Matthew Perrin’s ex-wife Nicole Bricknell knew about investments, court hears

UPDATE: Former Billabong boss Matthew Perrin was in an emotional crisis when his then-wife told him of a move she made that left him “shell-shocked”, a court has heard.

Matthew Perrin outside court today.

FAILED surfwear titan Matthew Perrin has described the moment his world crumbled around him.

Nicole Bricknell.

Giving evidence in the District Court in Brisbane today, Perrin claimed his wife Nicole Bricknell made a desperate grab for the remaining as he finally confronted the reality that his fortune was lost.

The former high-flyer told the jury in his fraud and forgery trial that the emotional crisis fell on January 20, 2009, when he was “trying to deal with the fact of how are we are going to survive with no money” and thinking “this is all going to fall down”.

He told the court this is when his then-wife Ms Bricknell hit him with a shocking declaration.

“Nicole advised me she had been to the bank and taken $10.6 million out of (the joint) account,” Perrin said.

“It was like a punch in the guts,” he said.

“We obviously needed (that) money to finish the (China) transaction and then get back $50 million bucks out of China,” he said.

“I was shell-shocked,” he said.

But Perrin told the jury he didn’t have time to question his wife further because his two brothers and business associates arrived at his Gold Coast home for a family crisis meeting.

“I was pretty stressed. I was starting to panic, thinking ‘hang on this is going to fall down if we can’t settle the (China) SAI deal because that’s where the money was coming back from’,” Perrin told the jury.

“I said to everyone at the meeting ‘Look this is looking really really bad, the house is mortgaged. I don’t know if we are going to get through this’,” he said.

“I think everyone was pretty bloody shocked.”

Perrin told the jury he never said anything to the meeting “specifically” about “signatures” but he did concede telling them the family home was mortgaged.

Ms Bricknell told the court she recalled he confessed to forgery and fraud at the meeting — a claim Perrin denied.

“I never mentioned jail or forgery,” he said

“I had no concept of jail or forgery at all,” Perrin told the court.

He said he had his wife’s permission to sign mortgage and financial documents on her behalf.

In other evidence Ms Bricknell’s childhood friend, Gold Coast property developer Karl Rameau, told the court that Ms Bricknell told him: “The only way I’m going to get peace is with him (Perrin) in jail”.

“I said ‘You do understand the worst result is to go to jail. It doesn’t help your three children,” he said.

“She said ‘It is the only way I will get any peace’,” Mr Rameau said.

“He was the $100 million dollar man ... the golden-haired boy.”

Mr Rameau told the court he observed Perrin becoming consumed by his business failures during holidays to Noosa and trips to Melbourne to go to the horse races.

“There were late-night phone calls, him disappearing, him walking away (from a group) on the phone,” Mr Rameau said.

“Racing was pretty important to these guys and for him to leave (the Melbourne Cup) early was like leaving your own birthday party,” Mr Rameau said.

The trial continues.

MATTHEW PERRIN: ‘I DID NOT WRITE THAT’

FORMER corporate titan Matthew Perrin has denied penning a sensational six-page “confession letter” in which he allegedly admits to committing fraud and forgery, a jury has heard.

Giving evidence in the District Court in Brisbane today, Perrin told Judge Julie Dick that he was given the letter by his now ex-wife Nicole in March 2009.

“I just want to understand something, you did not write that statement or type it?” Judge Dick asked Perrin.

“No,” he replied.

“You were given it by Nicole Bricknell?” Judge Dick asked.

“Yes,” he told the jury.

In the letter Perrin purportedly takes responsibility for wrongdoing.

The letter is a central part of the prosecution case against Perrin on charges of fraud and forgery, and purports to have been signed by him, in a signature witnessed by a Justice of the Peace.

Perrin told Judge Dick that several paragraphs of the letter were untrue, technical details were wrong and figures were wildly inaccurate.

“I did not write those figures,” he said.

He told the court that Ms Bricknell drove him to a Justice of the Peace’s house so the letter could be witnessed.

Ms Bricknell denies taking him to the house.

Perrin said at the time he signed the letter he was “probably contemplating suicide”, he wasn’t sleeping and wasn’t exercising.

The Justice of the Peace has given evidence that Perrin came to her house and she signed the document.

In earlier evidence Perrin’s barrister accused Ms Bricknell of making “threats” to “sort” Perrin “out” if he fought her over the asset split in the family court in 2012.

Ms Bricknell went to police and agreed to give a statement against her husband as a prosecution witness in 2012, the court was told.

In earlier evidence Ms Bricknell’s father Laurie said Perrin gave him the so-called “confession letter” for safekeeping in March 2009 but didn’t read it until the following year.

The hearing continues.

EARLIER: Bricknell knew about investments, court hears

FAILED surfwear mogul Matthew Perrin’s wife knew of the huge gamble her husband had taken by investing in a Chinese supermarkets business and she discussed the risks with her friends, a court has heard.

Perrin’s barrister Andrew Hoare told the District Court jury that Perrin’s former school mate Andrew Thompson spoke to Nicole Bricknell at a lunch at a ritzy Chinese restaurant in Knightsbridge in London in July 2008.

Matthew Perrin has taken the witness stand in his defence and is giving evidence about how he came to make his fortune, in floating surfwear company Billabong after buying shares from Rena Merchant, the ex-wife of Billabong founder Gordon Merchant.

Mr Hoare told the jury that Mr Thompson would give evidence later today that Ms Bricknell told him: “The deal in China, we bet everything on China”.

“It is all tied up with China and the Commonwealth Bank. It had better come off.” Ms Bricknell is alleged to have said.

Mr Hoare told the court Mr Thompson says he asked Ms Bricknell “Why would you do that, what is the point? You can only lose”.

Mr Thompson said he was “going to punch Pez (a nickname for Perrin) in the head ... if we are sitting somewhere in five years time and you two have lost your money.”

In her evidence on Tuesday Ms Bricknell says she “never have said that” because she had no idea how much money her then-husband had invested in a speculative Chinese supermarkets business.

She told the jury she was unaware that her husband had mortgaged the $15m family home, which was held in her name only.

Mr Hoare told the jury another long-time family friend of Ms Bricknell would be called as a witness today.

Karl Rameau would tell the jury that Ms Bricknell told him that “they had bet everything on China”, Mr Hoare said.

Perrin has taken the witness stand in his defence and is giving evidence about how he came to make his fortune, in floating surfwear company Billabong after buying shares from Rena Merchant, the ex-wife of Billabong founder Gordon Merchant.

Mr Hoare told the court another witness would testify that they saw Ms Bricknell at a cafe examining Commonwealth bank documents.

“That evidence may make you think ... she (Ms Bricknell) knew about the loans and knew about the problems in China,” Mr Hoare told the jury.

The trial continues.