The innocent attempts by the Romanian-Australian mining entrepreneur Frank Timis to mount a reverse takeover of International Petroleum and Global Iron has now led to his good name being besmirched on the other side of the globe.
According to the chairman of the two companies, Tony Sage, the ASX's now overturned rejection of Timis's plans to backdoor list his Eastern Petroleum Corp has left a permanent stain.
''They vilified a man - his reputation now is tarnished in London,'' Sage said of the fallout of the ASX's original decision to block the proposed deal under which Timis would have become a director of the ASX-listed International Petroleum.
Does this mean investors in London, where Timis lives, pay more attention to the ASX than the London Stock Exchange?
Last November the exchange fined another company Timis chaired, Regal Petroleum, a record 600,000 ($1.02 million) for providing ''over-optimistic'' and inaccurate statements to the market.
Sage, who was celebrating the ASX Appeal Tribunal's overturning of the original decision on Friday in Greece, also talked of how the ASX had hurt International Petroleum shareholders who voted in favour of the deal with Timis.
''You should hear some of the heartbreak stories from people over the past five months who cannot sell their shares,'' said Sage, owner of the Perth Glory football team.
''They've suffered since November because of the ASX decision.''
International Petroleum recently gained approval to list on the Newcastle Stock Exchange.
UNDERDOG STORY.
With the damage by the ASX done, Timis on Friday provided a lengthy rap sheet to the Newcastle Stock Exchange, pending International Petroleum's listing on its boards.
Apart from mentioning another LSE fine, of 75,000, over another of his London Alternative Investment Market companies, Timis's declaration told of how, as executive chairman of Regal he had once provided assistance to the Financial Services Authority in Britain.
''I was interviewed voluntarily but under caution in taped meetings with the FSA for approximately 14 hours on 9 and 16 February 2007,'' he said of the disclosure breach that led to the record LSE fine.
However, the LSE ''did not specifically criticise the actions of myself'', he said.
Timis also said in the declaration that in 2002 the Toronto Stock Exchange had deemed him ''unsuitable as a director'' because of his failure to disclose his previous heroin convictions.
He at least ensured he did not make the same error with the Newcastle Stock Exchange. A letter was provided from the Australian Federal Police detailing his previous run-ins with the law, including the two heroin convictions, a fine in 1991 for failing to store explosives properly, numerous speeding offences, a fine for attempting to gain financial advantage by deception to a theft charge in 1982. There was also an assault charge.
He also noted a civil claim from the Commonwealth Bank in 1996 over a credit-card debt (which he said was from fraudulent use by someone else).
There is an effort on Timis's personal website to highlight that the businessman has made amends and regrets his past.
''Frank's style is warm, easygoing and unstuffy and his instinct is to be on the side of the underdog,'' it says.
(20min delay)