By Michaela Whitbourn and Ben Grubb
A soured relationship between a Sydney wellness entrepreneur and one of Australia’s richest men, tech founder Richard White, has been revealed in court.
Linda Rogan, owner of a Double Bay laser clinic and a former Real Housewives of Sydney contender, has asked the Federal Court to set aside a bankruptcy notice issued to her in August by White, the co-founder and chief executive of ASX-listed logistics software company WiseTech Global.
Linda Rogan, Richard White and White’s girlfriend, Zena Nasser.Credit: Nick Moir, Oscar Colman, supplied
During a preliminary hearing in Sydney on Wednesday, the court heard Rogan would argue the notice was “actuated by malice and is an abuse of process”.
In a legal letter on September 11, annexed to an affidavit filed in court by White’s solicitor, Rogan’s lawyer, Kate MacDonald, alleged the bankruptcy notice was issued in the context of “our clients’ former sexual relationship being discovered by Ms Nasser”. White’s girlfriend is Zena Nasser, a former criminal defence lawyer.
Barrister Bridie Nolan, acting for Rogan, told the court she would argue the bankruptcy notice was designed to “vex my client and cause her disruption” and was used as a “device of sabotage”. This was one of the “primary bases” on which she would claim the notice should be set aside, Nolan said.
WiseTech co-founder Richard White with girlfriend Zena Nasser.Credit: Facebook
On Wednesday, Justice Ian Jackman granted a suppression order sought by White over limited portions of two affidavits filed by Rogan in the dispute.
The order will remain in place until the first day of the final hearing of the case, when it can be reconsidered by the judge presiding over the fight.
“Mr White has agreed to pay the costs of Ms Rogan in relation to the … application [for the suppression order]. I regard that concession as appropriate in the circumstances,” Jackman said.
Among the information covered by the suppression order is the contents of an email mistakenly sent by White’s solicitor to Rogan.
The email
White’s solicitor, Justin Betar, said in an affidavit filed in support of the suppression application that he had inadvertently copied Rogan into an email to White on August 13. Betar emailed Rogan the following day and said the email “should be deleted immediately”.
Betar said in his affidavit that “at no stage” was legal professional privilege in the email waived by White. The privilege protects the confidentiality of communications between a lawyer and their client where they are made for the dominant purpose of giving or receiving legal advice.
Rogan’s lawyers are seeking to use the email as a central plank in their claim the bankruptcy notice should be set aside as an abuse of process.
If the Federal Court ultimately upholds White’s privilege claim, which will be dealt with at a later date, the email cannot be deployed in the case and will not be released publicly.
Richard White’s lawyer, Justin Betar.Credit: Peter Rae
Jackman said in his decision on the suppression order that Nolan had foreshadowed “a counter-argument in relation to alleged misconduct to the effect that the privilege will not protect communications which embody or disclose misconduct”.
Nolan had told the court the email was “quite clearly not privileged” and “it might be ugly”, but “legal professional privilege is a rule of public policy. It cannot be used to mask this sort of conduct, in my submission”.
The judge said he did “not regard this as the appropriate occasion for making a definitive finding as to whether Mr White’s claim for legal professional privilege will be upheld”.
He said the suppression was necessary “so as not to prejudice the administration of justice which supports the doctrine of legal professional privilege”.
On September 11, Rogan’s solicitors wrote to White’s lawyers, inviting him to withdraw the bankruptcy notice and pointing to alleged legal deficiencies in it.
Rogan’s lawyers wrote that if the bankruptcy notice was not withdrawn, they would seek to have it set aside on technical legal grounds, as well as on the basis that it was an abuse of process “by reason of” Betar’s email, “which, when understood in the context of our clients’ former sexual relationship being discovered by Ms Nasser … is illustrative of the fact that the Bankruptcy Notice is actuated by malice”.
Betar responded on September 14 that “the accusations concerning the bankruptcy notice … are denied”.
White’s fortune
White’s estimated fortune is $11.6 billion, according to The Australian Financial Review’s 2024 Rich List. He was ranked 11, ahead of Seven’s Kerry Stokes ($11.3 billion). Most of his wealth comes from WiseTech Global, which he co-founded in 1994.
Rogan was touted last year as a potential cast member on The Real Housewives of Sydney, but the TV deal did not proceed.
The court has yet to set a date for hearing the substantive dispute between the pair.
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