Christopher Skase: His rise to the top and his spectacular fall

Christopher Skase was the prince of corporate Australia in the 1980s, rubbing shoulders with celebrities like Whitney Houston, Frank Sinatra and Raquel Welch. From a Caulfield Grammar boy to flying high in the business world, Skase built a $3.3 billion company, before it all came crashing down.

Christopher Skase was the prince of corporate Australia in the 1980s.

Christopher Skase went from Caulfield Grammar boy to the top of the corporate ladder in control of Qintex, a $3.3 billion company that included Channel 7, a string of luxury Queensland Mirage resorts and the then Brisbane AFL team.

He was a prince of corporate Australia in the 1980s, rubbing shoulders with Kerry Packer.

Skase held lavish parties, and even flew his private jet from Port Douglas to Melbourne just to pick up a dress for his wife, Pixie.

Skase with wife Pixie and her daughter Alexandra on a Gold Coast beach in Queensland in 1986.

He cobbled together deals, buying up businesses in what seemed to be a never-ending spending spree.

But his bid to buy Metro Goldwyn Mayer (MGM), the movie house famous for the James Bond films, for $1.2 billion brought about his downfall.

He failed to make a $25 million down payment in 1989, forcing him to file chapter 11 bankruptcy in the United States.

And then the music stopped. Qintex collapsed with debts of $1.5 billion in 1989.

Skase was declared personally bankrupt in June 1991, claiming he only had $5000 in the bank and debts of $172 million.

He faced court but his passport was returned and he fled the country to Majorca, a Spanish island in the Mediterranean.

Skase on a respiratory during court appearances in the 90s.

The Australian government applied for his extradition to face fraud charges in 1994 but Skase won an appeal, leaving him free after almost a year on remand.

Skase was ordered to leave Spain in 1999 but was hospitalised with a collapsed lung.

He was ordered to be deported in January 2001 but again said he was too sick to go.

Skase died on August 6, 2001, after chemotherapy for stomach cancer and a lung tumour failed.