Sexpo owner Kevin Mack faces bankruptcy over rent dispute with Good Nuts managing director, landlord

Covid was just the tip of the iceberg for Sexpo — now the popular adult festival may be getting shafted for good. Here’s why.

Sexpo owner Kevin Mack says he is getting “screwed and sued” by his former landlord for Covid rent arrears of more than $500,000.

One thing for sure is Mack has copped a hard blow. He says he has no government protection and faces bankruptcy.

The colourful CEO of Australian Exhibition Group, which owns the Sexpo and Tattoo expos, moved the company to a plush Hawthorn penthouse pad at the end of 2019 (think an in-house tattoo parlour) before expanding into the UK and US markets.

Then Covid struck.

Like so many Melbourne businesses in the entertainment and hospitality industry, the spice went out of life.

Sexpo was cancelled for two years running.

Kevin Mack with his wife Shanice and children Kanan, 2, and Rocky, 3 months. Picture: Josie Hayden.

Mack had recently met the love of his life, Sexpo model Shan, with the couple having two children in the past two years.

“We got busy in other ways,” Mack laughs.

Broke and having to sell off his considerable assets, including his luxury Mercedes, Mack said he informed the landlord he needed to break the lease and vacate the premises while they were still ahead on the rent.

Mack claims landlord Michael Berman, the multi-millionaire managing director of Good Nuts (you can’t make this stuff up) was agreeable to the arrangement.

They vacated by June 2020, forfeiting their bond of $50,000.

He has since moved to Prahran, where he is setting up shop to get Sexpo up and running by November.

But earlier this month Mack was served with legal letters demanding unpaid rent.

When called by Page 13, Berman said there had been “no arrangement” in place and to contact his legal team.

“If we have to pay this, not to mention the lawyer’s bills that go with it, it will bankrupt us for sure,” Mack said.

“It’s the old big guy trying to squeeze the little guy, how many other people and businesses are going through the same thing?

“There is no protection. He is trying to screw us.”