Insurance The Australia Way
Sep 3rd 2002, 2:50 pm
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Insurance The Australia Way
You take an Australian out of Australia but not the convict out of an Australian?
Finance boss 'saw HIH fall coming'
By David Brearley
September 04, 2002
THE man whose hand was on the tap when "rivers of money" flowed from HIH to Brad Cooper was predicting the insurer's imminent demise even while approving those payments, according to evidence before the HIH royal commission yesterday.
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Australia's second-biggest insurer called in provisional liquidators KPMG on March 15, 2001. In the week before that, HIH managing director Terry Cassidy told the commission yesterday, the company's financial services director, Bill Howard, had been spreading rumours that liquidators were hovering.
"There were certainly rumours around the office, whether it was going to be placed into provisional liquidation or not," Mr Cassidy said, adding the rumours came "mainly" from Mr Howard.
Mr Cassidy, who joined Ray Williams's insurance business in 1972, said Mr Howard had approached him on the evening of March 14, 2001, to say directors wanted to see him.
At that meeting, which Mr Howard did not attend, Mr Cassidy was "shocked" to learn the liquidation rumours were true. The commission has already heard that Mr Howard pushed through more than $2 million in payments that very day to Mr Cooper, the door-to-door burglar alarm salesman who came to HIH in 1999 as part of the disastrous $300 million FAI takeover.
The payments included the lion's share of a $1.96 million intermediary's fee for bringing together HIH and the Packer family for a property deal that went nowhere, and $148,000 to compensate Mr Cooper for exchange rate differences on an earlier share transaction.
Also on March 14, Mr Howard finalised negotiations for his own $130,000 termination fee and the write-off of his company home loan. For "no particular reason", he took the paperwork to the pay office himself.
The day before that, March 13, Mr Cooper wrote to thank Mr Howard for intervening to help achieve a $65,000 payout for log books and other items stolen from his Ferrari.
At this time, Mr Howard was driving a $118,000 BMW convertible that Mr Cooper had helped procure, but for which nobody had paid.
In his evidence to the commission in July, Mr Howard conceded he approved these payments but denied any advance knowledge of HIH's provisional liquidation, which was announced on March 15.
KPMG liquidators later estimated the company's debts at $5.3 billion.
The hearing continues.
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Finance boss 'saw HIH fall coming'
By David Brearley
September 04, 2002
THE man whose hand was on the tap when "rivers of money" flowed from HIH to Brad Cooper was predicting the insurer's imminent demise even while approving those payments, according to evidence before the HIH royal commission yesterday.
Advertisement
Australia's second-biggest insurer called in provisional liquidators KPMG on March 15, 2001. In the week before that, HIH managing director Terry Cassidy told the commission yesterday, the company's financial services director, Bill Howard, had been spreading rumours that liquidators were hovering.
"There were certainly rumours around the office, whether it was going to be placed into provisional liquidation or not," Mr Cassidy said, adding the rumours came "mainly" from Mr Howard.
Mr Cassidy, who joined Ray Williams's insurance business in 1972, said Mr Howard had approached him on the evening of March 14, 2001, to say directors wanted to see him.
At that meeting, which Mr Howard did not attend, Mr Cassidy was "shocked" to learn the liquidation rumours were true. The commission has already heard that Mr Howard pushed through more than $2 million in payments that very day to Mr Cooper, the door-to-door burglar alarm salesman who came to HIH in 1999 as part of the disastrous $300 million FAI takeover.
The payments included the lion's share of a $1.96 million intermediary's fee for bringing together HIH and the Packer family for a property deal that went nowhere, and $148,000 to compensate Mr Cooper for exchange rate differences on an earlier share transaction.
Also on March 14, Mr Howard finalised negotiations for his own $130,000 termination fee and the write-off of his company home loan. For "no particular reason", he took the paperwork to the pay office himself.
The day before that, March 13, Mr Cooper wrote to thank Mr Howard for intervening to help achieve a $65,000 payout for log books and other items stolen from his Ferrari.
At this time, Mr Howard was driving a $118,000 BMW convertible that Mr Cooper had helped procure, but for which nobody had paid.
In his evidence to the commission in July, Mr Howard conceded he approved these payments but denied any advance knowledge of HIH's provisional liquidation, which was announced on March 15.
KPMG liquidators later estimated the company's debts at $5.3 billion.
The hearing continues.
back PRINT-FRIENDLY VERSION
