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Before Alex ‘Son of Malcolm’ Turnbull left the monied halls of Goldman Sachs this month - as his dad did many moons ago - to start his own hedge fund in Singapore, he was best known for outing the man behind the investment banking-themed Twitter feed, GS Elevator Gossip.
CBD imagines a lot of work went in to uncovering the man behind such tweets as:
#1: Insider trading is like pissing in the pool. It sounds dirty, but really isn't that big a deal.
Let’s just say that Turnbull Jr and GS Elevator Gossip guy, John Lefevre, probably don’t exchange Christmas cards.
While Lefevre admits that much of his tweeting fodder is not actually sourced from the actual elevators of Goldman Sachs, but some of it presumably is.
Which takes us to February 2012 when the following was tweeted from GS Elevator Gossip.
Person one: ''His dad is Malcolm Turnbull.''
Person two: ''How else would he get a job here?''
Person three: ''He doesn't shut up about Harvard.''
Person one: (laughs) ''Or 'models'.''
Later tweets referred to Turnbull Jr attempting to sue Lefevre over the original tweet.
In an email exchange with BRW in June last year - one month before Turnbull uncovered his true identity - Lefevre said of Turnbull: "Frankly, I don't understand how he would go about that in terms of the mechanics of suing an anonymous character. As you know, he has sent me several emails asking for a contact so that he can serve me.
"The absurdity of that is almost laughable . . . And as I don't think his case would have any merit, I am not worried about it."
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And you thought there was no love lost between the unions and Qantas.
"Beware of Chaos – Don’t be Fooled", says the headline of a recent release from the Flight Attendants’ Association of Australia (FAAA).
‘‘The FAAA under your current team and leadership has been the most successful union in the Qantas Group in protecting members’ conditions,’’ says the missive from the Michael Mijatov-lead FAAA.
It appears that Mijatov has been forced to defend himself against friendly fire from Steve Purvinas - the federal secretary of the Australian Licensed Aircraft Engineers' Association (ALAEA).
His release included the following excerpt: “You could put in your plebiscite that FAAA fees will reduce by 99 per cent until MM [Mike Mijatov] leaves the building”. That was from Purvinas on the “Friendly Flyer” Facebook group, recommending a proposal that would bankrupt the FAAA.
The FAAA’s reply was: ‘‘We now have a sad and rather pathetic spectacle of another union leader, namely Steve Purvinas, giving advice and recommendations [outlined above] to internal union critics such as Grant Drinkwater and Teri O’Toole, which would jeopardise QAL/QCCA cabin crew and the FAAA.’’
‘‘Whilst members of his union are being made compulsorily redundant, Steve Purvinas spends his time on the “Friendly Flyer” Facebook group interfering in FAAA matters and dispensing his disastrous and failed ideas to a minority group of FAAA dissidents.
"These dissidents are prepared to engage in destructive behaviour because the FAAA will not embrace the same failed tactics and policies of their mentor Steve Purvinas, which have led to large-scale compulsory redundancies.’’
And that tinkling sound in the background would be Qantas boss Alan Joyce mixing his martini and finding the nearest comfy chair.
Former ANZ banker on bankruptcy register
CBD hadn’t heard from former senior ANZ banker Peter Holland since the investigation into the collapse of stock lender Opes Prime, and it seems he has suffered a comparable financial collapse.
Peter Jesse Holland, ‘‘management consultant’’, has made his way onto the bankruptcy register as of June 4 this year.
‘‘This individual has signed an authority pursuant section 188 for the Trustee to take control of their property and put a proposal to creditors for approval under Part X,’’ says an extract from the National Personal Insolvency Index.
A report from the other side of the Tasman says Holland owes around $1 million to the consultancy business he established, Holland Corporate, following a recent legal battle.
The firm sued him for breach of his director’s duties after he allegedly traded without the knowledge of his co-directors and received $440,798 that should have gone to the company.
Word is Holland moved back across the ditch to Melbourne and started trading under his own banner which did not go down well with his former business partners.
A costly divorce, and the legal battle with Holland Corporate, left him offering creditors a modest settlement which has been rejected.
If a personal insolvency agreement can't be reached with creditors, bankruptcy is the only option left for Holland.
Odey gets foxy with Murdoch's deal
You can’t choose family, or who your beloved children choose to marry.
Rupert Murdoch’s former son-in-law, Odey Asset Management’s founding partner Crispin Odey, has given the media mogul a black eye over a multi billion dollar deal that will see Murdoch's BSkyB mop up the European pay TV operations of Murdoch's 21st Century Fox.
Odey, the second largest investor in Sky Deutschland behind Fox says the bid “significantly understates the value of the company,” and it “does not intend to tender its shares in this proposed offer”.
Aside from briefly being married to Rupe’s eldest daughter, Prudence, Odey’s other claims to fame include having a sausage named after him, shorting Manchester United shares just before Christmas, and causing tabloid outrage with some fowl extravagance.
Odey, who earned £28 million ($50.6 million) in 2008 after successfully betting that shares in British banks would tank, has nearly finished himself a Grecian temple style chicken coop with a sweeping three-sided stairway, two dozen columns and radiating rooftop design flourishes.
In what might be a concession that it was a little over-the-top as a chicken shed, Odey recently told the New York Times, his poultry palace has now “morphed into a library”.
Got a tip? ckruger@fairfaxmedia.com.au
