NewsBite

Investigation

This Month

Chris Ellison, MinRes’ managing director, and other investors in the Bullsbrook development project.

The $45m MinRes property deal – with the Ellisons on the other side

Investors in the iron ore and lithium miner would have had no idea that MinRes’ joint venture partner in a big Perth real estate play was the company’s founder.

  • Neil Chenoweth and Mark Di Stefano
ASIC chairman Joe Longo.

ASIC expands probe into ANZ’s alleged bond market manipulation

The top corporate regulator has told a parliamentary joint committee the investigation is of the “highest priority” and will include the misreporting of data.

  • Jonathan Shapiro

October

Richard White’s personal life spilled into the open after his now wife, Zena Nasser (right) found out about his lover, Linda Rogan.

How Richard White’s humble tech nerd image came undone

Why he clung on to his job at the top of WiseTech despite an $11 billion fortune as his personal life disintegrated is a question only he can answer.

  • Max Mason, Kate McClymont and Nick McKenzie
Richard White, WiseTech Global’s founder, with chairman Richard Dammery.

WiseTech chief executive Richard White quits amid scandal

The billionaire businessman will return as a full-time consultant on the same salary he enjoyed as chief executive of the company he founded three decades ago.

  • Max Mason, Kate McClymont and Nick McKenzie
Billionaire Richard White and his former partner Christine Kontos.

Richard White gave $7m mansion to female WiseTech employee

But the billionaire businessman, who is the software firm’s chief executive, said he had disclosed the relationship before she started at the company.

  • Updated
  • Kate McClymont, Max Mason and Nick McKenzie
Advertisement
Richard White, WiseTech Global’s founder and chief executive, and Christine Holman, who was briefly a director of the company.

WiseTech director’s scathing assessment of ‘bully’ Richard White

Christine Holman accused the software giant’s chief executive of intimidation, bullying and overseeing poor corporate governance as she quit in 2019.

  • Nick McKenzie, Max Mason and Kate McClymont
Richard White in August. The billionaire has built WiseTech Global into a software giant, but has recently been selling shares.

Billionaire Richard White’s WiseTech share sales to pay ex-wife

The businessman has previously said he was selling down his stake in the software giant he founded because investors were demanding shares be made available.

  • Max Mason, Kate McClymont, Tess Bennett and Anne Hyland
Richard White is the founder of WiseTech. His board has included Andrew Harrison (left), Maree Isaacs, Charles Gibbon and Richard Dammery, who is the current chairman.

‘LinkedIn Lecher’: WiseTech board to probe payments to CEO’s ex-lover

An investigation also reveals the businessman approached female entrepreneurs with offers of professional help that shifted into crude or suggestive language.

  • Nick McKenzie, Max Mason and Kate McClymont
The corporate regulator is investigating ANZ Bank’s handling of a $14 billion federal government bond sale.

ASIC raids four properties in ANZ bond manipulation probe

The move was part of efforts to gather evidence as the regulator investigates the bank over allegations it improperly profited from a $14 billion bond sale.

  • Jonathan Shapiro

September

The Beverly Hills wannabes and the betrayal of Ballarat

The collapse of a small-town gold mine has revealed how millions of dollars flowed to a network of Chinese businessmen. Now liquidators want the money back.

  • Peter Ker
George Alex outside the NSW Supreme Court at Darlinghurst during jury deliberations in his tax fraud trial.

‘I love a cunning plan’: A crime boss, the CFMEU and tax-dodging deals

Secret police recordings of more than 1000 calls made from prison helped unravel George Alex’s sprawling and corrupt labour hire empire.

  • Updated
  • Nick McKenzie, David Marin-Guzman and Kate McClymont
ANZ chief executive Shayne Elliott at a parliamentary inquiry on Friday.

What scandal? Elliott doubles down on minimising bond trading fallout

Shayne Elliott is steadfast in his position that ANZ hasn’t done all that much wrong. It’s a familiar stance, but this time he better be right.

  • Jonathan Shapiro

August

PwC Australia CEO Kevin Burrowes

The PwC players, the blowback and why it could all happen again

Many current and former PwC partners still don’t believe the tax leaks scandals involved any serious wrongdoing, and regulators can’t be sure there will not be a repeat.  

  • Edmund Tadros
Amy Pitchford and Derek Christopher

The union boss and the building executive

Multiplex executive Amy Pitchford is in a relationship with a CFMEU official being investigated by police, while also advising the Victorian government on industry issues.

  • Nick McKenzie, David Marin-Guzman and Ben Schneiders

‘We couldn’t believe it’: Insiders reveal how PwC unravelled as scandal broke

The inside story of how PwC transformed from dull accountant into a sales-driven firm that would tear itself apart.

  • Edmund Tadros
Advertisement
Corrupt CFMEU conduct has distorted the construction market, a judge has warned.

‘Flying blind’: Union watchdog hits roadblocks over CFMEU

The Fair Work Commission cannot get the evidence it needs to put the CFMEU into administration because it is not allowed to access critical police information.

  • Nick McKenzie and David Marin-Guzman

July

One of the investors in an NDIS housing fund run by ASR Wealth.

Domacom fund suspended from accepting new money after NDIS closures

Property investment platform Domacom has been blocked from raising new funds following a Financial Review probe into aggressively marketed NDIS investments.

  • Updated
  • Jonathan Shapiro
n 2020, there was a global rush to secure masks to try to restrict the spread of COVID-19 – some of the results were far from satisfactory.

Importers got rich on COVID masks; the shipment’s still on the dock

When COVID-19 erupted around the world, the race was on to secure masks and gowns. Middlemen were in lucrative taxpayer deals, even one which went awry.

  • Liam Walsh and Neil Chenoweth
AP

Resigned Biden clings to the second term he ‘merited’ but was denied

The US president’s resignation speech was delivered by a hollowed-out career politician who appeared defeated by everyone except his family and closest of aides.

  • Matthew Cranston
The Fin podcast with David Marin-Guzman

Building bad: Inside the CFMEU investigation

This week on The Fin podcast, David Marin-Guzman on his nine-month investigation into the CFMEU, why the response shocked insiders and whether there might be lasting change.

Original URL: https://www.afr.com/topic/investigation-1qr