Sydney beauty entrepreneur foreshadows misleading conduct case against billionaire businessman Richard White
A bankruptcy dispute between WiseTech Global rich-lister Richard White and Laser Clinics’ Linda Rogan is heating up in the Federal Court.
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Sydney beauty entrepreneur Linda Rogan has alleged a bankruptcy notice filed by billionaire Richard White against her may be a “device for sabotage”, a court has heard.
Lawyers for the WiseTech Global businessman — who is worth $9.7bn according to The Australian’s Richest 250 — and Ms Rogan went head-to-head on Wednesday during a hearing at the Federal Court in Sydney over a suppression order application.
Federal Court judge Ian Jackman ordered some parts of the evidence filed by both parties be redacted, as he told the court he advised Mr White of a “personal” transaction four years ago which had nothing to do with the current court case. Neither party objected to Justice Jackman hearing the application.
“The application was brought by (Ms) Rogan to set aside a bankruptcy notice issued by (Mr) White,” he said.
For Ms Rogan, barrister Bridie Nolan was arguing why some of the material should be released, but Justice Jackman moved to immediately suppress parts of what was said in open court.
Arguing why particular discussions that had been included in Ms Rogan’s evidence ought not be concealed under a legal professional privilege claim, Ms Nolan acknowledged some of it “might be ugly” but that did not warrant complete concealment of allegations.
Ms Nolan also said her client has foreshadowed plans to file a cross-claim against Mr White alleging misleading conduct, and suggested she could argue the bankruptcy notice may be “a device for sabotage”.
Further, Ms Nolan alleged her client was subject to “grooming” with regard to a “system of misconduct” about her business.
Ms Rogan filed the application to set aside the bankruptcy notice on August 15, according to orders lodges with the court on Tuesday.
Ms Rogan owns a Laser Clinics Australia franchise in Double Bay.
On her Instagram profile, Ms Rogan says she is a “beauty addict” and also promotes the tagline “ageing disgracefully” to her 15,900 followers.
Mr White started his WiseTech business in 1994, when it originally wrote code from Australian freight forwarders. The ASX-listed company now offers productivity solutions to logistics companies.
He is one of Australia’s biggest technology success stories, and WiseTech Global went public in 2016 with a $1bn valuation. It is now worth more than $20bn.
Mr White has maintained a large shareholding in the company, and has a string of property and other technology-related investments.
He lives in a house in Sydney’s Bexley, which is the home he grew up in and has now renovated.
Mr White has a background in music, and played in Sydney bands during the 1970s before he started repairing guitars.
He moved on to build stage and venue lighting equipment.
Mr White then started computer distribution business Clear Group.
He told The Australian previously: “That got very big, very quickly.”
“But the problem was that I wasn’t designing or creating anything. It was a lot of revenue but was not creative. So I sold that in 1989 and started a business called Real Tech Systems Integration.”
Originally published as Sydney beauty entrepreneur foreshadows misleading conduct case against billionaire businessman Richard White
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