Multi-millionaire Geoff Bainbridge’s low-act selfies that iced his high-flying career

Former Lark chief executive Geoff Bainbridge.

The full, unpublished video of multi-millionaire chief executive Geoff Bainbridge lighting up an ice pipe while engaging in a sex act speaks for itself.

It is as graphic as it is alarming.

Hours after the board of Lark Distilling, which had a market cap of $346m, became aware of it, Bainbridge had lost his job.

Interim managing director and board member of Lark Laura McBain summed it up when she said news of the affair came as a “shock”.

In the video, Bainbridge, wearing only skimpy black underwear, fondles himself while lighting up a meth pipe. The Australian has chosen to publish only a short excerpt of one video.

Bainbridge claims it was part of an ongoing extortion attempt that began six years ago but my sources say the videos were filmed more recently.

When we came into possession of the videos, it was clear this would be of concern to directors and shareholders and would likely be in breach of a managing director’s duty of care when handling funds worth hundreds of millions of dollars. The majority of Lark’s shareholders are retail mum-and-dad investors.

We were first made aware of the videos on January 10 and decided to examine Bainbridge’s history and pattern of behaviour before considering publishing. When this process was complete, we contacted Bainbridge at 9.30am on February 15.

Through his lawyers, Bainbridge asked us not to send the videos to the Lark Distilling board and threatened defamation if we did. He said one video had been manipulated and was unverified and claimed another two videos were fake. Acting in good faith, we agreed to Bainbridge’s request not to publish in Wednesday’s newspaper and gave him another 24 hours to respond to our questions.

There was no ill-will towards Bainbridge and we readily agreed to give him more time to respond.

We also asked extra questions about whether he had gone to the police to file a complaint against the alleged extortionists and requested details of this police report. Bainbridge did not respond to any of our questions, even though we had held off publishing to give him more time to reply.

In our original email to Bainbridge, we also gave him the opportunity to explain what had unfolded: “Could we offer you an interview to discuss the cir­cumstances around which these ­videos were taken?”

Instead of accepting our offer of an interview, he chose to explain the alleged circumstances around which the videos had been filmed to our media rivals at Nine newspapers. By the time he gave that interview, his version of events had changed. He no longer said the videos were fake, manipulated or unverified.

“He confirms it is him in the video but says he isn’t an ice user and doesn’t know how he came to have the drug or what else he was given,” the article states.

Instead, Bainbridge claimed to have had a big night overseas in December 2015 after meeting a woman in a bar and others at a party. He said the night was a “jumble”. Bainbridge professed that he then fell victim to an extortion attempt and that he made 14 payments totalling $9000 over the subsequent years.

The Age, suspending belief, published without evidence a claim by Bainbridge that the extortionists were so technically proficient that they had managed to alter the date stamp on one of the videos to make it appear as if it was captured in 2021 and not in 2015. The unpublished videos offer a different version of events.

In the three videos, Bainbridge is alone. He films extremely sexually explicit videos of himself masturbating, watching hardcore pornography and smoking meth.

In a second video, he has an ice pipe next to him on the bed.

He clearly seems to know how to use the paraphernalia. He talks about “meth” and is discussing sexual activity he wishes to engage in with the person for whom he is filming the video.

The interview he gave to the Sydney Morning Herald and The Age, while simultaneously asking The Australian to hold off publishing while insisting the videos were manipulated and fake, has been described by people who know him well as “conniving, man­ipulative and clever”.

One source noted his ability to turn the narrative on its head and present a defence of himself as the “poor victim”.

Bainbridge seems to be implying The Australian has played some role in the extortion attempt. This is beyond belief. We were investigating the story over five weeks and intended to publish whether or not he paid money to his so-called ­extortionist.

It would be scandalous for a media outlet to cover up the fact that a multi-millionaire CEO of a publicly listed company had consumed such a dangerous substance as methamphetamine, a drug that is responsible for a high number of emergency department admissions and deaths and can cause psychosis, anxiety and brain dysfunction.

As Australian Shareholders Association chief executive Rachel Waterhouse said: “Having a sound mind is really important in making good business decisions and acting ethically.”

In the end, The Australian did not publish a word until after Bainbridge resigned and Lark had issued a statement to the ASX.