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2:37

warning that it's not suitable for children

2:39

and a probably will contain content that

2:41

may be triggering. To some people. All.

2:43

Sides. It's an Australian True Crime podcast,

2:45

so Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander

2:48

listeners should be aware. it may contain

2:50

the voices of deceased Paypal. That.

2:57

Producers of this podcast recognize

2:59

the traditional owners of the

3:01

land on which is recorded.

3:05

Slight high respect to the

3:08

aboriginal elders past present and.

3:18

When. Bryce and Alec from the Excellent

3:20

Equity Mates podcast told me they had

3:23

a True Crimes Last Finance crossover story

3:25

they wanted to talk about. I

3:27

did not expected to bring back such happy

3:29

memories for me. Equity.

3:32

Mates Isn't Investing podcast aimed at

3:34

Millennials. That to my great delight,

3:36

they wanted to talk about a

3:38

story from the nineteen eighties. It.

3:41

All happens before they were even born.

3:43

but rise in the middle of my

3:46

formative teenage years and on our one

3:48

and only family Tv said. It's

3:51

the story of one of Australia's

3:53

infamous flamboyant eighties high flyers, the

3:55

one and only. Priest of the

3:57

skies. It's fascinating.

4:00

The the story through the eyes of

4:02

a younger generation, but also through the

4:04

eyes of people who frankly understand the

4:06

intricacies of it better than I ever

4:08

has. This. Week's

4:11

Australian True Crime is a look back

4:13

at a tumultuous Iraq that in many

4:15

ways for better or for worse, shape

4:17

the country we live in today. Welcome

4:20

to the Equity meets. The.

4:23

I mean when I say that is where

4:25

the graders good period of our historian there

4:28

was a lot of they regulation we had

4:30

such or in the zoo time we had

4:32

raised in in the Us sense you know

4:34

where those search on translate Australia often follows.

4:37

So. We don't have one private enterprise a

4:39

particular the Queen takes. Great And that was

4:41

Christopher Sky says company. Yeah and quintet.

4:43

They started with a retail business Hottie

4:46

Brothers Jewels or but in a expanded

4:48

into a whole bunch of different businesses

4:50

by bought pod dealerships. I bought real

4:52

estate development companies and I even bought

4:54

Awesome Rage and old Tv networks and

4:56

and that was the sort of the

4:59

start of little. it should be said

5:01

though he didn't have a whole of

5:03

experience in this though, he was just

5:05

the next stop or thrive on us.

5:07

Added shown on a financial journalist by

5:09

the Cia. And really, I guess

5:12

from those early beginnings of Quinn

5:14

texts we move into the mids

5:16

nineteen eighties and it becomes a

5:18

dominant force in. The

5:20

Australian Business Landscape. Skies, His

5:23

name gets put up there. was denied

5:25

the bond our bodies of the world

5:27

and really. Nineteen. Eighty Seven

5:29

is the big year because they buy

5:31

one of the authoritative A stations they

5:33

by Channel Seven Seven Hundred and eighty

5:36

million dollars when as to. How.

5:38

Did that happen to the have some?

5:40

Oh did I have some big wins

5:42

along the way? Like with said Julie

5:44

so that I yards or any. Says

5:46

or of the above I think did

5:48

okay. but how it happened was deaths

5:51

and and.with that the story of the

5:53

Nineteen eighties and that's how all of

5:55

these. I want to say

5:57

entrepreneurs but I want really entrepreneurs. These courts

5:59

right as whatever you want to call them.

6:01

I'm. Built. Such pecan pies

6:04

so quickly it was the as

6:06

the availability of debt. Might.

6:08

Meant they could borrow more and acquire more

6:10

things at a faster rate than we've ever

6:13

seen before. And that with other st

6:15

since. So. Channel Seven

6:17

was probably the big purchase, but it

6:19

wasn't the only big thing that I

6:21

became known for. He had

6:23

a massive financial interest in the

6:25

Breeze Been Bears, I Fell Club

6:28

and I think probably most notably

6:30

his legacy lives on to die

6:32

as really putting put Douglas on

6:35

the map as a tourist destination.

6:38

He was a property to them, yet he

6:40

owned a number on. The. Resorts are

6:43

this big five star resort

6:45

Import Douglas. He also result

6:47

in polite five resources on.

6:49

Yeah so here's my main

6:51

reason: He built the Sheraton

6:53

Mirage Import Douglas. And let's

6:55

not forget is beautiful wife Pixi. Pixies

6:58

guys was very. Much part of

7:00

the whole side and. She was

7:03

very flamboyant billionaires wife's side. They

7:05

used to appear on channel seven

7:07

a lot on of the variety

7:09

shows and things of that nature.

7:12

They really use this to their

7:14

on advantage. That way. You.

7:16

Know they work quiet like the Packers didn't

7:19

east it pop up on Channel Nine. I

7:21

was. Sort of be about that but

7:23

not this guy says profile buildings there

7:25

were. This could have been the perfect

7:28

fix the extravagance of the Sheraton Mirage

7:30

and everything that had com or it

7:32

because I think it wasn't soon after

7:34

this. It all started to fall

7:37

in a be cheap. Clothes sort

7:39

rain was a net vs every so

7:41

at what less than ten years he

7:43

had. For. He he bought Channel

7:45

Seven in Nineteen Eighty Seven, and

7:48

everything started to collapse in Nineteen

7:50

Eighty Nine. So I'm not long

7:52

at all. So.

7:54

The first Visible Craft was also

7:56

his biggest movie. Which. Was

7:58

he so the obviously had gone out

8:01

of Australia with the result in Hawaii.

8:03

So this wasn't his first moved out

8:05

of Australia. But. He tried

8:07

to buy M V M Film

8:09

Studios the. Giant film see our

8:11

in Los Angeles. the with Amazon has

8:14

recently bought said stupid amount of money

8:16

Christmas guys try to buy at heart.

8:18

but it was the late eighties and

8:20

the go go years of the nineteen

8:22

eighties had really. Slowed. Down

8:25

the Nineteen Eighty Seven

8:27

Cross saw. Nina.

8:29

I think everyone sort of realize there was

8:31

a lot going on your out when it's

8:33

chill out here. In a message stock market

8:35

crash near and rights? Yeah, yeah, by night

8:37

and eighty nine. interest rates were starting to

8:40

rise as well and so. All.

8:42

Of these companies that have so much debt

8:44

and was feeling all their acquisitions and growth

8:46

by that all of a sudden had rising

8:48

interest rates and couldn't afford that debt and

8:51

so things were getting really top. The.

8:53

Mgm deal was announced and then the

8:55

funding that the banks that we're going

8:57

to fund it over in the states

9:00

pulled out because of the amount of

9:02

debt Quintet already had. And so

9:04

for ever. And that was a bit

9:06

of a warning sign that things aren't

9:08

gripes, but it was that biggest acquisition

9:10

to died so that that was probably

9:12

forgivable. But. Then one of

9:14

the American subsidiaries went bankrupt. So

9:17

company that quintet or and over

9:19

in America. Couldn't. Pay

9:21

it's debts, And. Went bankrupt. Which.

9:23

Was a bit of a warning as well. And

9:26

then the thing that really pushed

9:29

Ah Quin takes over the edge.

9:31

Remember a lot of it's assets

9:33

worth Tourism results in places like

9:35

Hawaii and Point Douglas in Nineteen,

9:38

Eighty Nine Australia So one of

9:40

it's biggest ever industrial options, one

9:42

of it's biggest ever strikes the

9:44

night, and Eighty Nine Australian pilot

9:47

strike. Ah crippled the tourism industry

9:49

for months and that crippled the

9:51

amount of traffic going to his

9:53

results. Which. Crippled the results. Revenue

9:55

for yes, yes, I'm. Sorry

9:58

I ninety. 1989 was

10:01

a year of rising interest rates, reduced

10:03

revenues on his business. He

10:06

was in a lot of financial trouble really. And

10:09

Scasy then has a falling out with his

10:11

board. He asked the board

10:14

to approve a payment to a

10:16

company that he owned, which

10:18

is... No no. No

10:20

no to begin with. The board refused,

10:23

but it came out that he'd

10:25

already made that payment without their

10:27

approval. So yeah,

10:29

not good. One

10:32

of the directors reported Christopher

10:34

Scase to the Australian Securities

10:36

Commission, so the Australian Government

10:38

Regulators. But that really between

10:40

the company going bankrupt in

10:42

America and these complaints from

10:44

the board to the Australian

10:46

Securities Commission, the Australian Securities

10:48

Commission then puts their focus

10:50

on Quintex and starts asking

10:52

for documents to prove that

10:55

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13:22

what happened was they couldn't provide any documents

13:24

as Ren said. Quintex then

13:27

had $700 million in debt. Scaife

13:30

himself personally had $80 million in

13:33

debt. So they're all deaded up

13:35

to their eyeballs, really struggling to pay it off.

13:38

As a result, Quintex stock was listed

13:40

on the stock exchange. It was suspended

13:42

from trading. I guess while the Australian

13:44

Securities Commission looked into things and said,

13:46

there's a lot going on here. We

13:48

need to figure it out.

13:50

Subsequently, Quintex files for bankruptcy

13:53

in 1989 and Scaife not

13:55

too soon after under a lot of financial

13:58

pressure can't pay his debts back files. bankruptcy

14:00

in 1991. So

14:03

the resorts that he owned get sold

14:05

to Japanese investors. Channel

14:07

7 gets sold and these liquidators are

14:10

selling these assets and trying to get

14:12

the money back to pay back

14:15

the debts. Unfortunately,

14:17

they don't get nearly enough

14:19

money to pay back the debts. The

14:22

state bank of Victoria was one

14:24

of the largest lenders to Quintex.

14:27

It collapses largely because

14:29

it had lent so much money to

14:31

Quintex, it couldn't recover any money and

14:33

then it itself, this bank, state bank

14:36

of Victoria, goes bankrupt. And

14:38

that's sort of the end of the corporate bankruptcy

14:40

story, but that's not the end of the story

14:42

here. Well, it turns out that

14:44

Scaste had been secretly moving company money into

14:46

foreign bank accounts. So he secretly done some

14:48

transfers to estimate it to be $170 million

14:52

from when Quintex filed bankruptcy

15:01

in 1989 and Scaste files

15:03

bankruptcy in 1991. So

15:05

between that period, he was shuffling money

15:08

from Quintex into his, I guess, private

15:10

bank account. So it's somewhere

15:12

overseas and it emerges that he'd

15:14

approved hefty management fees to be

15:16

paid from Quintex to him personally.

15:18

So how much again? Tell me how much again?

15:20

$170 million. Obviously, what

15:23

he's done is illegal under Australian

15:25

law. And so what happened was

15:27

this is where the Australian police move in

15:30

and actually make an arrest. So

15:33

he was charged with improperly using

15:35

his position to obtain management

15:37

fees, briefly arrested and spent a

15:40

night in jail. A night.

15:42

But you would think that would be more than

15:44

that. He was subsequently released and allowed to regain

15:47

his passport. However, he

15:49

was told to stay in the area. Does he

15:51

stay in the area? No. Next

15:54

morning, he's on a flight to Spain. So

15:57

he fled the country on a flight to Spain. And

16:00

then the chase was on. He

16:02

was discovered in 1991 by the

16:04

Sydney Morning Herald in

16:06

May Orca. Yeah. Not

16:09

the Cots? No, not another government.

16:11

The Sydney Morning Herald. He claimed he

16:14

was penniless but living in a $2

16:16

million mansion on the island, living large.

16:18

The outrage of the nation. I'll

16:20

never get over it. And did

16:23

he come out immediately and say, oh, I'm

16:25

sick though? Yeah, so he very quickly

16:27

started claiming he was sick. In

16:30

1994, the Australian government felt like

16:32

they had enough evidence to get

16:34

him. They brought 60 criminal

16:36

charges against him and

16:38

they spent multiple years trying to

16:41

extradite him. So Spain and

16:43

Australia do have an extradition treaty.

16:46

And this is where the

16:48

claims of being sick really

16:51

started to escalate and

16:53

I guess be quite strategic for him.

16:55

When he was rocking up to court,

16:57

he was rocking up in a wheelchair

16:59

claiming he had emphysema and a whole

17:01

bunch of other health issues. And he

17:03

was arrested. Now, here's the thing. So

17:05

there's an extradition treaty with Australia and

17:07

Spain. Spanish authorities detained him and he

17:09

was actually held for 11 months in

17:11

May Orca in a jail,

17:13

but mainly in the hospital jail, like

17:15

claiming he was sick. So 11 months

17:18

he was held. He claimed

17:20

he was too sick to travel. So

17:22

then the decade long chase continued,

17:24

the chase for skates, including Andrew

17:26

Denton trying to raise money for

17:29

a bounty hunter. Then in May

17:31

1998, the Aussie government cancelled skates

17:33

passport, at which point he was ordered

17:35

to leave May Orca by the 23rd of July. But

17:39

he lodged an appeal. The

17:41

extradition process was still tied up in the courts.

17:43

And then following, he became a citizen of the

17:45

Dominican Republic. I

17:47

think Dominican, a more Caribbean nation. A

17:52

lot of commentary at the time saying that the

17:54

chase for skates was over and that

17:56

there was nothing more that could be done to bring

17:58

him back. to Australia and

18:01

whether or not that was true, in the end, it

18:03

didn't really matter because in August 2001, he

18:06

actually was sick and he died

18:08

of stomach cancer. In May orca. In

18:11

May orca. Yeah. The

18:13

great irony of this all is Australia

18:15

is pretty soft on white

18:17

collar crimes. Yes. And

18:20

at this stage, you know, when he was first

18:22

detained in Australia before he fled, it was

18:25

for the illegal management

18:27

phase. It wasn't for, you know, embezzling all

18:29

this money from his company into his offshore

18:32

accounts. Got away with the 170 million. Australia

18:36

is incredibly light on these crimes

18:38

and estimates are he probably would

18:40

have got months in jail, if

18:42

anything. But instead, you

18:44

know, he fled and he would let it chase

18:46

him for the rest of his life. Thank

18:54

you to our guests today, Bryce and Alec

18:56

from EquityMates Investing Podcast. It's

18:59

available wherever you get your podcasts.

19:03

If you need support after listening to this podcast,

19:05

you can call Lifeline on 13 11 14 or

19:09

contact 1800RESPECT on 1800 737 732 or 1800respect.org.au.

19:18

For more information on this podcast, you can visit us

19:20

online at 1392.org.au. Thank

19:29

you for downloading this episode of Australian True

19:31

Crime. We'll be back next week. Tired

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and. Eighteen.

20:38

He changed. How's the best?

20:42

To the so that we with. Halo.

20:46

And any editor at all to the

20:48

Nightly News. And a journalist who has spent

20:50

the last twenty years. Working hard to tell the

20:52

truth. I'm also. A black woman born and

20:55

raised in the South South? See how. Often

20:57

journalists get stories wrong. That's

20:59

why I decided to start The Amendment a

21:01

weekly podcast were access to folks with unique

21:03

perspective to try to get the truth. Behind

21:05

the biggest stories of our day was

21:07

that mean south into Wesley Morris About

21:09

the politics behind the Oscars. I do

21:11

spend a lot of thinking about like

21:13

winner for this Would have gone if

21:15

anatomy before was about love and jail.

21:18

Or Nicole. And a joke about the sex of

21:20

our election. We have to figure out

21:22

how to not discover Chance that all of the.

21:25

Ways. That democracies being eroded soon

21:27

into the Amendment. Listen, wherever you

21:29

get your pocket. A

21:33

cast as creators launch Grow

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am one of us a

21:37

roof.