The Vizard media feeding frenzy Peter Faris on Schapelle's defence Journos in jail and the source dilemma The (media) value of a human life Nine's Commonwealth Games saga Warnie goes as Nine clears the decks Warnie and Rev Kerry's moral dictum The Daily Tele's censorship hypocrisy The worst of times at The West Australian UK media on the London bombings The future of finance journalism Spinning for Steve Vizard Circulation rorts: the inside story Favourite hits from the Crikey archive Cornwall's that have been sold more... The Vizard media feeding frenzy
Crikey Daily - Monday, 18 July
A media furore would still probably have erupted had ASIC and Steve Vizard been upfront, expansive and available from the outset – but would wehave had an avalanche of stories for two weeks?
There was loads to digest over the weekend. Both Business Sunday and Inside Business devoted time to the Vizard story on Sunday. Nine's Adam Shand did one of the most comprehensive profiles on Vizard two years ago for The AFR, so he was well equipped to pull it together for Business Sunday, although his forthcoming piece on Macquarie Bank's Tasmanian gold dealings didn't make it to air this week.
Advertisement Alan Kohler has been getting more aggressive in his commentary, but his Inside Business editorial was quite feral: "How did Steve Vizard even get on to the Telstra board or the Victorian Major Events Committee given all the things that are now being said about him? At the very least, Steve Vizard must be charged with perjury, having previously denied in court what he now admits."
Kohler went on to say: "Business people are competing to say – off the record, of course – the rudest things about Vizard: that he's never, ever been any good. If anyone at all turns up in court this week to give a character reference, it will be amazing, not to say courageous."
Of course Vizard will find people to talk about his character. The Herald Sun this morning reports that National Gallery of Victoria director Gerard Vaughan is considering doing exactly that.
Given the deals that Vizard's former Toorak neighbour Eddie McGuire did with him over the years, don't be surprised if Eddie Everywhere is standing up and being counted on Thursday as he's tribally loyal to family and friends. The various recipients of Vizard's so-called charitable endeavours will probably also step up to the plate, although don't expect any of the 28 Telstra directors over the past decade to endorse his corporate behaviour.
Character referees don't usually get savaged, although the likes of Steve Bracks, Robert Doyle and Ron Walker are certainly regretting being so publicly supportive when the ASIC deal first emerged.
The Age's corporate sleuth David Elias had another good piece on Vizard this morning looking at the winding up of Sportsview. The Age's former managing director Stuart Simson keeps getting mentioned in dispatches, even though it was Vizard's Virtual Communities operation which first snapped up the ten-year internet rights to those AFL clubs and Simson only joined later to actually run the sites.
The Age's Malcolm Maiden had probably the best column today asking what exactly Vizard was sorry about, while The Australian preferred two straight news reports from Blair Speedy, who was at Melbourne airport on Saturday night.
The SMH has arguably been tougher on Vizard than The Age and Christine Lacy was today speculating in her CBD gossip column that he could be stripped of his gong or follow Rodney Adler's lead and hand back the AM. Indeed, it's one of the many fallouts that the funny man must now confront.
Meanwhile, celebrity bookmaker Simon Beasley and his family were indeed holidaying in Europe with the Vizard family, who won't be back until next weekend, thereby avoiding what will be another intense week of scrutiny.
How the Vizard spin was handled
Crikey Daily - Monday, 18 July
Steve Vizard's spin advisers haven't had much to smile about in recent weeks, but his arrival back in the country on Saturday was well orchestrated and the man himself delivered a flawless statement for the cameras, concluding with his apology.
It was all too little too late, but the mechanics are still interesting to follow. Mike Smith and his offsiders at Inside PR rang around the media mid-afternoon on Saturday advising that Vizard was scheduled to arrive on a Singapore Airlines flight from Singapore at 6pm, after originally boarding in Rome. A brief statement was promised but there would be no questions.
The aircraft touched down at 6:07pm but it wasn't until 7:45pm that the first passengers began to emerge. The assembled throng of about 40 media were waiting directly outside the international exit, but Vizard managed to get an inside run from the airport authorities and departed through a side door. He could very well have done a runner as he ended up approaching his own press pack from behind at 7:55pm.
There was a quick media scramble as the pack turned around and then Vizard delivered his two-minute statement. Only one hack attempted to ask a question about the prospect of perjury charges but he didn't even finish it as by 8pm Vizard was being driven off by his lawyer mate Shaun Levin, the registered owner of 48 of the 120 Inside PR shares.
Mike Smith is a former editor of The Age who has been friends with Steve Vizard for ten years, but even he would have to admit that having your major outside shareholder as a client must seem strange, especially when everyone is saying that both parties have stuffed up the PR badly.
That said, Saturday night went off without a hitch, highlighting the stupidity of not having Vizard speaking for himself from the first day. It was a solo performance for the cameras as Vizard had no PR operatives marshalling the media, although he did have another friend sorting out his luggage as you don't want to be dealing with a press pack while pushing a trolley full of baggage.
This was enough to deliver the front page splash in The Sunday Age and Sunday Herald Sun and begin what will be a long and difficult fightback. The story also ran in all the television bulletins last night and Vizard emerged briefly from his Toorak home yesterday to give the photographers an alternative to the airport shot.
3AW presenter Neil Mitchell has long been close to Vizard's mate Ron Walker and Mike Smith, so it was not surprising that this morning Mitchell defended Vizard and said the press pack was over-reacting.
"Steve Vizard is not Mr Baldy," Mitchell told his listeners before accusing former supporters of leaving him "hung out to dry." Don't be surprised when Mitchell lands the first radio interview after the court process is dealt with.
The Steve Vizard media feeding frenzy
Crikey Daily - Tuesday, 19 July
Another day, another flurry of newspaper stories on Steve Vizard in what is shaping up to be the great media frenzy this winter.
Day 14 of the saga saw the Herald Sun confirm in a page three lead that a police investigation into possible perjury charges against Steve Vizard is under way. Fears of regulators being stung into action appear true:
The Herald Sun believes Police Chief Commissioner Christine Nixon has asked to be kept informed of the investigation's progress. Police are keen to be seen to be taking a strong stand on the case after being criticised over failing to investigate properly claims by Mr Vizard's former bookkeeper, Roy Hilliard, that Mr Vizard evaded tax.
It certainly hasn't helped Vizard that the Herald Sun has this week launched an expanded business and The Age is trying to hit back at a time when there is little corporate news around. Terry McCrann lined up for another crack at Vizard in the Herald Sun over his airport statement, while The Age trumpeted its interview with ASIC chairman Jeffrey Lucy in a banner across the top of page one: "ASIC's man on Vizard case."
The story led the business section and wasn't that exciting as Lucy simply defended the current arrangement with the Commonwealth DPP running its court cases.
The AFR has a huge cartoon of Vizard shedding a crocodile tear to accompany another savage Chanticleer column from John Durie on the back page which was headlined: "Vizard's apology rings hollow."
The Australian put its Vizard story – Steve the miser left out in the cold – across the top of page one and openly suggests he was tight with his own money as chairman of the National Gallery of Victoria, thereby triggering the resignation of Rupert Myer, the gallery's fundraising chairman. The paper also claimed that Ron Walker and Eddie McGuire have declined to be character referees in court on Thursday.
Walker must be feeling singed from the backlash against his initial comments about Victoria needing ten Steve Vizards and Eddie was probably instructed by the Packers not to damage his brand by association, which is certainly sensible given the current mood of the media. Besides, Eddie wouldn't want to invite any more scrutiny of his dealings with Vizard through Sportsview.
The SMH devoted more than half its business section to Vizard yesterday and CBD columnist Christine Lacy is maintaining the focus with a piece today on the Bracks Government's coup in securing the highly regarded outgoing British Airways CEO as Vizard's replacement as chairman of the Melbourne Major Events Company.
All up, it's an almighty feeding frenzy that will probably drag on for weeks.
Steve Vizard - Insider trader
By Stephen Mayne, Crikey's business commentator
Crikey has been closely following the saga of Steve Vizard's insider trading revelations in the Crikey Daily email. See how the fall of the high flying Melbourne entertainer has been covered here:
Date: 12 July 2005
Also in Business...
Steve Vizard - Insider trader Costello on Vizard and Greg Lay Peter Faris on Vizard's soft deal Telstra and Vizard's untold profits Who was Hotham victim Brain Ray? Cosgrove marches on to the Qantas board News Corp's New York AGM Kohler gloomy on industry super funds Our government-dependent companies Farewell News Corp, hello New York Why the UK beats us in business The decline of corporate Melbourne The 90+ Rich Listers BRW missed more... An open and shut case of insider trading?
Crikey Daily - Tuesday, 5 July
Rene Rivkin must be turning in his grave. Australia's best known and most prolific insider trader was arrested and eventually convicted in the criminal courts for buying 50,000 shares in Qantas and pocketing a tiny profit. While Rivkin had form with ASIC (having previously given undertakings about his share dealings), the facts surrounding his jailing were, in my opinion, nowhere near as strong as those involving former Telstra director Steve Vizard.
Vizard's exploits during the dotcom boom in 2000, in my view, look like the most open and shut case of insider trading since former Macquarie Bank executive director Simon Hannes got jailed over $2 million worth of TNT shares.
Advertisement Steve Vizard is an extremely lucky man. ASIC, a body responsible to Treasurer Peter Costello, has treated him with kid gloves in the face of strong evidence.
The Howard Government appointed Vizard to the Telstra board in September 1996, so it didn't look good to have long-time Liberal Party bagman Ron Walker publicly defending him yesterday. Rivkin had strong Labor connections, while Vizard is a Liberal Party man – and the treatment appears to be quite different.
After all, Rivkin was not a director of Qantas or Impulse Airlines when he got the tip on the sale of the upstart airline (which wasn't all that price-sensitive anyway). Contrast that with Vizard, whose position on the Telstra board gave him access to all the comings and goings during the dotcom boom.
He splurged $500,000 on Sausage Software on 7 March 2000, and by 20 March the merger with Solution 6 was announced and Sausage shares leapt $1.60 that day to a record high of $7.40. The Keycorp deal was just as bad, as Vizard plunged $250,000 into the stock on 14 July 2000 and then Telstra's purchase of a controlling stake on 21 July saw the stock rocket $2.39 to $14.95.
This line about him losing $335,000 on the investments is self-serving because the insider trading saw him enjoy paper profits of about $200,000 at the time. Like so many others, Vizard obviously wishes he'd sold before the dotcom crash really set in, but not realising the profits have probably helped him and his lawyer Robert Richter persuade ASIC to take a softer line.
The media response has been interesting. News Limited's Terry McCrann takes the strongest line, arguing today that ASIC has "effectively given the green light to company directors to engage in insider trading." Meanwhile Fairfax commentator Stephen Bartholomeusz argues the decision to let Vizard "cop a plea" is appropriate because ASIC needed to get a result and might not have been successful in obtaining a criminal conviction.
CRIKEY: To jail Vizard ASIC needed to go after him for insider trading under the Crimes Act (here). Instead he fessed up to the civil offence of breaching his duties as a company director – under the Corporations Act (here). You don't need as much proof to establish a civil offence, but it's ironic that in admitting to breaching the Corporations Act Vizard has now provided evidence the could've been used to pursue a criminal conviction.
Calling the Melbourne establishment to account
Crikey Daily - Tuesday, 5 July
The late Rene Rivkin's lawyer, Mark O'Brien of Gilbert & Tobin, got Steve Vizard's deal with ASIC right in his comments to the SMH and on ABC radio yesterday. O'Brien is considered one of Sydney's best litigators and he does plenty of work for various Packer associates, which extended to Rivkin's insider trading battle with ASIC all the way to the High Court.
"One law for members of the Melbourne establishment and another for Sydney eccentrics," was the O'Brien line that resonated, although he also observed that Rivkin antagonised ASIC by belittling its ability to prosecute corporate crooks.
Rivkin had one interview with ASIC and then presumed the matter had been dropped when he suddenly discovered he was to be charged with a criminal offence in November 2001, only seven months after the purchase of 50,000 Qantas shares took place.
The wheels of justice moved much more slowly and politely for Steve Vizard, who has now confessed to three different insider trades way back in 2000. These first came to ASIC's attention in March 2003 when Vizard's former book keeper, Roy Hilliard, dropped a bucket on his former boss during his own court case. It then took ASIC another seven months to raid Vizard's home and office in December 2003 and another 18 months to strike its gentlemanly civil deal. In reality, he should have been criminally charged within weeks of the initial revelations.
Malcolm Maiden in The Age almost got the balance right in his column today, taking a harder line than his colleague Stephen Bartholomeusz yesterday, but not quite as tough as Terry McCrann, who set the agenda yesterday with this effort that was picked up by The 7:30 Report.
Maiden fell for the line from ASIC that it did the deal because of the uncertainty about whether a conviction could be obtained. While Vizard's popularity and celebrity status in Melbourne might make a jury conviction harder to achieve, McCrann and many others believe ASIC still should have proceeded.
Rivkin's former wife, Gayle, certainly saw the double standard as she explained to the Herald Sun, and former Telstra CEO Frank Blount is the first prominent businessman to come out and declare: "We all know that's against the rules."
The AFR's Chanticleer columnist John Durie has toughened his rhetoric from yesterday morning, telling ABC Victoria and his own readers that Vizard "is nothing short of a disgrace."
There's a further point to be made here: Rivkin was convicted of insider trading in Qantas shares because Gerry McGowan told him Qantas was in the process of buying his failing airline, Impulse, and he testified to this effect in court.
Vizard's defenders and Melbourne Inc say it would have been hard to obtain a conviction because his share deals went through a separate company, Creative Technology Investments. But Roy Hilliard would have been available for any criminal trial, as would Greg Lay, Vizard's accountant and the man at CTI.
So there are similarities with the Rivkin case in that there are other parties available to give evidence, based on what we know at the moment. The DPP's advice to ASIC should be published to make sure the whole process has not been negotiated to a nice, safe Melbourne deal that will shuffle the whole thing off to oblivion.
Given the fulsome support of Vizard from the likes of successive Victorian Premiers Steve Bracks and Jeff Kennett, that's obviously the hope of Melbourne Inc. But who will be the first Liberal Party figure to blast Vizard for his disgraceful behaviour? The line-up of character referees in the Federal Court on 21 February will be interesting to watch.
Who really buggered up the Vizard matter?
Crikey Daily - Thursday, 7 July
By Stephen Mayne
Facing the biggest PR crisis since the Yannon debacle ten years ago, ASIC chairman Jeffrey Lucy broke his silence in a series of radio and newspaper interviews yesterday, telling Virginia Trioli on ABC Victoria that ASIC's three commissioners provided the Commonwealth DPP with a brief for criminal charges against Steve Vizard which was "worthy of serious consideration."
Alas, the Commonwealth DPP, Damian Bugg, decided there was not enough "admissable evidence" to be confident that a criminal conviction could be secured – but Lucy stressed "it was their [the DPP's] decision alone."
This puts the heat on Bugg, who is so far refusing to comment on why Vizard, a Liberal Party mover and shaker appointed to the Telstra board by his friend Richard Alston in 1996, wasn't arrested and charged in what many observers believe to be one of the clearest cases of insider trading.
Bugg has been a controversial DPP who baulked at laying charges against travel rorter and Labor rat Mal Colston as Alan Ramsey explained in this piece last November. These lines from Ramsey provide some background on Bugg:
Bugg is the man John Howard's Government imported to Canberra from Hobart in 1999 to become Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions (CDPP). For the previous 13 years Bugg had been Tasmania's director of public prosecutions, appointed by Robin Gray's Liberal state government in 1986 – the same Robin Gray whose minority government collapsed after the 1989 election when Edmund Rouse, a local businessman, tried to bribe a Labor MP to support the Gray government.
Bugg is now the bloke – so we were told by press release at 7:30 Monday night, late enough to miss all that night's major news bulletins – who "advised" the Australian Federal Police, after "assessing" the matter for seven weeks, that nothing further should be done about Windsor's accusations of attempted bribery against Anderson and his Nationals colleague, Senator Sandy Macdonald.
The Peter Reith telecard is another interesting case presided over by Bugg. Check out Margo Kingston's reports on that saga: Your right to know? Silly you – trust the AFP.
But these issues are often more complex than they first look. The AFR's Andrew Main, who has written books on both Rene Rivkin and HIH, provided some insight into the process this morning with a page one story revealing that Vizard's accountant, Greg Lay, refused to give evidence against his client in any criminal prosecution.
Lay is a partner with Melbourne accounting firm Clarke Bentleys and was the sole director of Vizard's insider trading vehicle, Creative Technology Investments. Vizard gave him a 10% commission on any profits. Lay was advised orally by Vizard so the hard evidence of buying and selling instructions would have been difficult to establish but ASIC did have the evidence of the original whistleblower, fellow Vizard accountant Roy Hilliard and no-one seems to be talking about him at the moment.
TLS Price at posting:
0.0¢ Sentiment: None Disclosure: Not Held
(20min delay)