Slow-to-pay Edgeton delivers a raw deal

THE property development company whose corporate box at the AFL grand final was the scene of a Gold Coast model’s impromptu nude show has narrowly avoided being stripped of its assets.

Edgeton Properties was due to face the Victorian Supreme Court yesterday to face a winding-up petition brought by Casabene Plumbing & Drainage over a $14,300 bill for building a stormwater drain.

But, like the lady in question’s clothing, the case is off.

“Well, they paid us,” Casabene’s Pip Casabene told Margin Call. “It’s been a couple of weeks now.”

It’s good to see Edgeton has its priorities straight. While it couldn’t pay Casabene between May, when the drainage invoice was issued, and November, in September Edgeton was nonetheless able to book that vital Grand Final corporate box.

In addition to seeing Tom Jones belt out his hits and Hawthorn belt the Swans, the occupants of Edgeton’s box also got to see the Gold Coast’s Heather McCartney, aka Eva Darling, strip naked and flash the crowd below.

She was fined $300 for the escapade. The Melbourne Cricket Club says it is “in discussions … about our future relationship” with Edgeton, whose sole director, Joe Aprile, didn’t return Margin Call’s call.

That’s awkward, Brent

THERE was hush yesterday as Brent Kermode, son of late founder Reg Kermode, walked towards the microphone at the Cabcharge AGM in Sydney.

Shareholders had already seen director Rodney Gilmour tap the mat the night before the meeting for “personal reasons”, and chairman Russell Balding had devoted a fair chunk of his address to the real or imagined evils of interloper Uber.

On one shareholder’s request there’d also been a minute’s silence to commemorate Kermode Snr, who started the business and ran it for 39 years, and for relative newcomer Phil Franet, who died this year after a mere 29 years on the board.

“I suggest that the board of Cabcharge should adopt a ‘no dickheads’ policy’’, Kermode Jnr declaimed to a stunned audience, then sat down.

Assets frozen

IT’S awfully inconvenient when the tax man gets in the way of buying a house in France. And yet that’s the terrible fate of mining magnate Socrates Vasiliades, late of an extravagant mansion he built on Towers Road in Melbourne millionaire territory Toorak.

Federal Court judge Michelle Gordon on Monday extended orders freezing assets held by Vasiliades and his wife, Celeste, in Australia.

While the orders cover up to $30 million of assets, the main prize is what’s left over from the sale in October of the mansion to Sarah Lew, the former daughter-in-law of ragtrading billionaire Solomon Lew. It fetched $18.55m and after the Macquarie Bank mortgage was cleared there’s about $3.6m up for grabs.

Ms Vasiliades told the court she needs the money to go towards a €3m property she’s buying in France.

Justice Gordon said that unless she froze the assets, the couple would transfer the money out of Australia, leaving little for the taxman.

Since October 2012, at least $6.7m drawn down against the value of the house has already made its way to bank accounts controlled by Vasiliades in tax haven Luxembourg, including $1.8m transferred to an account in Ms Vasiliades’s maiden name.

Raheen all the rage

LOTS going on at Jeanne Pratt’s mansion, Raheen. There was a fundraiser for Victorian Labor leader Daniel Andrews last week and on Wednesday night she hosted the launch of the Royal Institution of Australia’s Australian Science Channel, which is being shown on an IPTV platform provided by Hostworks, which does Iview for the ABC. The special guest was Baroness Susan Greenfield, British scientist, writer and broadcaster. Also invited: RIA board members Martyn Myer, Rod Eddington and David Knox, as well as Josh Liberman and Eddie Kutner. Also attending was the this year’s winner of the PM’s Science prize, Ingrid Scheffer, as well as the science deans at Melbourne, NSW and Flinders universities.

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