MI) More revelations to come in Rivkin's massive offshore trading 12:43 7/12/2004
No.143422128
Sydney - Tuesday - December 7: (RWE Australian Business News) - The Australian Financial Review newspaper today reports that the Australian Taxation Office is broadening its investigations into the financial affairs of Rene Rivkin, Trevor Kennedy and former Labor cabinet Minister Graham Richardson. The paper reveals this development in another exclusive report about the offshore trading of former stockbroker Rivkin, which is now believed to be much bigger than previously believed and involved more than 60 Australian local companies. Documents obtained by the Financial Review detail business worth more than $800 million in share trades over many more companies whose names appear in Rivkin's two principal bank accounts with the Bank Leumi le-Israel in Zurich in the 1090s. According to the Financial Review the accounts give a "unique window" into the secret world and contacts of Rene Rivkin's activities over a 10-year period. Names of a number of personalities and their share trading with Rene Rivkin should also be disclosed for the first time. Rivkin himself did a lot of trading in Oil Search in which Trevor Kennedy was chairman, but Kennedy strenuously denied that Rivkin was ever given inside information to trade the shares. The document showed that Rivkin had remarkable insights into when to buy and sell as the Oil Search fortunes rose and fell. Orogen Minerals was another Rivkin target during a period when a pipeline was being discussed. Rivkin's accounts disclose how he made millions of dollars from investing in stocks including SGIO Insurance, Advance Bank, FAI, FAI Life, Singleton Group, OzEmail, OneTel, NJA Telecommunications , LibertyOne, Sydney Harbour Casino, and Allgas Energy. The Financial Review also says Rivkin traded heavily in other accounts through Zurich and the Channel Islands. The paper quotes the following from the Leumi statements that almost half of a $26.3 million payout from trading in shares in Offset Alpine was deposited Rivkin's Stilton account. The Leumi accounts also detail transactions back and forth between Rivkin World and a Leumi account named Brampton International at the close of the OzEmail takeover offer in 1999. According to the Financial Review OzEmail was set up by Kennedy, Malcolm Turnbull and Sean Howard. Kennedy reportedly received $58 million from the sale of his shares into a takeover bid by US telegram group NCI.
