Melbourne businessman Geoff Bainbridge has piece published on LA Progressive website

After appearing in an infamous video smoking from an ice pipe, former Lark CEO Geoff Bainbridge has headed to Los Angeles to spruik his business acumen.

High-flying entrepreneur Geoff Bainbridge seems to be clutching at pipes, sorry straws.

The ex-Lark Distillery CEO (more of that later) hightailed it from Melbourne to Los Angeles earlier this year after THAT compromising video of him topless and smoking from an ice pipe appeared.

Two months later a sponsored article bobbed up on a Los Angeles “progressive” digital daily site, waxing lyrical about Bainbridge’s business acumen.

Quotes abounded from his former business partner Samantha Wills, a former jeweller to the stars who wrote the memoir Of Gold and Dust: A memoir of a Creative Life.

Yes, gold and dust sounds about right.

LA Progressive, which promotes left-wing voices in Los Angeles confirmed it published Bainbridge’s piece.

A screenshot showing Geoff Bainbridge’s sponsored ad. Picture: LA Progressive / Supplied

“That’s a sponsored article, meaning an agency paid us to post it. I imagine the agency wrote it,’’ editor Dick Price told Page 13.

“Geoff was the ultimate in graciousness,” the article reads.

Another article also appeared online quoting Bainbridge as saying he has no plans to retire due to his “active mind.”

“Scale and growth while intoxicating are such dangerous periods in which a business can lose its way, get distracted, and burn cash,” remarks Bainbridge.

“There is a real art to managing growth. Keeping a level head.”

Hmmmm.

Elsewhere, Scott Morrison’s spinners must think people have short memories about Bainbridge. The PM made a high-profile stop at Lark Distillery in Tasmania where ScoMo was filmed holding a glass of the boutique boozer’s finest at up to $2,500 for a 500ml bottle.

Page 13 readers might recall the Lark Distillery name. Geoff Bainbridge was the company’s managing director until a video surfaced in February of him smoking an ice pipe.

The high-flying executive quit when The Australian’s Sharri Markson broke the story with Bainbridge then claiming later it was filmed in an elaborate extortion attempt in south-east Asia.

The other paper swallowed Bainbridge’s smoke, printing his fanciful version of events.

That came unstuck when Page 13 found the light fittings in the background of the ice video matched those Bainbridge’s Middle Park home.

The PM’s spinners must have thought no-one would make the connection, or maybe they forgot, or maybe they just wanted a catchy TV grab of the whiskey sipping PM.