Privium Homes collapse: Wife of collapsed builder’s bizarre court grilling

The wife of a man behind an $80m builder collapse has erupted in laughter and broken into sobs during a rollercoaster hearing into the bust, as it’s revealed she’s managing a new home builder.

A new Brisbane home builder is being managed by the wife of the man behind one of Australia’s biggest construction company collapses, a court has heard.

Sobbing, laughter, bible verses and lost recollections marked the second set of public hearings into the $80m collapse of Privium Homes, which went under in late 2021 leaving more than 700 unfinished homes around the country.

A public examination by liquidators in the Federal Court in Brisbane heard Rachel Harder, wife of Privium co-founder Rob Harder, was currently general manager of a separate company called Tekna Homes.

QBCC records show Tekna has held an unrestricted licence since December 2022.

Ms Harder spent a rollercoaster day being examined, at times breaking into laughter, sobbing, and prefacing her every response with the word “privilege”.

Rob Harder leaves Brisbane Federal court. Picture: John Gass

Peter Somers, counsel for liquidators FTI, repeatedly questioned Ms Harder on companies she was director of, and of the source of millions of dollars worth of transactions between them.

Ms Harder said she’d worked as bookkeeper and sales consultant for Privium, but couldn’t remember specific dates, who she reported to, how long she’d worked in sales or how much she’d been paid.

She said she wasn’t paid a commission on sales “because I wasn’t very good” and had shared the role with her sister-in-law Chrissy Harder.

Asked if she recalled the end of the Privium Group, Ms Harder said: “I know how my husband was feeling but no, I don’t know the events around that.”

Under further questioning, Ms Harder said the impact of the Privium collapse “was heartbreaking”.

“We no longer had an income, we no longer had a business.”

Rachel Harder and Robert Harder, founder of collapsed building company Privium Homes.

Mr Somers asked Ms Harder about her directorship of two companies – both named after bible verses.

One company, Gen2612, relates to a verse where a “man became rich, and his wealth continued to grow until he became very wealthy”.

Ms Harder confirmed the other company, named Prov1322 Global, referenced the verse where “A good person leaves an inheritance for their children’s children, but a sinner’s wealth is stored up for the righteous”.

Crying and dabbing her face with tissue, Ms Harder said she was aware the companies had been set up but didn’t cause them to be registered and didn’t recall what they actually did.

Mr Somers directed the court to multiple examples of large payments made to and by companies directed by Ms Harder in 2021 – in some cases of up to $7m each – but she could not recall the source of the funds or the purposes of the transactions.

Ms Harder said she recalled the Privium collapse being ‘heartbreaking’.

Ms Harder said she didn’t recall hearing about some of the companies until after she was asked to produce documents ahead of the examination.

Asked about what personal property she owned, Ms Harder confirmed she’d previously owned a Maserati vehicle and currently owned “a Mercedes, a BMW and a Holden truck”.

In previous hearings of the public examination, Mr Harder said he planned to give a certain percentage of its profits to a charity to spread the Christian gospel.

Annie and Raf Solomon were left waiting for a year for their house to be built after troubled builder Privium collapsed. Photo Steve Pohlner

In the earlier hearing, Mr Harder – a senior member and donor to the evangelical church Hillsong – described himself as an “ideas man” whose “brilliant” scheme to help struggling homebuyers only failed when his major financier withdrew.

Mr Harder told the court he had helped set up another charity called Joii with his teenage son to handle the construction and other labour work for the Privium Group. Privium’s workers were later transferred to Joii under an arrangement which involved the group paying a fee to the charity for services rendered.

The hearing continues on Wednesday.

Originally published as Privium Homes collapse: Wife of collapsed builder’s bizarre court grilling