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Hello, Michelle here with a True Crime podcast

0:02

recommendation for you. It's a brand new show,

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but I've had the opportunity to hear a

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couple of episodes already and I hope you

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like it as much as I do. It's

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called True Crime Bedtime Stories. This podcast promises

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to feature stories from all over the world.

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0:17

you and I have not heard before. And

0:19

if you like it, you can hear more

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and subscribe to the show wherever you get

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your podcasts. Tired

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Good news. Ad-free listening is available

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1:30

Here's the show that we recommend. Hey,

1:34

y'all. I'm Erin Haines, editor at large

1:36

for the 19th News and a

1:38

journalist who has spent the last 20 years working hard to

1:40

tell the truth. I'm also a black woman

1:42

born and raised in the South. So I've

1:44

seen how often journalists get stories wrong. That's

1:47

why I decided to start The Amendment, a weekly

1:49

podcast where I talk to folks with unique perspectives

1:51

to try to get at the truth behind the

1:53

biggest stories of our day. Whether that

1:56

means talking to Wesley Morris about the politics

1:58

behind the Oscars. lot

2:00

of time thinking about like, I wonder how this

2:02

would have gone if Anatomy before was

2:04

about a black woman. Jail. Or

2:07

Nicole Hannah Jones about the stakes of our

2:09

election. We have to figure out

2:11

how to not just cover Trump, but all of

2:13

the ways that democracy is being eroded.

2:15

Tune into the amendment. Listen, wherever you

2:18

get your podcast. Acast

2:22

helps creators launch, grow,

2:24

and monetize their podcast

2:26

everywhere. acast.com. This

2:31

is a true crime podcast as the title

2:33

suggests. So please consider this your

2:35

warning that it's not suitable for children. And

2:38

it probably will contain content that may be

2:40

triggering to some people. Also,

2:42

it's an Australian true crime podcast. So

2:44

Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander listeners

2:47

should be aware. It may contain the

2:49

voices of deceased people. The

2:56

producers of this podcast recognize

2:59

the traditional owners of the land

3:01

on which it's recorded. They

3:05

pay respect to the Aboriginal

3:07

elders past, present and those

3:10

emerging. In

3:18

business news, the chase for Christopher Skase's

3:20

millions is unveiling some surprises. Here's the

3:22

business review week and he's Robert Gottliebson.

3:25

As the lawyers begin the complex task of

3:27

trying to attract Christopher Skase back to Australia,

3:30

some of the best accounting minds in the

3:32

country are now focusing on the web of

3:35

companies that Skase set up to surround his

3:37

quintex operation. At his

3:39

bankruptcy hearing, Skase claimed that his assets

3:41

had been reduced to no more than

3:43

six thousand dollars and that

3:45

his personal debts stood at a staggering one

3:47

hundred and seventy two million dollars. But

3:50

Christopher has embraced a lifestyle in Spain,

3:53

which indicates that he has access to

3:55

a much larger pool of money. When

4:03

Bryce and Alec from the excellent Equity

4:05

Mates podcast told me they had a

4:07

true crime slash finance crossover story they

4:09

wanted to talk about, I did

4:11

not expect it to bring back such happy memories

4:13

for me. Equity

4:16

Mates is an investing podcast aimed

4:18

at millennials, but to my

4:20

great delight, they wanted to talk about a story

4:22

from the 1980s. It

4:25

all happened before they were even born,

4:27

but right in the middle of my

4:30

formative teenage years and on our one

4:32

and only family TV set. It's

4:35

the story of one of Australia's

4:37

infamous flamboyant 80s high flyers, the

4:39

one and only Christopher Scaise. It's

4:43

fascinating to see the story through the eyes

4:45

of a younger generation, but also

4:47

through the eyes of people who frankly

4:49

understand the intricacies of it better than

4:52

I ever have. This

4:54

week's Australian True Crime is a look

4:56

back at a tumultuous era that in

4:58

many ways, for better or for worse,

5:00

shaped the country we live in today.

5:03

Welcome to the Equity Mates. I

5:10

actually can't remember the pinpoint, the time that I knew

5:12

about it. It's just always been one of those like

5:14

OG, fraudulent

5:19

finance guys that when you're in a

5:21

world of finance and starting to think

5:23

about and explore the world of investing

5:26

and business and entrepreneurship and stuff like

5:28

the story would pop up. I think

5:30

Bryce has been coy. He's been planning his

5:32

escape for years. Yeah, right. New

5:37

Yorker. Yeah, full credit. He chose a

5:39

nice little place. I know, right? I

5:42

mean, I don't think many Australians had heard

5:44

of New Yorker until this. Like

5:47

now I watch the British shows on

5:50

the Lifestyle Channel and stuff and they're all looking

5:52

for their holiday homes in Spain and every now

5:54

and then, New Yorker pops up and I think,

5:56

oh, okay, nice choice. Yeah. Yeah.

5:59

Yeah. with Australia. Yeah. So,

6:03

all right, let's go back to

6:05

the 80s and this sort of boom

6:08

of the flashy

6:11

Australian billionaire. I mean, that's

6:14

who I think of when I think of

6:16

Christopher Scase. I think of the whole gang,

6:18

the Alan Bond, the

6:20

John Friedrich, the whole

6:23

this crazy time and I was

6:25

a teenager at this time. So,

6:28

in my mind, it all melds together

6:30

with like Expo

6:32

88 and

6:34

Madonna and you

6:37

know, this whole glorious time in my

6:39

life, to be honest. Packer? Yeah, of

6:41

course. He was kicking around. Murdoch was

6:43

making moves. Well, this is it. Some

6:46

of them survived and thrived, like, of

6:48

course, Murdoch, but some of them

6:50

absolutely soared and just got too close to

6:52

the sun, didn't they? Yeah,

6:54

well, a lot of them ended up

6:56

in jail. Yep, absolutely. We're

6:59

going to speak about Christopher Scase here, but...

7:01

He famously did not go to jail, but a

7:03

lot of them bought into the media or our

7:05

TV stations were owned by these guys and they

7:08

were in the media and a lot of them were

7:10

just very much admired at this time. They were suddenly

7:13

we had some guys getting around the place

7:15

who were rich. They

7:18

were real larricans. I

7:20

mean, Bondi won us the America's Cup for

7:22

good mistakes. Yeah, yep. And

7:24

Hawke, our Prime Minister, said, bloody, have

7:26

a public holiday. This is amazing. We

7:28

love these guys. They're changing the face

7:30

of Australia and they're changing the way

7:32

we see ourselves in the world. So,

7:35

tell us, where did these guys come

7:37

from? Where did this sudden boom in billionaires come

7:39

from in Australia? How did it happen? Yeah,

7:41

I mean, the 1980s were the greatest good period

7:44

of our history and there was

7:47

a lot of deregulation. We had

7:49

Thatcher in the UK. We had

7:51

Reagan in the US and where

7:53

those two countries lead, Australia often

7:55

follows. What does deregulation mean? So,

7:57

a lot of formally government organisations

7:59

were So they were

8:01

run by the private sector and a

8:03

lot of these guys could buy into

8:05

them. But also the rules around different

8:08

industries, who could own what, what companies

8:10

could do, how they could compete, a

8:12

lot of it really eased up. And

8:14

then in the financial sector, the ability

8:16

to get money, there was a boom

8:19

in junk bonds, which is like higher

8:21

risk debt. So all

8:24

of a sudden there was a lot more

8:26

money flying around and people and companies could

8:28

get money where they couldn't

8:30

get it before. So all of a sudden

8:32

there was this fuel of people could do

8:34

a lot more than they could previously and

8:36

they could get a lot more money than

8:38

they could previously. So they could get loans

8:40

with less assets. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

8:43

Governments try to do it to stimulate activity.

8:45

I think it

8:48

does sometimes come as we're about to go

8:50

through with some cowboys

8:52

that take advantage. Yeah. And

8:55

in the 1980s, it was a real ideological thing as well. Thatcher

8:58

and Reagan were, they

9:00

didn't like government and they didn't want

9:02

government involved in many aspects of life.

9:05

And we saw

9:07

what happened. Yeah, so I mean, they

9:09

hated welfare and they certainly had a

9:11

financial perspective that was along the lines of,

9:13

you know, if you work hard, you succeed.

9:16

And anyone who's poor is poor because

9:18

they're not trying hard enough and

9:21

no one should have to take care of anyone

9:23

else. Right. That's sort of the backbone of Reaganomics,

9:25

right? We shouldn't

9:27

have a welfare system. We should

9:29

be paying taxes to take care of

9:32

people. Everyone should get

9:34

up and get a job and take care of themselves. And

9:36

when it comes to this story and the

9:39

financial deregulation story, they had a view

9:41

that the market was efficient and it

9:43

allocated resources and the government should get out of

9:45

the way and let private enterprise

9:48

do its thing. And

9:50

in the 1980s, private enterprise certainly

9:52

did its thing. And by the end of the

9:54

1980s, a lot of private enterprises

9:56

were no longer doing the thing because they were

9:58

bankrupt. Right? So

10:01

if we look at one private enterprise in

10:03

particular, the Quintex group, that

10:06

was Christopher Scaes' company. Yeah.

10:08

And Quintex, weird name. And

10:10

the reason that it's a

10:12

funny name is because Christopher

10:14

Scaes and some of his partners literally

10:17

bought Quintex off the shelf. It was

10:19

a Tasmanian shelf company. Now that's different

10:22

to a shell company. The

10:24

shelf company, a lot of lawyers and

10:26

accountants will have pre-made companies

10:28

that people can just come in and

10:30

buy. And so this was one

10:32

of them. It had nothing going for it,

10:34

but they just bought this company and then they

10:38

started doing business within it. And that's why

10:40

it was called Quintex. OK, so you can

10:42

just do whatever you want. It's just a legal

10:44

company. It's kind of got nothing. And

10:46

then you can just make it whatever

10:48

you want. Yeah, yeah. Just saves you some

10:50

time and some paperwork. And

10:52

so Quintex becomes their takeover

10:55

vehicle and they just start

10:57

buying things with it. They started with

10:59

a retail business, Hardy Brothers Jewelers, but

11:02

then they expanded into a whole bunch

11:04

of different businesses. They bought car dealerships,

11:06

they bought real estate development companies and

11:09

they even bought some regional TV networks. And that

11:11

was the sort of the start of it all.

11:14

It should be said, though, he didn't have a

11:16

whole lot of experience in this, though. He was

11:18

just an ex stockbroker, right? And a journal. And

11:20

a financial journal. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And

11:23

fun fact, his dad was an award

11:25

winning opera singer. Oh,

11:28

that is fun fact. Not

11:30

a award winning story at all. And

11:34

really, I guess from those early beginnings

11:36

of Quintex, we move into the mid

11:39

1980s and it

11:41

becomes a dominant force in the

11:44

Australian business landscape. Skates name gets

11:46

put up there with, you know, the Alan

11:48

Bonds of the world. And really, 1987 is

11:51

the big year because

11:54

they buy one of the three TV stations.

11:56

They buy Channel 7 for seven hundred and

11:59

eighty million dollars. What a steal. How

12:01

did that happen? Did he have some

12:03

or did they have some big wins

12:05

along the way, like with the jewelers

12:07

or the car yards or anything? All

12:10

of the above, I think, did okay. But

12:12

how it happened was dead. And

12:15

that's the story of the 1980s. And

12:17

that's how all of these, I

12:20

want to say entrepreneurs, but they weren't really

12:22

entrepreneurs, these corporate raiders, whatever you want to

12:24

call them, built

12:26

such big empires so quickly. It was the

12:29

availability of debt meant they

12:32

could borrow more and acquire more things

12:34

at a faster rate than we'd ever

12:36

seen before and that we've ever seen

12:38

since. Why do you

12:40

think the media is such a desirable

12:43

asset? I mean, Alan Bond bought

12:45

Channel 10, right? Alan Bond bought Channel

12:47

9. Yeah. And then he bought Parapakaporta

12:49

back off him as a steal. Yeah.

12:52

Yeah. Right. So, and

12:54

Rupert Murdoch has always been a

12:57

media baron and even today, as much as

12:59

his media assets are, you know, worth less

13:01

and less, he won't let go of them.

13:03

He loves the media. Why

13:05

did Scace and Bondi buy into the media?

13:07

I mean, we're both in media and you

13:09

can, when you're in it, you understand

13:12

that having audience comes with a lot of benefits,

13:14

one of which when you have national

13:17

audience, it comes with a lot

13:19

of power and the ability to

13:21

influence what people are seeing, what people are

13:23

thinking, it gives you the

13:25

ability to engage in national level debate and

13:27

put your spin on things. So when

13:30

you buy one of the very

13:33

few TV channels and or major newspapers,

13:35

yeah, you have a lot of

13:38

power and say, and I think outside of

13:40

the revenue that you can generate from that,

13:42

but these guys, you know, cynically, that's why

13:44

they're buying. I mean, we know Rupert Murdoch

13:46

is very invested in politics, but

13:49

I guess that's what I'm asking. Were

13:51

Alan Bond and Christopher Scace equally invested

13:54

in politics or was it about

13:56

sort of promoting their other businesses

13:58

or? Yeah, I think. All

14:00

of the above. And it's also a

14:03

prestige asset. Like you've really arrived in

14:05

a different circle of society. If you're

14:07

a major and you can own

14:09

a major masthead or a major TV network.

14:12

Alan Bond was certainly involved in politics, but

14:14

more WA politics and

14:16

the corruption scandal over there. But that's

14:18

a whole other episode of Australian True

14:20

Crime. But, you know, it ended up

14:22

with people, including the WA Premier going

14:25

to jail. So, but I think Christopher's

14:27

case. So, Channel 7 was probably the

14:29

big purchase, but it wasn't the only

14:31

big thing that they became known for.

14:34

He had a massive financial interest

14:36

in the Brisbane Bears AFL Club.

14:39

And I think probably most notably

14:41

his legacy lives on today as

14:44

really putting Port Douglas

14:46

on the map as a tourist destination.

14:48

He did too. He was a property

14:50

developer. Yeah. He owned a number of

14:53

resorts, this big five star resort

14:55

in Port Douglas. He also owned

14:57

a resort in Hawaii. Five resorts

14:59

or something. Yeah. Yeah. So, yeah.

15:01

Big money in resorts. He built

15:03

the Sheraton Mirage in Port Douglas.

15:06

Never been there. I've actually never been to Port

15:08

Douglas, but... Oh, I haven't

15:10

either. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I've heard it's

15:13

a great place. We should go and stay. Because

15:15

it still exists, I think today, the hotel. Yeah.

15:17

Yeah. Yeah. I honestly do go to Port Douglas

15:20

a bit because I'm a Queenslander and

15:22

I think Queensland's more Queensland the further

15:24

north you go. So I

15:26

love Port Douglas. But, and also the

15:29

Sheraton, it's quite out of place. Port

15:31

Douglas is still a very down to

15:33

earth place, even though there are millionaires

15:35

and billionaires there. It's the kind of

15:38

place where you could be

15:40

sitting next to someone and not

15:42

know if they're a billionaire or a

15:44

broke. And people really

15:46

pride themselves on that. And so it's still,

15:49

yeah, I have to say it's still quite out of place

15:52

that that resort there. But I remember when

15:54

they opened up, was that when they, did

15:56

they get Whitney Houston and Frank Sinatra there?

15:59

I think it was a pretty... extravagant opening, but yeah,

16:01

it would be right in the wheelhouse

16:03

of Christopher Scace to do that. Yeah.

16:05

Yeah. Well, if another fun fact,

16:08

you have been or are going to go

16:10

to Port Douglas, there's a row of oil

16:12

palms apparently lining the entrance. Now that was

16:14

famously planted by Mr. Scace

16:16

himself. So why don't know if he literally

16:18

planted them. I think maybe he paid for

16:20

it to be here. But he had them

16:22

put in. So every time you

16:24

drive in, you'll see these palm trees

16:27

and you'll probably always think of this story now. Yeah.

16:29

No, he definitely had, because I can remember his plan

16:31

this day for many reasons. One is I'm a big

16:33

Whitney Houston fan. And I remember

16:35

that he definitely did have Frank Sinatra and

16:38

Whitney Houston opened that resort and

16:40

Paul Whitney did not sing very well. In

16:43

fact, I don't think Frank did either Sinatra. And

16:45

so it was a, you know, the tickets were

16:47

really expensive and it was outdoors. And there was

16:49

a lot of hoo-ha about how to shit the

16:51

gig. Oh gosh. Yeah. But

16:54

Scace was, and because he also publicized how

16:56

much he paid them to come. I think

16:58

he paid them like a million bucks each

17:00

to come, which at the time was, you

17:02

know, Beyonce money now. And,

17:04

um, you know, so yeah,

17:07

it was a very big deal of course.

17:09

And let's not forget his beautiful wife, Pixie.

17:12

Pixie Scace was very much part

17:14

of the whole show and she

17:16

was a very flamboyant billionaire's wife.

17:18

So they used to appear

17:20

on channel seven a lot on

17:23

the variety shows and things of

17:25

that nature. They really, um, used

17:27

it to their own advantage that

17:30

way. You know, they weren't quiet.

17:32

Like the Packers didn't used to

17:34

pop up on channel nine. They were sort of

17:36

above that, but not the Scace's.

17:38

Profile building. Yeah. Well, this could

17:40

have been the peak, the extravagance

17:42

of the Sheraton Mirage and everything

17:45

that had come before it, because

17:47

I think it wasn't soon after

17:49

this that it all started to

17:51

fall in a big heap. Yeah. It was

17:53

quite a short reign, wasn't it? Yeah. Very

17:56

short. What less than 10 years he had.

17:58

Well, he, he bought. panel seven in

18:01

1987 and everything started to collapse

18:03

in 1989. So

18:06

not long at all. So

18:09

the first visible crack was also

18:11

his biggest move, which was he...

18:14

So he obviously had gone out of Australia with

18:17

the resort in Hawaii. So this wasn't his

18:19

first move out of Australia, but

18:21

he tried to buy MGM film

18:24

studios, the giant film

18:26

studio in Los Angeles, which

18:28

Amazon has recently bought for a stupid

18:30

amount of money. Christopher Scase tried to

18:32

buy it, but it was the late

18:35

80s and the go-go years of the

18:37

1980s had really slowed

18:39

down. The 1987 crash saw,

18:42

you know, I think everyone

18:45

sort of realised there was a lot

18:47

going on. We had to chill out.

18:49

Yeah, we had a massive stock market

18:51

crash. Yeah. Right. And by 1989, interest

18:53

rates were starting to rise as well.

18:55

And so all of these

18:57

companies that have so much debt and were

18:59

fuelling all their acquisitions and growth by debt

19:01

all of a sudden had rising interest rates

19:04

and couldn't afford that debt. And so things

19:06

were getting really tough. Mate, it was tough

19:08

enough in my house and we only had a test. I

19:11

can't imagine how tough it was in the... Yeah.

19:15

Now, look, don't feel too sorry for Christopher

19:17

Scase because there are still stories of him.

19:19

I think there's one story of a party

19:21

that they were throwing in Port Douglas and

19:23

Pixie forgot her dress. So he

19:25

sent the plane down to Sydney to pick

19:28

up Pixie's dress and then fly it back

19:30

to Port Douglas. That's unbelievable. The sympathy only

19:32

goes so far for some of those people.

19:35

But the MGM deal was announced and

19:37

then the funding that the banks that

19:40

were going to fund it over in

19:42

the States pulled out because of the

19:44

amount of debt Quintex already had. And

19:46

so for everyone, that was a bit of a warning sign

19:48

that things aren't great.

19:51

But it was their biggest acquisition to date. So

19:54

that was probably forgivable. But

19:56

then one of their American subsidiaries

19:59

went bankrupt. So a company that

20:01

Quintex owned over in America couldn't

20:03

pay its debts and went bankrupt,

20:06

which was a bit of a warning as well. And

20:09

then the thing that really pushed

20:12

Quintex over the edge, remember

20:14

a lot of its assets were

20:16

tourism resorts in places like Hawaii

20:19

and Port Douglas. In

20:22

1989, Australia saw one of its biggest

20:24

ever industrial actions, one of its biggest

20:26

ever strikes. The

20:28

1989 Australian pilot strike crippled

20:31

the tourism industry for months and

20:34

that crippled the amount of traffic going to

20:36

his resorts. Which crippled the

20:38

resort revenue. Well yes, yes. So

20:43

1989 was a year of rising

20:45

interest rates, reduced revenues

20:47

on his business. He

20:49

was in a lot of financial trouble really. And

20:52

Scasey then has a falling out with

20:54

his board. He asked the

20:56

board to approve a payment to

20:59

a company that he owned, which

21:01

is... No no. No

21:03

no to begin with. The board refused,

21:06

but it came out that he'd

21:08

already made that payment without their

21:10

approval. So yeah,

21:12

not good. One

21:15

of the directors reported Christopher Scase

21:17

to the Australian Securities Commission, so

21:20

the Australian government regulators. The

21:22

story goes apparently Christopher Scase then turned around and

21:24

asked the board to give him a pay rise.

21:29

But how else is he supposed to pay back

21:31

the money? He's already loaned himself. I

21:33

know. So I

21:35

think even at this point he was never

21:37

without confidence. But that

21:40

really between the company going bankrupt

21:42

in America and these complaints from

21:44

the board to the Australian Securities

21:47

Commission, the Australian Securities

21:49

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21:51

on Quintex and starts asking

21:53

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21:55

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24:23

what happened was they couldn't provide any documents

24:25

as Ren said. Quintex then had

24:27

$700 million in debt. Scaife

24:31

himself personally had $80 million in

24:33

debt. So they're all dead up

24:36

to their eyeballs, really struggling to pay it off.

24:39

As a result, Quintex stock was listed

24:41

on the stock exchange. It was suspended

24:43

from trading. I guess while the Australian

24:45

Securities Commission looked into things and said,

24:47

there's a lot going on here, we

24:49

need to figure it out. Subsequently,

24:51

Quintex files for bankruptcy in

24:54

1989 and Scaife not

24:56

too soon after under a lot of financial

24:59

pressure can't pay his debts back, files for

25:01

bankruptcy in 1991. So

25:04

from 1987, he bought Channel 7, $780 million, Talk of the Town, 1991, four years later

25:06

or thereabouts,

25:13

five years later, he's bankrupt. Done.

25:15

He is an individual or Quintex?

25:18

Both. So Quintex is

25:20

bankrupt in 1989 and personally, he's filed

25:22

for bankruptcy in 1991. And

25:25

at this point, when this happens to businesses,

25:27

this is when liquidators move in to

25:29

try and recover as many assets as

25:32

they can from the business to

25:34

pay back. People

25:36

who have essentially invested in the business or owed

25:38

money and that's where it can really start to

25:41

get in trouble. Yeah. And

25:44

is that when they start to try

25:46

and find someone responsible? Yeah,

25:49

so not yet. At this point,

25:51

Scaife is OK. So

25:53

like from a personal point of view, you

25:56

know, companies go bankrupt, especially in the late

25:58

80s and early 90s. There

26:01

was no

26:03

idea of impropriety yet. Okay.

26:05

It's tough financial time. Yeah. And,

26:07

you know, like I'm trying to think of the company

26:10

that, you know, Dick Smith Electronics went bankrupts a

26:12

few years ago. Things happen. So

26:15

the resorts that he owned get sold

26:17

to Japanese investors. Channel

26:19

7 gets sold and, you know, these liquidators

26:21

are selling these assets and trying to get

26:24

the money back to pay back

26:26

the debts. Unfortunately,

26:28

they don't get nearly enough

26:31

money to pay back the debts. The

26:33

State Bank of Victoria was one

26:35

of the largest lenders to Quintex.

26:38

It collapses largely because

26:40

it had lent so much money to

26:43

Quintex, it couldn't recover any money. And

26:45

then it itself is bank, State Bank of

26:47

Victoria, but goes bankrupt. And

26:49

that's sort of the end of the

26:51

corporate bankruptcy story. And people sitting

26:53

here like, come on, this is a crime. I know. I

26:56

know. This is the story of like

26:59

for a lot of corporate bankruptcy stories. That's the

27:01

end of the story. Like that's it. They go

27:03

bankruptcy. They try and pay back their debts. They

27:06

do what they can. See you later. But

27:08

that's not the end of the story here. Well, it

27:11

turns out that Skates had been

27:13

secretly moving company money into foreign

27:15

bank accounts. So

27:19

he secretly done some transfers to estimate

27:21

it to be 170 million dollars from

27:24

when Quintex filed

27:27

bankruptcy in 1989

27:29

and Skates filed bankruptcy in 1991. So

27:32

between that period, he was shuffling money

27:35

from Quintex into his, I guess, private

27:37

bank account. So somewhere overseas

27:39

and it emerges that he'd approved

27:41

hefty management fees to be paid

27:44

from Quintex to him personally. So

27:46

how much again? Tell me how much again. 170 million. That

27:50

we're aware of. I mean, it's like,

27:53

you know what? Do you need 170 million crease? Like

27:57

I say what you say, what you're

27:59

doing. I'll see what you've done. there, you've gone, this

28:01

is about to hit itself and

28:04

let's just feather

28:07

our nest. Let's skim

28:09

a bit off the top. 170 million? I

28:12

know. I know. Well, he did

28:14

file for bankruptcy to the

28:17

tune of $80 million himself in debt. So

28:19

probably wanted to have the ability to pay that

28:21

off at some point in time. But

28:23

anyway. I reckon at this point, he knew what he

28:25

was going to do. Let's go.

28:27

So approving management fees. Obviously,

28:30

what he's done is illegal under Australian

28:32

law. And so what happened was this

28:35

is where the Australian police move in

28:38

and actually make an arrest. So

28:40

he was charged with improperly

28:42

using his position to obtain

28:45

management fees, briefly arrested and spent

28:47

a night in jail. A night.

28:50

But you would think that would be more

28:52

than that. He was subsequently released and allowed

28:54

to regain his passport. However, he was

28:57

told to stay in the area. Does he stay

28:59

in the area? No. Next morning, he's

29:02

on a flight to Spain. So

29:05

he fled the country on a flight to Spain and

29:08

then the chase was on. He was

29:10

discovered in 1991 by the Sydney Morning Herald

29:14

in May Orca. Yes.

29:17

Not the COTS. No. Not another

29:19

government. The Sydney Morning Herald. He claimed

29:21

he was penniless but living in a

29:23

$2 million mansion on the island living

29:26

large. I remember it well. I remember

29:28

the blurry photographs very well. Photographs

29:30

taken sort of literally behind

29:32

palm leaves of

29:34

Skacy sitting on stunning

29:37

like outdoor furniture around

29:40

a pool living

29:42

so beautifully. The outrage of

29:44

the nation. I'll never get over it.

29:47

And did he come out immediately and

29:49

say, oh, I'm so. Yeah. So

29:51

he very quickly started claiming he

29:54

was sick. In 1994, the Australian

29:56

government felt like they had enough

29:58

evidence to get him. They

30:00

brought 60 criminal charges against

30:02

him and they spent

30:04

multiple years trying to extradite him

30:07

So Spain and Australia do have

30:09

an extradition treaty and

30:11

this is where the claims

30:13

of being sick really

30:16

started to Escalate

30:18

and I guess be quite strategic for

30:20

him because very hard to claim illness

30:22

when you've got that yeah Yeah, yeah,

30:24

yeah Very

30:27

hard when you look that

30:29

well Tan, muffin, yeah Oh

30:32

so tan, yeah, it just looks so

30:34

well, so well-readed And photos of him walking

30:36

on the beach, you know, like yeah Yeah? In

30:40

the white pants and in the linen

30:43

and to say yeah, but I'm that sick

30:45

guys Honestly, I could not get on a

30:47

plane I just could Well, he was when

30:49

he was rocking up to court He was

30:52

rocking up in a wheelchair claiming he had

30:54

emphysema and a whole bunch of other health

30:56

issues and he was arrested Now here's the

30:58

thing So there's an extradition treaty with Australia

31:01

and Spain Spanish authorities detained him and he

31:03

was actually held for 11 months in Mayorka

31:06

In a jail, but mainly in the

31:08

hospital jail like claiming he was sick.

31:10

So 11 months he was held He

31:13

claimed he was too sick to travel I

31:16

think the first Spanish court upheld

31:19

the extradition But then on appeal the

31:22

Spanish courts decided he was too

31:24

sick to travel Was that when

31:26

the oxygen tank came out somewhere

31:28

during that period of time? Yeah, yeah oxygen

31:30

tank wheelchair the whole nine yards. He

31:33

played the Spanish courts for fools and Now

31:36

how's this for an

31:38

Australian public that were

31:40

infuriated by Christopher's case

31:43

as he walks out of the

31:46

hospital after being released and

31:49

the extradition case not

31:51

going ahead He compared

31:53

his 11 months in a Mayorka hospital

31:55

to the suffering of South Africa's Nobel

31:58

Peace Prize winner President Nelson Mandela

32:01

and to the UK peace envoy

32:03

Terry Waite, who was a hostage in

32:05

the Middle East. The bravado.

32:08

Shamelessness. And

32:11

then a few days later, there were

32:13

photos of him walking on

32:15

Spanish beaches in Mallorca, I guess. Well,

32:18

that was his long walker frame. Yes,

32:21

it was unbelievable. So then the decade-long

32:23

chase continued, the chase for skates, including

32:26

Andrew Denton trying to raise money for

32:28

a bounty hunter. He

32:30

managed to raise 250 grand to,

32:33

well, I guess, whatever.

32:35

The group managed to raise 250 grand,

32:37

but they took it down on legal

32:40

advice. Andrew Denton did.

32:42

Yeah, unfortunately, the bounty

32:44

hunter didn't come to fruition. That

32:47

would have been a crazy end of the story. Probably

32:49

would have put this actually in true crime. Then

32:53

in May 1998, the Aussie

32:55

government canceled Skates's passport, at

32:57

which point he was ordered to leave Mallorca by

32:59

the 23rd of July. But

33:02

he lodged an appeal. The

33:04

extradition process was still tied up in the courts,

33:06

then following. He became a citizen of the Dominican

33:09

Republic. I think Dominican, a

33:11

more Caribbean nation. A tiny Caribbean

33:13

nation. Now the

33:15

irony of that is I think Australia

33:18

and Dominica also have an extradition

33:20

treaty, but there was a

33:22

lot of commentary at the time that because

33:24

he wasn't a citizen, I don't really know

33:26

why, but a lot of commentary at the

33:28

time saying that the chase for skates was

33:31

over and that there was nothing more that could be done

33:33

to bring him back to Australia.

33:36

Whether or not that was true, in the end,

33:38

it didn't really matter because in August 2001,

33:41

he actually was sick and

33:43

he died of stomach cancer. In Mallorca.

33:45

In Mallorca. Yeah.

33:47

In his 50s. So not super old.

33:50

No. Well, it would be the

33:52

stress of everything. I

33:54

mean, seriously, it is,

33:57

you know, it can't have been relaxing.

33:59

No way. I mean, no matter

34:01

where you live and how much sun you're getting

34:03

and how many millions you've taken with you and,

34:05

you know, how nice your villa, it

34:09

is stressful. All of

34:11

this being chased and having all the

34:13

legal stuff. I imagine almost being stuck

34:16

on that island because if he had gone

34:18

to another country in Europe, like

34:20

that potentially would have been detained,

34:23

extradition proceedings, yeah. The

34:25

great irony of this all is Australia

34:28

is pretty soft on white collar

34:30

crimes. Yeah. And at this stage,

34:32

you know, when he was first

34:34

detained in Australia before he fled,

34:36

it was for

34:38

the illegal management fees.

34:40

It wasn't for, you know, embezzling all this

34:42

money from his company into his offshore accounts.

34:44

Got away with the 170 million. Australia

34:48

is incredibly light on these crimes

34:50

and estimates are he probably would

34:52

have got months in jail, if

34:55

anything. But instead, you know,

34:57

he fled and he would chase

34:59

him for the rest of his life. And

35:01

he was detained for 11 months. So yeah, so

35:04

he probably did more time or at least,

35:06

you know, he did time.

35:09

I think what do you think, ego

35:11

hubris? Definitely. Yeah, definitely. Classic example

35:13

of being in too deep and then not

35:15

being able to get out as well. And

35:18

so his wife, Pixie, Pixie was never

35:20

charged with anything. Anyone

35:22

around him? No,

35:24

no. Here's the story of Pixie. So Pixie

35:26

is still alive and she may be listening

35:28

to this because she's back in Australia. She's

35:30

living in Melbourne. I felt for Pixie and

35:32

I might be silly, but I just

35:35

got the impression that Pixie was

35:38

not involved in Christopher's sort of financial

35:41

dealings. I got the impression that Pixie

35:44

was the classic sort of, I

35:46

don't know how to put it. I'm not going to say

35:48

trophy wife, but I had the

35:50

impression that Pixie had other duties within

35:52

the relationship, that she

35:54

was an entertainer, if you will. Yeah,

35:56

I guess. But you know, once you

35:58

flee to Mayorka. You

36:01

know, I think you're all in on it at

36:03

that point. Yeah. I guess.

36:05

I guess. Yeah. But

36:07

I do think, you know, she suffered as well

36:09

and insert sort of, you know, she nursed Christopher

36:11

to his death and all of that's horrible.

36:14

And I think that the money has never been for

36:16

each other. I was just thinking that, yeah. It's probably

36:18

still in account somewhere. Well,

36:20

thank you. That is amazing. I mean, you know, I

36:23

lived through it. You didn't. But

36:25

I, of course, I didn't hold

36:27

on to any of those details at the time

36:29

because I was a kid and all I knew

36:31

was that everyone was furious and

36:33

there was a lot of swearing around at all. And

36:35

a lot of shouting, even on the TV, there was a lot

36:38

of people shouting at

36:40

Christopher whenever he popped up. I

36:43

remember him being on television, though. I remember watching a

36:45

show that was on Saturday mornings. It was like kind

36:48

of like Saturday morning hits, but there was comedians

36:50

on it and stuff and he'd be on it.

36:52

He'd be on the couch in his suit, you

36:54

know, and they'd go, oh, look, the boss is

36:56

here. And then be Christopher like it like the

36:58

grim reaper down the end of the couch because

37:01

he was a jovial chap, but he wanted to be

37:03

on the TV a lot. I remember that. And

37:06

then when things went pear shaped, people

37:08

would ever he popped up, people shouting at him,

37:10

Mr. Skase, Mr. Skase, have you got anything to

37:13

say? And he'd be storm. And then next minute

37:15

there in Mallorca shouting at him over his

37:17

hedges and then he's in

37:20

his wheelchair. So I could never

37:22

quite understand all the detail of what

37:24

happened. So you filled in a lot of blanks for me. Thank

37:26

you so much. Now, I think the other

37:28

side of the Channel 7 story is it's

37:31

great when you can see the boss and

37:33

appear on it. But Channel

37:35

7, I think, was the most angry

37:38

at Christopher Skase. And I think they fueled a

37:40

lot of the anger and the

37:42

10 year chase for skase. I

37:44

think there was a lot of long memories and

37:46

hard feelings about network. And they took

37:48

us Jennifer Kite's face is coming to mind. You're right.

37:51

A very grumpy Jennifer Kite. So if you if

37:53

you ever are in a position to own a

37:55

media company, do not piss them off. I'm

38:00

going to remember that. Thank

38:30

you for downloading this episode of

38:33

Australian True Crime. We'll

38:43

be back next week. Tired

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