James Packer eyes Cabo, Mexico with his yacht IJE

Cartoon: Rod Clement

The coronavirus pandemic lockdown has prompted plenty of down time for casino tycoon James Packer.

After spending the early part of the pandemic at his $20m Aspen chalet with girlfriend Kylie Lim, Packer has since relocated to his $80m Los Angeles compound, telling friends it’s been very quiet.

However, the casino billionaire will soon be able to entertain as his luxury 110m gigayacht IJE cruises ever closer to his home base.

Mexico is where he’s likely to be next headed.

James Packer in Melbourne. Picture: Aaron Francis

Packer’s yacht is making its way from Papeete — where there was never any reported sighting of him at Tahiti — across the South and North ­Pacific to Cabo, the Mexican ­location where he’s building a trophy holiday home overlooking the Sea of Cortez next to the One & Only resort.

It was songbird Mariah Carey who introduced Packer to the location where the sun shines 350 days of the year.

Construction has been progressing slowly over the past year after Packer took delivery of the $170m IJE, named after his children Indigo, Jackson and Emmanuelle, who live in LA with former wife Erica. It hit the high seas in July last year, following its six-year build.

Cabo is only a two-hour flight from LA. At it current speed, IJE won’t be there for the upcoming Memorial Day long weekend. It’s the traditional start of the US summer travel season, albeit this year mostly for the brave or reckless herd, or those with a safe private Bombardier plane at their own disposal.

No doubt Sydney family and friends will head to Cabo as soon as the invitation lobs.

Only a very small chance his former lieutenant John Alexander will be on the guest list. Alexander, who seemingly started his isolation at his Robertson, NSW southern highlands home pre-COVID-19, celebrates his 69th birthday on Saturday.

Glenn’s court matter

Octogenarian multi-millionaire businessman Sir Owen Glenn has faced Federal Court proceedings from two former employees at his philanthropic foundation.

Following private negotiations, the matter alleging sexual harassment will be kept under wraps.

Justice Wendy Abraham has ruled allowing public access to the statement of claim could undermine the parties’ settlement.

Glenn, who splits his time between Sydney, Monaco and Auckland, is the founder and former executive chairman of Vanguard Logistics Services.

The Federal Court lawsuit was filed on Christmas Eve by Lisa McLaughlin, a former executive assistant with the Glenn Family philanthropic foundation.

Another complaint was filed by Sarah McLaughlin, the research director with the O’Connell Street, Sydney foundation.

Both also lodged their complaint to the Human Rights Commission.

The matter was settled in March without ever appearing before the Federal Court bench for a case management hearing.

All matters were settled on confidential terms.

A five-page originating application was obtained in the interim by the Lawyerly legal news website, which sought further access to documentation.

Justice Abraham said a non-publication order covering McLaughlin’s statement of claim was necessary to prevent prejudice to the proper administration of justice.

While the nature of the allegations was not reason enough to keep the case from the public, the judge said the fact that McLaughlin consented to the suppression order was “telling”.

“The parties have achieved finality through agreement which may be undermined if a third party has access to and could report on matters which the parties seek to keep confidential,” she ruled.

She noted there was court precedent that the public interest in open justice operates on an assumption that a person who is the subject of serious allegations in litigation has the opportunity to respond in the same public forum, with a corresponding expectation that the media will report on both sides of the story. However, as the proceeding was settled before Glenn filed a defence, he had not had an opportunity to respond to the allegations.

McLaughlin was represented by Hall Payne Lawyers. Glenn and the Glenn Family Foundation were represented by Dan Fuller, instructed by Colin Biggers & Paisley.

A short bandwagon

For just a few seconds on Friday morning, the Peta Credlin for parliament bandwagon lived in hope.

The Sky News commentator was on 2GB with breakfast broadcaster Alan Jones, her biggest fan. “Keep talking about all the crazy policies from the Greens because one day I am going to help run a referendum,” she said.

“Oh, I thought you were going to say something else,” Jones interjected, on hearing “run” before Credlin added “for first past the post voting”.

The bandwagon is, of course, really Credlin for PM after Scott Morrison goes. But that’s most likely fanciful given the green-eyed nature of her mediocre Liberal Party colleagues should she deign to get there. Of course, the party room has an exhaustive ballot when it comes to electing the leader.

Life and Timis

Sir Michael Hintze was again the highest-ranking expatriate billionaire on the Sunday Times Rich List 1000. For the eighth consecutive time, Margin Call calculated earlier this week.

His 95th ranking came with his wealth unchanged at £1.5bn ($2.8bn) in the publication of our sister paper in the UK. The hedge fund pioneer joined the billionaire’s club in 2014.

Richlister Sir Michael Hintze. Picture: Hollie Adams

Remembering just who he took the baton from took some recall, but for a while Australia’s wealthiest in London was the former Perth-based mining magnate Frank Timis.

In 2012 he was credited as having a £1.34bn net worth. And apparently the richest Romanian on the planet, one headline honked. Timis had fled Nicolae Ceausescu’s brutal dictatorship, via Italy for Australia aged 15 after graduating from a vocational school for auto mechanics, then becoming a labourer on a rig.

By 2013 his £1.34bn had become £800m, and by 2014 it was down to £180m.

The decline in iron ore prices saw Timis, the then executive chairman of African Minerals, place the company into administration in 2015. And that was not the only time Timis, known in the City as The Gusher, has had to front his creditors. The controversial businessman has a habit of being caught up in headlines, most recently over a gas deal and the Senegalese president’s brother.

And Margin Call spotted that his latest rich seam has been mining cryptocurrency.

In the starting gates

Oceanex was the first horse with a golden ticket into the Lexus Melbourne Cup after her victory in the Andrew Ramsden Stakes at Flemington last weekend.

The remainder of the field remains a much discussed topic in the countdown to the first Tuesday in November.

It was Cup-winning owner-trainer Lloyd Williams who first mooted the COVID-19 pandemic prospect of just Australian horses. Or will they fly in from New Zealand as the trans-Tasman bubble takes off?

Oceanex is prepared by an already nervous Mick Price, who’s admitted Melbourne Cup horses were not a part of his business model, but was more than happy to make the exception for the owners who include a Bonbeach footy club coterie. Price said he’d implemented the racing schedule suggested by English jockey Tom Marquand, who’d ridden Oceanex earlier this year. Price trains her with Mick Kent Jr.

Meanwhile Russian Camelot is the favourite at $11 for the $8m Melbourne Cup. The curtain raiser is always the $5m Stella Artois Caulfield Cup, which Nick Williams, the son of Lloyd, suggests could possibly move from October to late November, given its clash with the revised AFL fixture.

The Michael Hawkes-trained Master Of Wine lines up as the $10 favourite for the Caulfield Cup.