Billionaire White expected to be ‘vindicated’ after bid to bankrupt ex-lover
Unreported messages reveal Richard White expected to be ‘vindicated’ after getting his day in court with ex-lover Linda Rogan. Instead, he lost his job.
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Billionaire Richard White expected to be “vindicated” when he got his day in court with ex-lover Linda Rogan.
Instead, he has ended up being castigated for his behaviour towards a string of women in his personal and business life.
White was engulfed in a crisis of his own making that was still a secret less than four weeks ago. Back then he was worth $15bn and riding the crest of a booming share price for WiseTech Global, the software business he started three decades ago.
Then White’s bankruptcy action against Rogan was revealed in the Federal Court.
In previously unreported correspondence, obtained by The Weekend Australian, White’s now wife, Zena Nasser – a woman at the centre of so many events that have engulfed his life this month – was confident her man would win out against Rogan.
“Richard expects to be completely vindicated once the matter is heard,” Nasser said in correspondence, with White copied in.
“Given this matter is currently before the court, Richard is unable to comment other than to say that the court proceedings relate to an unresolved commercial debt arising from various case (sic) run by Ms Rogan against Richard and costs and court orders made against Ms Rogan in those matters.”
That “commercial debt” was, incredibly, about $91,000 in luxury furniture Rogan had paid for, to be installed at the $13.1m Sydney harbourside mansion White bought for her.
It might have been a legally sound move by White to try to bankrupt Rogan over a sum she had once shelled out for upscale mattresses, lounges and outdoor love seats.
But it has proven to be a huge error in judgment.
As well as the allegations about White exchanging sex for business and investment advice with Rogan, detailed in her court documents, he has also faced allegations about the treatment of ex-lovers Jenna Riches and Marcia Kensell.
At WiseTech, there have been allegations of ex-board member Christine Holman leaving because of the company’s workplace culture and audit practices, concerns about the high remuneration of former chief growth officer Gail Williamson and the gifting of a $7m Melbourne mansion to WiseTech product manager Christine Kontos.
Even the corporate regulator got involved, revealing it was eyeing WiseTech amid the nightmare. White was also accused of reigning over a “toxic” workplace, and was hit with bullying allegations himself.
After telling reporters last Thursday he was not going anywhere, White folded exactly one week later when he quit as CEO.
“It has been a challenging time for me personally, my family and close friends, and for the company that I have built and truly love,” he said in a statement.
The WiseTech board appointed Herbert Smith Freehills and Seyfarth Shaw to investigate “specific issues raised in recent media coverage”.
The women
There are a few patterns that emerge about White’s type of woman, and the way he gets involved with them.
They are typically entrepreneurial and business-minded. Attractive. Intelligent.
Rogan, 53, was a New York stockbroker and commerce graduate who lived in Israel before returning to Australia to invest in tanning salons and luxury wellness ventures.
Before Rogan missed out on a spot in the Real Housewives of Sydney reality TV series in late 2022, she pursued a career in the financial services sector in the US.
Describing herself on her Instagram account as a “beauty addict … ageing disgracefully”, Rogan said in court documents she has also been caring for one of her children, who was hospitalised in 2022 after suffering an inflammatory response to the Covid vaccine.
She has also worked at and owned tanning studios and a wellness business in Sydney, and currently owns Laser Clinics franchises there and in Cairns and New Zealand.
She met White through Nasser, when the three had dinner at Sydney’s Bambini Trust in August 2022.
“When I met Richard, I genuinely believed he was interested in investing in my business,” Rogan said in court documents.
“I was separated from my husband, caring for three children, and my teenage son had only recently suffered a devastating brain injury,” she said.
“After a few weeks I realised Richard was pursuing a sexual relationship.”
Rogan says White told her at another Bambini dinner he would buy her a house, so she and her children could live in it. She inspected 30 properties, and ultimately White purchased a $13.1m mansion in Daly St, Vaucluse.
Rogan bought the furniture, but before she had a chance to tear open the packaging Nasser discovered the arrangement, and Rogan was locked out.
Jenna Riches, 38, was the second woman to publicly claim White engaged in a business-for-sex arrangement. It was the first real hint of an emerging pattern.
Riches, a psychologist who relocated from the Northern Territory to Sydney with plans to expand her practice, told The Australian she contacted White seeking business advice.
She says after they struck up a conversation over LinkedIn, some book recommendations and written self-reflections turned into flurries of phone calls and video chats.
Riches said the professional mentoring turned into a romantic relationship and the pair had sex a number of times, but it ended after it was discovered by Nasser.
“He likes the build-up of these things. He likes the game of it, like the master and the student he kept on referring to,” she told The Australian.
“I was the student, he’s the master.”
The night they first had sex, at a hotel in Sydney, Riches said: “When I came to Sydney … It was very exciting.
“He had it all planned out … we decided to meet in my hotel room first. He greeted me with a bunch of flowers, and I looked inside and there was a sex toy in them.”
She was shocked to receive a message in August from Nasser, who told her to “leave my husband alone and stop contacting him”, Riches said.
Marcia Kensell was the third woman identified by The Australian. She says she founded and worked at several technology consultancies.
White also bought a house for her, in Sydney’s Lane Cove for $4.1m, in 2018.
White and Kensell were alleged to have been in a relationship at the time. Kensell has not responded to questions or The Weekend Australian’s attempts to contact her for comment.
Media reports suggest White also bought a $7m home in Melbourne for a WiseTech staff member he was in a relationship with, Christine Kontos.
It was also reported that White paid former WiseTech chief growth officer Williamson double his earnings. This was allegedly not disclosed to investors, and White said their relationship had been only business related.
It’s been reported White and Barbara Mason divorced in 2015. Little is known about Mason.
It’s believed White is currently married to Nasser, the pair have been together four years and have a months-old baby.
Bullying allegations
Three weeks of damaging publicity, spurred on by White’s attempt to bankrupt Rogan, have been followed by allegations several senior female executives in audit and legal functions quit WiseTech in 2019, around the same time as an attack from US short-seller researcher J Capital, The Weekend Australian understands.
It is understood Kensell alleged she was aware of claims about bullying and a toxic workplace culture at WiseTech, leading to female executives resigning, and has previously threatened to go public.
The JCAP report claimed WiseTech acquired a string of logistics software companies that were overvalued, and made it appear WiseTech was a fast-growing technology business.
But White recovered, and while the company’s share price dived more than 21 per cent it rebounded quickly.
Around the same time, in October 2019, Holman, the former chair of WiseTech’s audit and risk management committee, abruptly resigned after just 11 months on the board.
Holman would not respond to claims that she resigned due to a toxic workplace culture of bullying and victimisation.
A WiseTech board spokeswoman rejected the allegations about WiseTech’s culture, which included:
- That a “toxic” culture of bullying and victimisation has led to senior executives within the company needing counselling;
- That a number of complaints have been raised with the Fair Work Commission, and;
- That there is a high turnover of staff at the company, and a string of often female executives and staff have left.
The spokeswoman also refused to comment on Holman’s departure.
“We do not believe that the characterisation of the WiseTech culture is fair or warranted,” she said.
“It is not appropriate for the company to comment on particular employees or directors, current and former.
“The assertion that the company has a high turnover is incorrect relative to our peers. WiseTech has a low voluntary attrition rate, last reported at 5.6 per cent in FY24, which has been declining over recent years and remains well below industry averages.”
Before Holman quit in November 2019, WiseTech’s former group legal counsel, Natasha Davidson, resigned in March 2018 after two years at the company.
A series of reviews about WiseTech dating back to 2011, posted to Glassdoor, a website on which current and former employees anonymously review companies, tell a different story.
One review, from April this year, said “don’t work with Richard. Richard will shout at you if you try to suggest ideas that are different from his own”.
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