Matthew Perrin: Billabong founder’s epic wipeout

HE was the golden-haired boy who chiselled a $75 million fortune out of the iconic surfwear company Billabong. Now he’s facing jail.

• Matthew Perrin: Jury urged to convict surfwear mogul
• Matthew Perrin: Ex-wife knew about investments, court told
• Matthew Perrin: Ex-wife says she’ll get peace when he’s in jail

MATTHEW Perrin was the golden-haired boy who chiselled a $75 million fortune out of the iconic surfwear company Billabong. Then he became greedy and had an epic ­financial wipeout.

Details of Perrin’s monetary meltdown, his thoughts of suicide and the implosion of his 13-year marriage have been laid bare in the District Court.

Every day last week Perrin’s ex-wife, the prosecution’s star witness, teetered into the George St courtroom in towering heels and a fresh, floaty summer frock.

Matthew Perrin in August, 2001.

Perrin, tall and handsome in a blue suit, looked like the successful mover and shaker he once was, rather than someone facing the prospect of prison. He had descended so low that he wondered “why I shouldn’t go and throw myself” when “walking past tall buildings”.

The jury was told Nicole Bricknell wanted to see Perrin behind bars for forging her signature, betraying her and r isking foreclosure of the family’s “forever” dream home.

“The only way I’m going to get peace is with him in jail,” Ms Bricknell is alleged to have told friend Karl Rameau.

Mr Rameau counselled: “You do understand the worst result is he goes to jail? That doesn’t help your three children.”

Crown prosecutor Glenn Cash told the jury that getting a glimpse inside the Perrin bubble was like watching an episode of the “rich housewives” reality TV show, crossed with a bit of The Bold and the Beautiful and set on the glitzy Gold Coast.

There was plenty of emotion, with Ms Bricknell erupting into hysterical floods of tears and hyperventilating during testimony, while witnesses recalled a defeated ­Perrin sobbing with his head cradled in his hands on his darkest day in 2009.

Matthew Perrin at the Billabong AMG at the Grand Mecure Hotel at Broadbeach in 2002.

So how did it all come to this? Perrin and his wife ­Nicole, who married in 1996, were always ambitious, the jury heard. They had been ­together since they were teenagers and once married, they took a gamble, buying a $1 million block of land in 1999 before their $33 million windfall from selling Billabong shares.

The land was on Cronin ­Island, just behind Surfers Paradise on the Gold Coast, and had water frontage.

They bulldozed the existing property and built an opulent $7.4 million six-bedroom trophy home complete with a 10-car garage and a jetty.

“The Perrins lived a life which many people might consider with envy,” Mr Cash said.

Ms Bricknell was paid $10,000 a month as a housekeeping allowance and withdrew greater amounts if she wanted to buy something big.

Matthew Perrin with his then-wife Nicole Bricknell.

They owned a $4.75 million Mermaid Beach investment apartment, had racehorses worth $4 million and shares worth $1 million. There was ­another $1.3 million in cash in investment accounts. They also put a $1 million beachfront Burleigh Heads property in a family trust to set up their kids for life.

But the temptation to make more money was irresistible.

Perrin decided to invest in Chinese supermarkets in 2008, believing he would make a motza – because so far in his life, pretty much everything he touched had turned to gold.

He sank about $22 million into the project. Bad move. By  May 2008, Perrin was asking his bank for more cash to shovel into the doomed venture.

Next he took a mortgage over the house.

He claims Ms Bricknell knew about the Chinese deal going south and agreed to the mortgage. She claims she was kept in the dark about both.

At the same time, cracks were starting to appear in their marriage, with Ms Bricknell suspecting Perrin had been having an affair since 2006. He denied this until late 2007.

Tensions came to a head on January 20, 2009, when Perrin called a crisis meeting.

Ms Bricknell has told the court: “I broke down and said, ‘It’s OK, you are having an ­affair again’.” Perrin allegedly replied: “No, no, it is much worse than that.”

“His words were: ‘I’ve done a lot of bad things, I’m going to go to jail’,” Ms Bricknell claims.

Perrin denies he ever said he was going to jail. He denies he ever admitted forging his wife’s signature, arguing she gave him permission to sign on her behalf and he had done so for years, a claim she denies.

So who is telling the truth? That is for the jury to decide.

Jurors are set to deliver their verdict early this week.