits flowing from a land development at Carindale in Brisbane`s south-east suburbs.**

The ruling follows allegations that $4.3 million channelled into the Carindale Oaks estate in 1995 had come from a massive international money laundering operation.

The operation was believed to have started with the sale of art worth $6 million belonging to Bond`s Southern Equities.

The judge also ordered Bond`s sons, John and Craig, and family accountant Delores Caboche, to swear affidavits regarding their assets. His judgement includes details of the unusual Hastings Finance company.

**Over three years Hastings Finance lent $17.3 million to Bond family members, but got just $1.2 million back.**

Hastings Finance, managed by Bond`s eldest son, John, wrote-off or forgave debts.

**Bond was back in the headlines in late October 2000 when he bought the British franchise rights of a Sydney-based operation which advances money at high rates to people desperate for cash.**

Bond, who is involved in the venture with his son, Craig, was searching for a London location for his mini-bank network, to be called Money Centre.

A Bond family trust has brought a big share of the Money Centre franchise from ChequEXchange, a network of credit-lending banks, which has been condemned in the New South Wales Parliament by the Fair Trading Minister.

The company provides short-term, high interest-rate loans through to about $5500 as well as cheque-cashing facilities.

The loans can be taken out over as short a period as a few weeks but they carry fees which are much higher than interest rates charged on similar loans by banks.

It is believed Bond was working with ChequEXchange in Perth in an advisory capacity before he left for England.

It was reported that Bond was living in a $3 million penthouse in the exclusive London suburb of Kensington and was hobnobbing with the city`s elite.

Reports indicate Bond was linked with the intended sale of a $12.7 million five-story Kensington mansion and was looking for 500 locations for his new business, Money Centre.

Author of a book on Alan Bond, Paul Barry, believes that not only should Bond not be back in the business world, but should still be behind bars.

**"He has shown, in the most public way possible, that if your pockets are deep enough and your lawyers good enough, you can tie the system in knots forever, or at least until the most tenacious and bloody-minded pursuers give up, "Mr Barry said.**

**"I just thought it was an outrage that he was able to contend that he was brain damaged and that he had forgotten that he had all this money offshore."**

**__Bond was back in the news again in early April 2001 when a former employee of Bond Corporation, John Carr, claimed he had copies of tapes which recorded the chaotic and frantic financial transactions in the final days of the empire`s collapse.__**

**__Bond`s Sydney office was the home of the corporation`s centralised treasury where all his worldwide transactions were recorded.__**

**__Back up tapes were made and stored in Sydney. Mr Carr was employed by Bond Corp to solve problems that might arise in the e-commerce network Bond was building to link his global empire.__**

**__"Bond`s treasury system was designed to handle multiple currencies, foreign exchanges and pay financial institutions and suppliers," Mr Carr said. "All transactions went in and out of this one machine on the network which in theory could be accessed from any Bond entity anywhere in the world but only by certain authorised people within the company.__**

**__" The tapes would tell a story of where the money came and went. As I far as I know all the tapes for the machine went to the warehouse in Perth except for the set of copies left behind."__**

**__Mr Carr said by 1989 it was a real struggle for the Bond Corporation to pay creditors. "Towards the end they had to sell assets and because there was a fire sale the assets didn`t realise their full potential. I was selling Bond computer gear to raise cash which was being forwarded to treasury"__**

**__The final nail was hammered into Bond Corportation`s coffin in September 1990 when the group recorded a $2.2 billion loss and went into receivership.__**

**__Mr Carr said his contract of employment with Bond Corporation was never formally terminated in the last chaotic days and weeks of the dramatic collapse. He did not get the chance to return the back-up tapes he had secured as part of his job.__**

**__Bond Corp liquidator Richard England said he would be keen to access the tapes Mr Carr claimed he has.__**

**__"It`s intriguing that with all the investigations that have gone on with a number of parties that no one had heard of this man (Mr Carr),"Mr England said. "And he has just come forward now. That is what is intriguing to me."__**