Mike Cannon-Brookes employee fed documents to billionaire’s ex-wife, court filings allege

Atlassian co-founder and chief executive Mike Cannon-Brookes.

What’s more scintillating than two billionaires in a slap fight over money? The gruelling proxy wars they wage to infuriate each other.

We’re watching a classic of the genre unfold right now between Mike and Annie Cannon-Brookes, the splitsville rich-listers trying to make each other blink over the carve-up of their $23bn estate. 

Until now this bruising battle for control of their money has unfolded behind a curtain. But MCB wants control of the narrative. He’s lawyered up, filed papers in the NSW Supreme Court, and seems to be intent on airing out the linen.

The pawn caught in the middle of this is Kevin Chiu, a middling finance executive and spreadsheet jockey in his mid-40s, a toiler in the Cannon-Brookes empire whose job ranged from financial analysis to personal affairs and property.

Mike Cannon-Brookes and his wife Annie are going through a messy divorce. Picture: Getty Images

A chunk of documents released by the court on Friday tells us that Chiu was paid $200,000 a year for this work. He received a 13.38 per cent pay rise just a few months ago, taking home $277,777, along with a $73,500 bonus and a company sweetener worth $12,500. 

And we also know that Chiu was fired earlier this month and is now in a white-knuckle ride against a quarrel of barristers earning $20,000-an-hour and acting at the behest of one of the richest men in the country. 

The newly released correspondence alleges that Chiu betrayed MCB by siphoning paperwork and money from the Cannon-Brookes empire at the direction of Annie’s loyal lieutenant and confidant, Catherine Manuel. Manuel was Chiu’s boss until November, when she was summarily delisted as a company director and marched from the building. 

Manuel is a much bigger cheese than Chiu, but right now it’s him facing the “serious misconduct” allegations, as outlined in a letter delivered by hand to his Sydney home on February 4. 

Marked “private and confidential”, it’s alleged that Chiu’s sins are two-fold. First, he’s accused of a “mass download” of 966 confidential employee files that he shared with Manuel, without permission, almost one month after she left the organisation. This is detailed in an affidavit signed by Faris Cosic, chief financial officer of Cannon-Brookes Services.

“At no time did you disclose to the chief financial officer of (Cannon-Brookes Collective) … or to Mr Cannon-Brookes that you were engaging in such communications with Ms Manuel, or that you had shared the contents of the HR Folder to persons external to CBC,” the letter delivered to Chiu says.

The second allegation is the truly intriguing one. Chiu is alleged to have made “various payments” at the direction of Manuel after she’d left the company. The funds’ destination wasn’t outlined in the letter, nor was the quantum, but we’re reliably informed it was all intended for Annie.   

You must be wondering why a billionaire in the midst of a marital split would urgently require a discreet transfer of funds. We’re wondering the same, especially because Annie has more beachfront mansions than Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman. And we’re wondering whether it was her money to begin with – because wasn’t it all jointly held anyway? – and why MCB, with his galactic scale of riches, would even give a toss. He wasn’t going to lose his spot on the rich list over it.   

Ah, but they do give a toss, and what’s so obvious is that Chiu is an expendable character being used to fire warning shots in court against Manuel and maybe Annie herself. Neither are party to the proceedings yet, but we wonder what chest of secrets they might unlock if they’re called to submit their own affidavits. YB

Gupta stakes claim

Peter Malinauskas and Anthony Albanese went to great lengths to assure voters last week that taxpayers wouldn’t be bailing out Sanjeev Gupta after his Whyalla steelworks were placed into administration by the South Australian government.

But then comes Gupta with a curveball this week claiming his GFG Alliance is actually Whyalla’s biggest creditor. It’s owed $500m, he claims, although he hasn’t made clear the source of that debt. It’s possible he was talking about the $1m he claimed to be paying per day to keep Whyalla hale following botched maintenance on a blast furnace that took it offline – twice – last year.

Sanjeev Gupta. Picture: Mark Brake

KordaMentha’s tallied the debts owed to about $300m. Add to that another $115m belonging to mining contractor NRW, plus worker entitlements if the plant was ever to shut down, and then Gupta claims of $500m owed to his GFG empire. Total figure? Just short of a bill.

Malinauskas will pay small creditors half of what they’re owed, but only if they hand back the cash from any dividend after Whyalla is sold.

Is Gupta’s debt secured against Whyalla’s assets? We don’t know, but that would put his companies ahead of trade creditors if a dividend is paid. Which is only an issue if someone is prepared to pay hard cash for Whyalla.

But that would mean the state government won’t get back the money it’s advancing to trade creditors, effectively paying off some of Gupta’s debts, which Malinauskas swore he wouldn’t do.

KordaMentha seems to have the upper hand in any negotiations over who gets paid and when, and normally a creditor with a debt that big would have a very large say in how the administration is run.

But there’s no alternative to Mark Mentha and his colleagues at Whyalla. They took the job because they’ve been indemnified to the tune of $400m by the state.

Even if Gupta could find enough creditors to back a replacement, there isn’t an insolvency firm in the country that would take the job without a similar guarantee. The alternative? Closure and liquidation – but that would send Gupta’s InfraBuild broke, as it relies on Whyalla for steel. Watch the brinkmanship to come. Gupta’s $500m claim signals he wants a spot at the table. NE