Alan Bond (businessman)

Alan Bond (born 22 April 1938) is an Australian business man famous both for high-profile business ventures and for criminal offences associated with the collapse of his company. Bond was born in the Hammersmith district of London, England, and emigrated to Australia with his parents and sister Geraldine in 1950. Beginning his career as a signwriter he formed what was to be Bond Corporation in 1959. He became a public hero in his adopted country after bankrolling challenges for the yachting trophy the America's Cup, which resulted in his selection as Australian of the Year in 1978. He finally won the trophy (which had been held by the USA since 1851) in 1983.

The Perth-based Bond made his fortune initially in property development and at one time was one of Australia's most prominent businesspeople. In 1970 he acquired three America's Cup bid yachts from Sir Frank Packer. He later extended his business interests into other fields including brewing (he controlled Castlemaine Tooheys and G. Heileman Brewing Company in La Crosse, Wisconsin), gold mining and television. Australia's first private university, Bond University, bears his name.

He purchased QTQ-9, Brisbane and settled an outstanding defamation dispute the station had with the Queensland premier, Joh Bjelke-Petersen by paying out AUD$400,000. He said in a television interview several years later that he paid because "Sir Joh left no doubt that if we were going to continue to do business successfully in Queensland then he expected the matter to be resolved".

In 1987, Bond purchased Vincent Van Gogh's renowned painting, Irises,image of Irises for $54 million — at the time a world record for a single painting. The purchase was however funded by a substantial loan from the auctioneer (Sotheby's) which Bond subsequently refused to repay and the painting was re-sold to the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles in 1990. In 1987 he also paid $1 billion for the Australia-wide Nine television network from Kerry Packer's PBL before selling it back to PBL in 1990 for $250 million in the midst of his business empire collapsing. Packer was quoted as saying "An Alan Bond only happens to you once".

The stock market crash in 1987 was one of a number of factors that led to the downfall of Bond's business empire, and he eventually went to prison for a time after being convicted of hiding some of his assets from Bond Corporation's receivers. Nevertheless, he appears to have retained several luxury properties and other assets sufficient to support a luxurious lifestyle.

Bond was originally jailed in August 1996 for a $15 million charge involving the Édouard Manet painting La Promenade.image of La Promenade In 1997 he was sentenced to a further four years after pleading guilty to siphoning off $1.2 billion from one of his companies, Bell Resources, to prop up his ailing Bond Corporation. Journalist Paul Barry, who wrote the book referenced below, has pointed out that Bond's release after 1,298 days meant that he spent roughly one day behind bars for every million dollars he stole.

In 1995 Bond and his family bought him out of bankruptcy, using about $12 million they held in offshore trusts to reach an arrangement with creditors who were owed $1.8 billion, a payout of a little over half a cent on the dollar.

References

*Paul Barry The Rise And Fall Of Alan Bond ISBN 1-86359-037-4. Bantam Books (1991)
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Notes

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