Police seize super cars of Sydney pharmacy owner Ben Huynh; Citi silent on Will Mortimer exit
The sight of Australian Federal Police officers vaulting the fences of a trophy home in Sydney’s Dural and carting away vehicles including three Ferraris and a BMW has tongues wagging among the neighbours, with news of the raid spreading into Australia’s supercar community.
The Ferraris in question are understood to be owned by Ben Huynh, proprietor of the Cabramatta East Day Night Pharmacy and a high-profile member of Supercars Club Australia.
The reason for the raid remains shrouded in mystery, with The Australian referred from the Australian Federal Police to the federal Department of Health and Aged Care, who declined to shed any light on the matter.
“A warrant was executed. Further comments specifying details cannot be released at this time,’’ a department spokeswoman said.
Instagram accounts associated with Mr Huynh and that of the supercar club document a lavish lifestyle including a recent outing to The Birdcage at the Melbourne Cup, with Mr Huynh apparently a guest of Crown.
While both the AFP and the Department of Health are hush hush on what the raid was about, it was the talk of the local Facebook group when it occurred in early November.
An anonymous poster to the group said three Ferraris and a BMW were removed by police officers, who were earlier sent vaulting fences at the stately Dural home, which sits on a 2ha block and which was bought for $1.9m way back in 2001.
Among the cars seized was a Ferrari emblazoned with 888 on the side, which Mr Huynh has driven at track race meets in the past.
Mr Huynh is due to face Downing Centre Local Court on Tuesday, charged with obtaining a financial advantage by deception.
Supercars Club Australia is an exclusive NSW-based institution which caters for the owners of high-end vehicles.
“An exclusive members-only Car Club for like minds sharing a passion for supercars!’’ the site says.
“Our club is exclusively for supercar owners.
“To become a member, you must own at least a Supercar, that is Ferrari, Lamborghini or McLaren, not SUVs.”
The Australian attempted to contact Mr Huynh but received no reply.
Sound of silence
Citi managing director Will Mortimer unexpectedly departed the US investment bank earlier this month, sources tell Margin Call.
Mortimer had been head of financing and securitisation in Australia and New Zealand since 2020 and had been a Citi director since he joined in 2002, according to his LinkedIn profile.
Citi representatives discreetly informed clients of Mortimer’s departure a few weeks ago, without providing any specific reasons for his exit, two fund managers have whispered to this column.
“No one really knows what happened or why he left,” one of the investors said.
A media spokeswoman for the bank declined to comment, only saying that Mortimer and the bank had indeed gone their separate ways. Mortimer has said his departure was amicable and that he is on gardening leave. He “will pop up in the industry after my leave”, he said in a text message.
Sources inside the bank were tight-lipped when asked why Mortimer had headed for the exit.
Kogan conned
It’s been four years since online retailer Kogan.com, founded by Ruslan Kogan, first sealed a deal with a mysterious New York entrepreneur called Dov Zaetz to supply goods for sale on the online retailer’s site.
It has also been two years since the first of what would be multimillion-dollar orders were made, with nothing showing up, and one year since Kogan’s lawyers launched legal action to recover around $1.5m sent over to the supplier with nothing coming back other than empty promises.
Initially Margin Call reported on this fiasco in April but it was not clear at the time what goods Kogan had ordered from the supplier – who strangely had his business based out of an apartment building in Brooklyn – and how much the total order was for. In fact Margin Call can now reveal the order was for more than $US3.8m – a large sum for a supplier and especially Mr Zaetz.
Now the full details are coming out, thanks to a court fight slowly making its way through the Eastern District of New York, with a trove of documents being released.
But first some background to the perplexing case. The bizarre business arrangement began in February 2019, when Kogan.com agreed to a supply deal with a company called NBG Trade. What NBG does, who knows? It has no website or any online information.
Kogan.com placed five orders for merchandise with NBG, paying deposits on each order and totalling $US911,834. Nothing arrived.
“NBG never fulfilled the orders,” court documents say. “To date, Kogan has not received a single item of merchandise from NBG as part of any of the orders.”
And what were the items Kogan.com was ordering from NBG? Truck loads of Asics jogging sneakers and Birkenstocks. Thousands of men’s and women’s sneakers and sandals, according to exhibits filed with the New York court. How they could all fit in a Brooklyn apartment, who knows?
By late November 2022 Kogan.com was losing its patience with NBG, which had not only not supplied the promised and partly paid for goods, but also was ghosting the Australian online retailer.
“Kogan’s purchasing team has persistently sought information regarding these orders from you and others at NBG over email and WhatsApp. You and others at NBG have been consistently evasive or entirely non-responsive,” Kogan.com’s US lawyer said in a letter to NBG and Mr Zaetz.
“NBG’s complete failure to supply Kogan with any of these products is a breach of the Supply Agreement.
“If Kogan does not receive payment by that time, Kogan intends to sue NBG for these amounts, plus interest.”
NBG in its defence documents denies much of Kogan.com’s claims. The case is continuing.
Allen for Higgins
Do you want to be ideologically pure, or do you want to win?
That was the question for Liberal members in the once blue-ribbon federal seat of Higgins on Sunday. and the answer yelled back was a resounding “We want to win!”
Sure she’s a modern progressive, and yes she once crossed the floor of parliament on a key piece of social legislation, but former Liberal member Katie Allen had enough support to carry the day at the Higgins preselection in Melbourne on Sunday.
It was a two-horse race, reflecting the shambles the Liberals are in – they can only get two people to run for the seat once held by former Treasurer Peter Costello.
Allen beat the first ever Liberal mayor of Port Phillip Council, Marcus Pearl. Margin Call hears the split was around 57 per cent in favour of Allen and 43 per cent for Pearl.
Another candidate who pulled out, Will Stoltz, had the backing of local Liberal Party powerbroker Jacquie Blackwell, the wife of former JB Hi-Fi and Premier Investments CEO Richard Murray.
Having won Liberal support Higgins will likely need to pivot left, and fast. At the voice referendum Higgins had one of the highest ‘‘yes’’ votes, with about 61 per cent in favour of the proposal.
Medical skirmish not so healthy
Almost the entire board of the Heart Research Institute will be called to give evidence in a contract dispute with ex-head of cardiovascular research, Professor Shaun Jackson.
‘The scapegoating of business has to stop’: literal alarm at corporate Oscars
Seats were in short supply at business’s equivalent of the Oscars, but the speeches didn’t miss and at least one big name couldn’t wait to hot-foot it out of there before the dessert plates were even cleared.