US Securities and Exchange Commission refuses to comment on work of lawyers in Brisbane

Lawyers from the US Securities and Exchange Commission have been spotted in Brisbane, reportedly as part of a probe into an Australian company.

Indiana Jones.

NO COMMENT

CITY Beat has received a terse “decline to comment” from the US Securities and Exchange Commission in relation to a contingent of top legal eagles in town reportedly as part of an investigation into an unnamed Australian company.

We hear the lawyers, including SEC assistant chief legal counsel Greg Miller, rocked up last week and are still in town, having taken over the boardroom of local law shop McCullough Robertson. Retired lawyer Tim O’Dwyer was called in last week to swear in one of the witnesses in the investigation.

VOLCANIC ACTIVITY

FORMER commando Mike Thompson, one of the brothers behind the Mt
Coot-tha zipline project, has a resume that puts Indiana Jones in the shade.

As well as a military career that included stints in Iraq and East Timor, a few years ago he was chief engineer on an expedition to the Masaya Volcano lava lake in Nicaragua. His job was to help get a team of scientists, filmmakers and photographers deep inside the volcano via a zipline dodging rock falls, exposure to lava and unexpected activity from volcanic vents.

After that sort of experience, the zipline down the gentle slope of Mt Coot-tha must seem like a doddle.

Mike and brother Matt decided to get into the tourism game a few years back and now run Zipline Australia, the company planning the treetop canopy zipline from the summit of Mt Coot-tha, an indigenous cultural heritage tour and suspension bridge. In Vanuatu, he runs a jungle zipline operation catering to cruise line passengers.

BURIED TREASURE?

AMID the flurry of accounts in the latest reporting season, it’s always interesting to see what’s buried in the notes.

Take Brisbane-based engineering mob Cardno, for instance. Cardno’s major shareholder is Crescent Capital Partners, and the related-party disclosures reveal that the private equity mob has hired Cardno for “due diligence contamination investigation”.

What could Crescent be eyeing for purchase? The remnants of the Tattersall’s Club’s old-guard-against-women faction? The soon-to-be-deserted Liberal party room in Canberra? Anyway, the consulting work cost Crescent $73,180, based on normal market rates, we are assured. Of course, Crescent then also did some work for Cardno, which cost $48,510. Cardno, while posting a slip in underlying earnings from $13.9 million to $10.4 million, reckons it is returning the business to positive long-term growth after lots of restructuring.

IRISH EYES

NO ONE does a long lunch like the Irish. Our good friends at the Irish Australian Chamber of Commerce will be celebrating St Patrick’s Day on March 15 with a lunch so long that it belongs back in the hazy days of the 1980s before the introduction of fringe benefits tax.

The craic starts at noon and continues to 5pm with lots of music, dancing and “post-lunch networking” (ie Guinness drinking) at the Brisbane Convention and Exhibition Centre.

The host will be Walkley Award-winning journalist Patrick Condren.

TOUGH TIMES

LONG-suffering shareholders of troubled Retail Food Group (RFG) will be hoping for some good news in the company’s half-yearly results expected to be released on Thursday.

Shares in RFG, which owns the Donut King, Pizza Capers and ­Gloria Jean’s Coffee chains, plummeted 87.85 per cent last year as it racked up large losses at its franchise outlets.

So far this year, its shares are down 10 per cent, closing yesterday at 27¢. Word is RFG is now seeking to offload some of its brands.