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Ray Williams is no Bondy, Steve, Dick or Jack
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The Sydney Morning Herald and The Daily Telegraph have today gone to town on former HIH Insurance CEO Ray Williams, creating a feeding frenzy of talkback anger that will no doubt lead to attacks on the family home in Seaforth, pictures of which have been plastered all over the papers. This Janet Fife-Yeomans comment piece in The Tele was particularly spiteful. The calls have been coming in from radio stations this morning requesting more outraged comment, but I’ve been trying hard to put things in perspective. Ray Williams was the founder of HIH Insurance who built up a personal fortune worth about $50 million when the company was booming – as it did for many years. When it all went pear-shaped, there are a few things to remember:
Like Bondy, Ray Williams has gone bankrupt, but the residual creditors are thought to be chasing $3-$5 million, not the $1 billion that our most notorious corporate crook PERSONALLY owed. Sure, there is an issue about a couple of arguably preferential payments to his wife, Rita. One involved about $750,000 in superannuation, but super assets are usually protected in collapses. Williams is bankrupt, banned for 10 years and did 1000 days in jail. The $8 million Mosman mansion is gone, as is the 26 ha estate at Gwandalan on Lake Macquarie. There is a nice looking house in Seaforth which The SMH today valued at $4 million, yet The Australian’s business editor Andrew Main, who wrote the book on HIH, told ABC radio this morning Rita Williams bought it for $1.3 million in 2003. The Ferrari that “John the neighbour” has been widely quoted on is a fiction and when you start dragging the property of Ray’s children into the equation you need to remember facts such as his daughter marrying into the Bing Lee retailing empire. You also need to remember that on 22 September, 2000 – just five months before the liquidator was called in - Ray Williams informed the ASX that he’d bought an additional 250,000 ordinary shares and 19,200 convertible notes. He didn’t sell any of his 12.22 million shares before HIH went into liquidation on 15 March, 2001, even though he was forced out as CEO with a $5 million payout, he never pocketed it, instead just joining the long line of creditors. Contrast that with Rodney Adler who sold all his HIH shares before quitting the board with this statement on 26 February, 2001. No wonder Adler felt obliged to shell out $7 million to cover a compensation order for Williams that the two of them copped. Ray just doesn’t have the cash. HIH falling over caused more pain than any other Australian corporate collapse, but these things need to be kept in perspective. Today, we’ve seen too many cheap headlines and not enough facts. Today’s Mayne Report video takes The AFR’s front page specie stock picking onto the new Sky Business Channel. |
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9 Comments
Well, I am not as bad as the others - so I am a saint. Strange argument.
Ray Williams was just an excellent white collar criminal who enjoyed life and paid a small price for his indiscretions. It was not an insurmountable price and now that he and his wife have surmounted it, Ray’s ready to enjoy life again.
While I don’t think Williams is as innocent or just unfortunate as is made out in this article and ‘the frenzy’ can be unjust as well as unhelpful Stephen does legitimately remind us of the very significant difference to Bondy, Dick, Steve or Jack and Ron
What exactly is the difference with bond et al? As for not selling shares, are you certain that Ray, like so many, did not trade shares through a company set up to avoid awkward questions about the boss’ trading, aka Vizard?
I find that relevant information was left out from your article. Findings at the Royal Commissions were contrary to yours. Mr Williams manipulated the reserves of the company to hide it’s annual losses. He had huge expense account, his salary was astronomical. The losses that HIH sustained in the UK and USA caused the Australian shareholders to lose billions of dollars
You say in your article that Mr Williams bough more shares on 22nd September 2000 – You will find that Mr Williams and several executives, were awarded large bonuses through their superannuation account to purchase these shares. These shares were purchased specifically to support the weak stock and given the impression that the directors were buying
the ten years means he’s finished he will never work again. Fitting punishment properly served. adler that’s another matter.
At a tangent - HIH insurer goes bust, huge inconvenience. Imagine global reinsurers deciding not to underwrite domestic insurance in Australia for weak or no (pre Nov 07) Kyoto ratification? Our SME economy dead in its tracks. That’s the future equation.
Ray has served his sentence. But many of the victims of his crime are still serving their time in virtual financial prison. Like the lady whose panelbeating shop was owed $250k by HIH, who went bust and lost her house. No wonder they are still bitter.
Wow, Stephen Mayne whingeing about inaccuracy in news reporting…that’s a turnup for the books!