By Kate McClymont and Max Mason
Billionaire WiseTech Global founder Richard White is alleged to have provided a female employee with financial support and helped with her visa in return for an ongoing sexual relationship, according to explosive documents filed with the Federal Court this week.
Caroline Heidemann, a Brazilian woman on a temporary visa, has alleged in court documents that White “made it clear that financial assistance was contingent upon” her “engaging in a personal and sexual relationship with him”.
WiseTech Global founder Richard White and former employee Caroline Heidemann.
Heidemann, who worked for 15 months as a “general hand” at the ASX-listed logistics company WiseTech, is suing White. She has alleged that he created a situation of “economic dependency” and engaged in “unlawful conduct for sexual gratification”.
In a statement to The Sydney Morning Herald, The Australian Financial Review and The Age, White denied Heidemann’s claims and said he “intends to vigorously defend all allegations”.
Heidemann claimed that White “cultivated a personal relationship … presenting himself as a mentor and benefactor”.
After Heidemann was made redundant due to the COVID-19 pandemic, White is alleged to have employed her at his private company RealWise Management but paid her no wages or superannuation.
Richard White with wife Zena Nasser. The couple married last July.
Instead, he supported her financially, paid for her English lessons and rented her an apartment in Mascot, south of Sydney’s CBD.
Heidemann claims that White’s conduct “was calculated and premeditated” and that he subjected her to “degrading treatment” by attaching her financial security and immigration status to “compliance with his personal and sexual demands”.
During this period at RealWise, White sponsored her to secure a temporary visa as a “business consultant”, which restricted her employment to working at his business. This “further entrenched her dependency upon him”, her statement alleges.
Heidemann also alleged that White had assisted her under the guise that she would develop a Latin America strategy for anti-money-laundering software business Kyckr.
In his statement, White said, “At no point was Ms Heidemann offered an employment contract with RealWise, nor was she ever paid a salary. She did not at any stage undertake formal or informal work for either Mr White or RealWise.”
Sources at RealWise confirmed that Heidemann “never provided any work” and “never attended a meeting”.
In his statement, White said that after Heidemann’s divorce in mid-2021 “her ex-husband withdrew her right to be a resident in Australia and she applied for a temporary student visa whilst she studied to learn English”.
He said that at this time he and Heidemann “were in a consensual personal relationship” and that he was providing financial support to her. He said their personal relationship ended mid-last year.
White has continued to provide financial support to Heidemann, funding her living and other expenses, according to sources close to him. They noted that since the personal relationship commenced, White has provided more than $500,000 in financial support to Heidemann.
Zena Nasser, whom White married in Texas in July 2024, is also being sued by Heidemann in the employment claim. Nasser is alleged to have threatened Heidemann with deportation after she found out about the relationship with White.
Heidemann has alleged that throughout 2023 and 2024 she repeatedly pressed White about her visa, her employment status and unpaid wages, which she said he “largely ignored”.
According to Heidemann’s statement, Nasser sent “hostile and threatening messages” instructing her “to stop demanding financial support” and to leave the country. She said that Nasser’s messages “escalated” with her threatening to report Heidemann and her “sham visa” to immigration authorities.
Heidemann, who is suing White, Nasser and RealWise, is alleging they “engaged in serious contraventions” of the Fair Work Act.
The three respondents could face penalties exceeding $7.7 million, Heidemann’s statement suggests.
This includes her claim for $150,000 in unpaid wages, $500,000 for lost opportunities and a further $500,000 in exemplary damages. The remaining $4.7 million is made up of penalties for alleged breaches of the Fair Work Act.
The sensational allegations filed to the Federal Court add to the mounting pressure on the WiseTech board after these mastheads revealed that White is facing new allegations of inappropriate conduct brought by an employee and a supplier of WiseTech. These two complaints are separate from those made by Heidemann.
Last year, details of White’s colourful private life were disclosed after he sued Linda Rogan, another former lover, over a $92,000 furniture bill. Rogan, a wellness entrepreneur billed as a potential star of The Real Housewives of Sydney, said she purchased the furniture at White’s behest for a $13 million Vaucluse mansion he had purchased for her in late 2022.
Rogan was kicked out of the house and cut off from White after Nasser allegedly discovered the relationship.
Linda Rogan sued Richard White in the Federal Court.
The proceedings between White and Rogan were discontinued in October after a confidential settlement was reached.
Rogan had alleged in court documents that White “expected” her to enter into a sexual relationship in 2022 in return for a promise to invest in another venture, Bionik Wellness, but the offer of financial backing did not materialise. Those claims were never tested in court.
Sources close to White, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said that Heidemann had been urging him to invest millions in a business she was planning to start in Brazil. He declined to provide the financial backing she was seeking.
In 2021, White entered a confidential settlement with another previous lover.
When White stepped down as chief executive last year, WiseTech chairman Richard Dammery attempted to ease investor concern about losing the company’s founder by giving White a full-time consultancy deal worth $1 million per year and commissioning law firms Herbert Smith Freehills and Seyfarth Shaw to investigate the allegations.
WiseTech told investors in November that the law firms had cleared White of serious wrongdoing in preliminary findings on five allegations.
However, since that time, more women have made serious complaints of inappropriate conduct through their lawyers against White.
The billionaire is yet to sign the 10-year consultancy agreement announced in October when he resigned as chief executive of the logistics software company.
White, 70, is one of the richest people in Australia, according to estimates published by the Financial Review Rich List. Most of his wealth is tied up in his 37.4 per cent stake in WiseTech, which is worth $16.5 billion.
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