Ruffy justice over Raphael Geminder’s rented mansion

Illustration: Rod Clement.

Billionaire Raphael “Ruffy” ­Geminder’s traumatic experience in the rental market has ­finally come to an end.

Ruffy — worth $1.22 billion — has finally been cleared in the Supreme Court of Victoria of stringing his bankrupt landlord along over an alleged offer to buy the Toorak mansion Towart Lodge.

Fiona and Raphael Geminder.

Ruffy, his wife Fiona ­Geminder — sister of Australia’s second-richest person, Anthony Pratt, worth $10.4bn— and their four kids moved into the mansion in January 2013.

For an outlay of $8000 a week, Towart gave them a roof — and five bedrooms, a home cinema, expansive cellar, etc — while their residence, and $10 million-plus DIY project dubbed “The Taj of Kooyong” was under construction.

It seemed a happy arrangement, until their landlord Warren Thompson was declared bankrupt with debts of about $100m.

Suddenly Cameron Clyne’s NAB was trying to repossess the place.

Thompson, as the court was told, got it into his head that Ruffy had agreed to buy the property for north of $10m.

That was news to the intensely private billionaire, as he told the Supreme Court last ­September.

Instead NAB — as mortgagee — took possession of the place in May 2013. The bank then sold it to a Dubai-based couple, David and Sharon Heffernan, who ­became the Geminders’ new landlord.

All the while Taj on Kooyong — with its 12-car garage with car wash, gymnasium, multiple swimming pools, staff quarters and separate children’s wing — continued to be built.

More than three years on, it’s still not done.

On behalf of her bankrupt husband, psychologist Amanda Thompson took Ruffy, NAB and the Heffernans to court over an alleged breach of contract, which Justice Tim Ginnane struck down on Wednesday.

“Mrs Thompson has not established any breach,” he said in his judgment which, serendipitously, was delivered on the same day that Ruffy’s packaging business, Pact Group, reported a tidy $85.1m net profit.

The only partial win for the Thompsons was on a claim for a set of chandeliers, valued at around $68,000, which the judge said they may choose to further pursue with the Heffernans.

Claims on curtains, carpets and carpet squares were all struck down.

Albo a page-turner

Karen Middleton’s book Albanese: Telling It Straight hit bookstores yesterday and already the sightings have begun.

Anthony Albanese. Picture: Toby Zerna.

Federal Liberal director Tony Nutt (a keen reader and military history buff) was spotted at Sydney airport with a copy of the biography about Labor left darling Anthony Albanese.

Spotted with an advanced copy of the book was its subject on a Tuesday afternoon flight from Cairns to Sydney.

After knocking back a few glasses of red in the Qantas lounge, Albo looked engrossed as he sat in business class next to Warren Entsch, the crocodile farmer turned same-sex marriage championing Liberal member for Leichhardt.

One of the few people more popular than Albo with the Labor base, Bob Hawke, will officially launch the book next week in Canberra, once the 45th Parliament has kicked off.

Paladin gravy train

The proof is in: that bout of bloodletting at embattled uranium miner Paladin Energy wasn’t cheap.

The Red Wedding in Game of Thrones.

In scenes reminiscent of “The Red Wedding” in Game of Thrones (heads rolling, blood everywhere), the cash-strapped Paladin last August parted ways with founder and chief executive John Borshoff, long-serving company secretary Gillian Swaby, director Sean Llewelyn and executive general manager Dustin Garrow.

The departures were described at the time as part of the company’s efforts to become cash-flow positive amid low uranium prices. But the annual report released by the miner yesterday shows that the changes weren’t cheap.

Borshoff was farewelled with a total of $5.2m — a figure Paladin said included accrued annual and long service leave. Garrow — who the report said was retrenched — walked out the door with $2.8m, including six months’ pay in lieu of notice, severance pay and accrued annual leave.

Swaby — a veteran of more than 20 years with the company — parted with $1.3m including a full year’s pay in lieu of notice.

For the record, Paladin posted a net loss of $US122m ($160m) for the 2016 financial year. The company, now under the stewardship of former investment banking wunderkind and one-time Robert Friedland-protege Alexander Molyneux, noted in its accounts that should it fail to consummate its recently announced asset sales, there was uncertainty about its ability to continue as a going concern.

Paladin traded at more than $10 a share during the height of the 2006-07 uranium boom, briefly putting the likes of Borshoff and Swaby on the rich list, but has done little but fall in the years since the Fukushima nuclear disaster. It last traded at just 16c a share.

Skroo-speak

Graham “Skroo” Turner’s Flight Centre took a David Brent-approach in its results presentation yesterday.

Flight Centre’s results presentation.

Under “Who are we?” the travel agent listed: “Irreverence … We don’t believe in conventional wisdom. We take our business seriously but not ourselves.”

The centrepiece of the presentation was a lot of talk about “Janus”, the Roman God of Transitions. This was then developed in Skroo’s 20-year strategy with the unfortunately named “Ring of Janus”. While analysts sniggered, investors were unconcerned. The travel agent’s stock closed at $36.23, up 0.6 per cent.

High cost of freedom

Is the Baird government trying to use Freedom of Information requests as a new revenue source to plug the gap left by Scott Morrison’s rejection of China’s Ausgrid bidders?

NSW Labor boss Kaila Murnain. Picture: Adam Taylor.

It looks that way from the sums being demanded of NSW Labor boss Kaila Murnainand her Sussex Street machine.

One request from Labor MP Daniel Mookhey — incidentally, the first parliamentarian in the country to pledge loyalty by swearing on the 700-verse Bhagavad Gita — was met with a whopping bill for $180,000.

The request? The total savings from efficiency dividends since 2011 and through the forward estimates and any modelling about increasing or decreasing that dividend.

Treasury estimates it would take more than 6000 hours to consider that request.

Another Sussex Street request for Infrastructure NSW to outline grants and projects made under the “Housing Acceleration Fund” was declined because it might “damage, or prejudice the ability of the government or an agency to manage the economy”.

Treasury — which is headed by former Westpac banker Rob Whitfield — was also unable to process a request for monthly major works budgets in the last two years.

While it was said that it would take two hours to find those documents, the boffins estimated it would take another 485 hours to make a decision, which would put Treasury “in a position where other work commitments cannot be met”.

Sounds like a compelling reason to crack up the old efficiency dividend again.

Starting early

Following on from yesterday’s item about David Morgan’s book, here’s a gratuitous picture of the former Westpac CEO back in his child acting days.

Former Westpac boss David Morgan in 1965, playing Tom in the children’s TV show The Magic Boomerang.

Here’s Morgan in 1965, playing Tom in the children’s TV show The Magic Boomerang, which you can watch online thanks to Gabrielle Trainor’s National Film and Sound Archive. Highly recommended.