The Offset Alpine fire was a 1993 fire that destroyed a

Sydney Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Sydney Harbour and extends about towards the Blue Mountain ...

printing plant owned by the company Offset Alpine Printing Ltd. Investigations of the incident by the police and by the

Australian Securities & Investments Commission The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) is an independent commission of the Australian Government tasked as the national corporate regulator. ASIC's role is to regulate company and financial services and enforce laws to pro ...

spanned over ten years, amid suspicions that the printing plant was burnt down as part of an

insurance fraud Insurance fraud is any act committed to defraud an insurance process. It occurs when a claimant attempts to obtain some benefit or advantage they are not entitled to, or when an insurer knowingly denies some benefit that is due. According to the ...

. It also gained attention because of the high profile of individuals involved.

Background

In 1992 Stroika, an

Australian Securities Exchange Australian Securities Exchange Ltd or ASX, is an Australian public company that operates Australia's primary securities exchange, the Australian Securities Exchange (sometimes referred to outside of Australia as, or confused within Australia as ...

listed company called Stroika controlled by

Rene Rivkin Rene Walter Rivkin (6 June 1944 – 1 May 2005) was a Chinese-born Australian entrepreneur, investor, investment adviser, and stockbroker. He was convicted of insider trading in 2003 and sentenced to nine months of periodic detention. Early li ...

, bought the Offset Alpine printing firm from

Kerry Packer Kerry Francis Bullmore Packer (17 December 1937 – 26 December 2005) was an Australian media tycoon, and was considered one of Australia's most powerful media proprietors of the twentieth century. The Packer family company owned a controlling ...

for $15.3 million. On Christmas Eve, 1993, the firm's sole asset, the printing plant, was destroyed by fire. It had been insured at replacement value ($53.2 million), more than three times its purchase price, and the share price skyrocketed. The fire was blamed on a staff barbecue, but suspicions of arson have persisted. Known investors included: *

, a Sydney stockbroker and entrepreneur *

Graham Richardson Graham Frederick Richardson (born 27 September 1949) is an Australian former Australian Labor Party, Labor Party politician who was a Australian Senate, Senator for New South Wales from 1983 to 1994 and served as a Cabinet Minister in both the ...

, a former

Labor Labour or labor may refer to: * Childbirth, the delivery of a baby * Labour (human activity), or work ** Manual labour, physical work ** Wage labour, a socioeconomic relationship between a worker and an employer ** Organized labour and the labour ...

Senator and associate of Kerry Packer *

Eddie Obeid Edward Moses Obeid (born 25 October 1943) is a retired Australian politician, and convicted criminal, who served as a member of the New South Wales Legislative Council between 1991 and 2011, representing the Labor Party. He was the Minister f ...

, a Labor politician *

Trevor Kennedy Trevor Kennedy (born Trevor John Kennedy; born in Perth, Western Australia, on 24 June 1942; died November 2021) was an Australian businessman and company director. He served on the board of directors of many Australian companies, including Conso ...

, a businessman and former Packer executive *

Rodney Adler Rodney Stephen Adler (born 19 August 1959) is an Australian whose family founded the FAI Insurances group, of which he became chief executive in 1989, and which was at one stage Australia's third largest general insurer. Adler became a director of ...

, an entrepreneur *

Sean Howard Sean Martin Howard is an Australian entrepreneur, founder of OzEmail, at one time Australia's largest Internet company. In the 1980s Howard founded '' Australian Personal Computer'', Australia's top-selling computer magazine. He also developed ...

, a businessman and one of the founders of internet company

OzEmail OzEmail was a major Internet service provider (ISP) in Australia, until it was acquired by iiNet on 28 February 2005. History In the early 1980s, Sean Howard was the editor of the '' Australian Personal Computer'' magazine and subsequently fou ...

Bill Hayden William George Hayden (born 23 January 1933) is an Australian politician who served as the 21st governor-general of Australia from 1989 to 1996. He was Leader of the Labor Party and Leader of the Opposition from 1977 to 1983, and served as ...

, a former Labor leader and

Governor-General of Australia The governor-general of Australia is the representative of the monarch, currently King Charles III, in Australia.Ray Martin, a television personality who appeared on the Packers'

Nine Network The Nine Network (stylised 9Network, commonly known as Channel Nine or simply Nine) is an Australian commercial free-to-air television network. It is owned by parent company Nine Entertainment and is one of five main free-to-air television netw ...

The

(ASIC) commenced an investigation into the ownership of a 38% stake in the company via secret

Swiss bank accounts Banking in Switzerland dates to the early eighteenth century through Switzerland's merchant trade and has, over the centuries, grown into a complex, regulated, and international industry. Banking is seen as emblematic of Switzerland, along wit ...

. Rivkin denied any knowledge of the ownership of the stake at the time, but in 2003 ASIC discovered that he himself, in partnership with Richardson and Kennedy, had been using Swiss bank accounts to trade in Offset Alpine and other companies. Rivkin committed suicide in 2005, before the investigation was completed, after being jailed on an unrelated

insider trading Insider trading is the trading of a public company's stock or other securities (such as bonds or stock options) based on material, nonpublic information about the company. In various countries, some kinds of trading based on insider information ...

matter. In January 2006 after a two-year legal battle, ASIC gained access to the relevant Swiss banking records. In September 2006 it was revealed that Richardson had almost $1.5 million in Swiss accounts which he had failed to declare to the

Australian Taxation Office The Australian Taxation Office (ATO) is an Australian statutory agency and the principal revenue collection body for the Australian Government. The ATO has responsibility for administering the Australian federal taxation system, superannuati ...

. In 2010 ASIC discontinued its investigation.

Background

References

Further reading