Nathan Tinkler / Pic: Liam Driver Source: The Daily Telegraph
Mr Paparazzi ... Darryn Lyons / Pic: Stuart White/bigpicturesphoto.com Source: The Daily Telegraph
WHILE economic forecasters are divided on whether Australia will experience fiscal recovery in 2013 or the proliferation of recessive conditions, for many Sydneysiders 2012 will go down in the annals as the year in which they touched the bottom financially.
Years after the GFC bullet was fired in 2007-08, a contingent of the city's high fliers continue to fall over financially on a weekly basis - some bankrupted, others forced into legal action by a string of creditors, while yet others just bite the bullet and humbly close their doors after decades in business.
By mid year, as the end of the financial year loomed, it seemed that some of Sydney's onetime untouchables were on the brink.
As Nathan Tinkler's nightmare continued this month, the rumours have already started about the predicted casualties of 2013. Left hurting in 2012 were:
Matt Handbury
MEDIA owner Matt Handbury laid off half his workforce at Murdoch Books midyear and started contemplating selling up. His wealth has been eroded in recent years by, amongst other things, an ATO tax bill for $67 million and an as yet unproven $15 million investment in rainmaking technology. He acknowledges the publishing downturn has hurt.
Justin North
CELEBRATED chef Justin North put three companies into voluntary administration with debt of $1 million to $2 million owed to NAB, about $1 million owed to the Australian Taxation Office, and unspecified debt to staff and trade creditors. Among North's business interests were Becasse restaurant, a cookery school and a pastry business.
Moses Obeid
IN March, the City of Sydney Council slapped a bankruptcy notice on Moses Obeid, son of Labor powerbroker Eddie. The council was seeking $16 million in damages and interest and legal costs after Obeid's company was found to have secretly sold council-designed multifunction street poles to the United Arab Emirates and Singapore. Mr Obeid appealed.
Nathan Tinkler
NATHAN Tinkler started the year as a billionaire and finished it with creditors having wound up his Mulsanne Resources and companies associated with his stable Patinack Farm. The ATO is still moving to wind up Tinkler Group Holdings and his Hunter Sports Group, through which he owns the Newcastle Knights and the Newcastle Jets. Current value, unknown.
Eddie Hayson
BROTHEL owner Eddie Hayson this month said he was poised to pay off the $20 million being sought by creditors - among them bookmaker Tom Waterhouse who is allegedly owed more than $3 million - but weeks earlier it was discovered the owners of Sydney escort business Boardroom Escorts were on the brink of appointing a bankruptcy trustee following the collapse of a repayment deal on a debt relating to the failed public float of Hayson's Sydney brothel Stiletto.
James Vertzayias
PROPERTY developer James Vertzayias declared himself bankrupt in October owing $60 million to, so it is believed, a syndicate of rugby league identities George Mimis, Nathan Brown and Anthony Watmough, as well as owing millions more to property investors from the glitzy east, investment bank Gresham and other institution said to include Dutch bank ING and St George.
Rick Damelian
A YEAR after his business went bust and the last of his eight caryards went on the market to help clear debts of $53 million, Rick Damelian stood accused of lying to a court in August over a debt of $1.9 million owed to his former company. Separately, he was also pursued by the NAB for $8 million and said he had only $73 in his bank account.
Royce Ayliffe
FORMER rugby league international Royce Ayliffe spent part of the year battling to stave off bankruptcy proceedings. The 56-year-old former Roosters prop owes debt collection agency ACM Group $40,300, according to documents held by the Federal Magistrates Court. The debt, believed to relate to unpaid credit card bills, has been hanging over Ayliffe since an adverse judgment was made against him in 2010.
Russell Keddie
HIGH profile solicitor Russell Keddie, of personal injury law firm Keddies, declared himself bankrupt in June after being struck-off having been found guilty of professional misconduct. According to reports, Keddie owed creditors $22 million when he filed for bankruptcy after first transferring half of his family's Double Bay home and a Bungan Beach beach house, as well as other assets, into his wife's name.
Chris Crawley
LAWYER turned pub baron Chris Crawley was forced to put his famous Darling Harbour seafood restaurant Jordons, a Newtown pub and his five-bedroom Killara home on the market mid year after bankers came calling. At the root of Crawley's problems, a lost lawsuit to a former business partner whom a court found was owed $8 million by Crawley.
Darryn Lyons
"MR Paparazzi", Darryn Lyons, returned from London and retreated to Geelong after his London-based agency Big Pictures agency went into administration in August. Lyons, who had his finger in some odd deals this year including some exclusives involving Lara Bingle and a starring role on the dumped Nine Network show Excess Baggage, has since downsized his operation though keeps the Australian arm of his agency open.
Matt Kemp
CHEF Matt Kemp blamed the closure of his Montpellier Public House in Randwick in May on building and design blow-outs in addition to staff wages. Like chef Tony Bilson, who wound up two companies in 2011, Kemp continues to reinvent himself and is now the head chef at Gazebo Wine Bar.
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