Packer staffer Ishan Ratnam feels the heat over Fiat scandal

Peter Nicholson

It appears not all motor-boating Crown tsar James Packer’s minions are hard at work back in Oz as he cruises the Med with new squeeze Mariah Carey after all (Margin Call, Wednesday).

As Packer’s pleasure palace the Arctic P floats past Ibiza, word is that Crown’s boss of casinos, Barry Felstead, and its high-roller whisperer, Ishan Ratnam, are also OS.

They’re said to be on a whale-hunting tour taking in London, Singapore and the delicious Portuguese tarts of Macau.

It’s no doubt a welcome distraction for Ratnam, who has endured pesky headlines back home over former Fiat boss Clyde Campbell.

In the Federal Court, Fiat alleges more than $400,000 of its money, earmarked to buy a “floating billboard”, flowed through a company co-owned by Ratnam and was instead used to buy a 40-foot boat — a claim Ratnam denies.

Meanwhile, Carey has been busy Shazaming up a storm with Packer. According to the app’s website, she’s been listening to tracks including Trap Queen by rapper Fetty Wap — the video for which features Wap with five mobile phones (four more than he has eyes) counting stacks of greenbacks. Very high-roller.

Flicking racing switch

Victoria’s racing clubs may have signed their broadcast rights over to Kerry Stokes, but they’ve still been talking to their old friends at Tabcorp’s Sky, where boss David Attenborough has offered to show their pony pictures for free until a longer-term deal can be agreed.

But the racing clubs, who want some money from Tabcorp for the right to show the races even though they are now being shown on free-to-air TV, still haven’t got back to Sky on the interim offer.

The Victorian AHA has written to its members saying that they supported Tabcorp’s position and penniless offer because they were not prepared to pay for something that is already free on Seven.

Dedicated punters are already agitated that racing coverage from around the country isn’t amalgamated, forcing them to flick between pay-TV for NSW races on Sky and FTA for Victoria on Seven’s Channel 78, which is fast becoming tedious.

Payout for sale?

As federal politics’ movers and shakers moved and shook on the dance floor on a cold Canberra night last month for the Mid-Winter Ball, PM Tony Abbott came up with a great idea.

When Joe Hockey extracted his defamation winnings from Fairfax over the media organisation’s “Treasurer For Sale” stories, he could donate the moolah to the Mo, Evie and Otis Maslin Foundation.

The foundation was set up by Abbott’s chief of staff Peta Credlin and the Sydney Morning Herald to remember the three Maslin children who died in the Malaysian Airlines MH17 tragedy — and to resolve a complaint over a potentially defamatory letter published by the newspaper.

Credlin seeded the charity with a $20,000 settlement from the SMH, so why couldn’t Joe pop in the $200,000 he was awarded this week?

The foundation might be waiting a while. As legal commentators have explained this week, because Hockey only won on the question of whether the Herald’s newsagent poster and two Age tweets were defamatory, and lost on the question of whether the article itself was, he faces the prospect of being ordered to pay part of Fairfax’s costs — which could easily wipe out his winnings.

Even if that doesn’t happen, the ruling still has to survive any appeal, with the judge’s idea that distributing 2500 posters is worth damages of $120,000 shaping as one potential target for cash-strapped Fairfax.

Domain window

Still on Fairfax, and if Maserati-loving boss Greg Hywood wants to get a float of the ailing empire’s real estate business Domain away, he’d better hurry.

With the market already getting nervous after a couple of failed floats, the IPO window won’t be open much longer, especially if the turmoil in Greece continues. Domain boss Antony Catalano has pooh-poohed talk of an exit, saying the business needs more time inside the Fairfax tent.

And perhaps he’s a trifle distracted by his upcoming trial for allegedly blowing .08 in seaside Sorrento, which is set for August 5 at the salubrious Frankston Magistrates Court.

The Cat, who beat a similar charge last year, was last spotted at Southbank eatery Pure South a couple of weeks ago. That’s a long drive from Franga.

[e-mail]

christine.lacy@theaustralian. com.au