Vodka will be Polish, not Russian, at Hemmes ‘boheme' gala; ASIC tells ex-Crown directors no further action

Justin Hemmes was all spic and span for a pre-pandemic Silver Party at Sydney’s Darling Point in 2019. His 2022 event has a dress code described as ‘haute boheme’. Picture: Christian Gilles

Hospitality billionaire Justin Hemmes will finally get the chance to throw open the doors of his Sydney harbourside mansion The Hermitage later this month for the Silver Party.

After a two-year Covid-induced hiatus, the uber rich and fashionable are set to gather at the almost 50-year-old Hemmes’ historic Vaucluse mansion to raise what is hoped will be a record-breaking $1m for the Sydney Children’s Hospital Foundation.

While it’s too late to buy one of the 300-odd tickets to the sold-out March 19 twilight event, we can tell you the theme for the evening is “Here Comes the Sun”, for which the dress code is described as “haute boheme”. Margin Call figures that’s code for Sydney’s elite to get their expensive hippie best on for the night.

Only flats, wedges or barefoot is allowed.

Cartoon by Rod Clement.

The Silver Party, the organising committee for which has been chaired by publicist Maree Andrews for the past 17 years, was canned in 2020 and then postponed from March last year to November before being ultimately cancelled due to the pandemic and bushfires.

It was last held in 2019 at the Moran family’s Swifts at Darling Point, and has previously been at Boomerang at Elizabeth Bay.

This year will be the first time that Merivale boss Hemmes will host the party at his pad.

Also on the organising committee for the bash, which is considered a younger, edgier affair than its counterpart The Gold Dinner, is Marly Boyd, wife of Sydney property developer John Boyd, fashion designer Camilla Freeman-Topper and Hermes Australia managing director Karin Upton Baker.

Also on board is shoe designer and chicken heiress Tamie Ingham, who is now stepping out with Sydney celebrity chef Guillaume Brahimi. Ingham shares her shoe business with Jasmine Stefanovic, wife of Nine talent Karl Stefanovic.

And for the record, the vodka will be Polish, not Russian, when finally guests turn up, with LVMH-distributed Belvedere the pour of choice on the night.

There is a war on, after all.

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Crown directors off the hook

The corporate watchdog has told about 10 former Crown Resorts directors and senior executives that it does not intend to take any further action against them for potential wrongdoing during their time in the service of the James Packer-backed gaming empire.

The Joe Longo-chaired Australian Securities & Investments Commission has sent about 10 former Crown board members and senior executives “no further action” letters.

On Tuesday, ASIC declined to comment on which former Crown figures had been sent the notices. However, Margin Call was separately told they were likely to include businessman Harold Mitchell, previously in strife with the regulator over his time at Tennis Australia, ex-AFL chief executive Andrew Demetriou and one-time casino boss Ken Barton.

It is unclear whether Packer, who was for a time the chairman of Crown, was one of the directors who received the “no further action” letters.

Crown Resorts billionaire James Packer with then director Andrew Demetriou. Picture: Aaron Francis/The Australian

In mid-February, Margin Call reported that ASIC was formally investigating Packer’s right-hand-man Rob Rankin over his time as chairman of Crown. The former UBS and Deutsche Bank adviser spectacularly refused an invitation issued in July 2020 to appear before the Bergin inquiry.

“ASIC has completed its investigation and has decided that it will not take any enforcement action based on the matters referred to in the reports,” the regulator’s senior manager for corporate governance enforcement, Mark Pangbourne, wrote.

The reports in question were the NSW inquiry – led by former Supreme Court judge Patricia Bergin and sparked by the arrival of Hong Kong billionaire Lawrence Ho on the company’s register – and the Victorian royal commission led by ex-Federal Court judge Ray Finkelstein.

Matters under consideration included whether any Crown ­director or officer had breached section 180 of the Corporations Act, which relates to acting with “care and diligence”.

The letters came at a curious time – around the same time that financial crime watchdog Austrac said it would begin proceedings against the gaming group after a 15-month investigation.

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A quiet party

Meanwhile, the now Steve McCann-led Crown Resorts is still believed to be finalising the details of its agreement with the NSW gaming regulator towards finally being able to open the doors of its gaming floor at its $2.2bn Barangaroo facility – hopefully by the end of the month.

It is believed Crown is planning a soft opening of the gaming room, which would be in contrast to the usual bells and whistles gala-style affairs that normally mark the opening of a glamorous international casino.

Live legal proceedings, royal commissions, a takeover proposal, Covid and now a war in Eastern Europe have all put paid to that.

Margin Call can’t help but hark back to the 2015 gala opening of Crown and Melco’s Studio City in Macau in 2015, attended by James Packer and his then partner Mariah Carey.

Along with a massive party, that casino was launched with a 15 minute short film The Vacation, made especially for the event at a cost of $70m.

Hollywood megastars Leonardo DiCaprio, Martin Scorsese and Robert De Niro were on board the project and at the opening in person.

At the time, Packer said the short movie was “the best 15 minutes of content ever made”.

Might as well have been a lifetime ago.

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Rosamond in court

Break out the popcorn: the saga that is former consultant to National Australia Bank Helen Rosamond’s alleged multimillion-dollar fraud against the $95bn bank is set to play out its next chapter.

Former corporate high flyer Rosamond, who has pleaded not guilty to 73 charges of fraud against the bank when it was run by Andrew Thorburn, will be back in the NSW Supreme Court next week for a scheduled “special fixture” over three days from Tuesday.

While her alleged co-conspirator and former chief of staff to Thorburn, Rosemary Rogers, languishes behind bars after pleading guilty to her part in an inflated invoices scheme, Rosamond, CEO of Human Group, will next week fight on towards what is set to be her four-month trial beginning in July.

At the end of last year, Rosamond was in court arguing she lacked resources to proceed with her case, which she said would put her criminal defence at a disadvantage. Rosamond says she needs a forensic accountant on her team, as well two senior lawyers. Legal Aid has approved funding for only one lawyer. Rosamond’s lawyer did not respond to Margin Call’s inquiries on the matter.