Pod Insights ABC Rewind 03 | Skase | Flying too close to the sun About this episode It’s April 1989 and Christopher Skase is reclining on his private jet, sipping a flute of champagne as he flies home from Hollywood. He's just made a $1.2 billion bid for the MGMUA/United Artists film studio. There’s one small problem though - he doesn’t have the money.
Transcript 0:01 Speaker 00 The name's Skase, Christopher Skase. It's April 1989 and the future of the James Bond film franchise could soon be in the hands of a 40-year-old businessman from Melbourne, Australia. Skase has just bid $1.2 billion for the film studio MGM United Artists. Not since George Lazenby played 007 20 years earlier in On Her Majesty's Secret Service has an Australian been this close to making his mark on the iconic secret agent.
0:34 Speaker 00 As Skase flies home from Hollywood on his private jet, he's feeling pretty chuffed with himself. There's one small problem, though: Skase doesn't have $1.2 billion. When Quintex management finds out what Skase has done, they all start quaking in their Italian leather boots, including Assistant Treasurer Craig Pratt.
0:55 Speaker 01 That was a shock to a lot of us in corporate office because it was a huge sum, beyond anything we've done before. How the hell were we going to digest a billion-dollar acquisition was the next challenge.
1:09 Speaker 00 So how the hell is Skase going to pay for this deal? I'm Mark Humphries and from ABC Rewind, this is Skase: Fall of a Tycoon.
1:21 Speaker 00 Last time, Skase gave Queensland a facelift, transforming the Gold Coast and Port Douglas into luxury tourist destinations.
1:30 Speaker 02 Pixie decided that she wanted it lined with palm trees. So Christopher offered $1 million to bring two plantations of oil palms down to Port Douglas and plant them.
1:40 Speaker 00 As quickly as Skase's wealth grows, so does his debt. The whole empire was built on debt, built on debt. This is episode 3, Flying Too Close to the Sun.
2:00 Speaker 00 When Skase makes his billion-dollar Hollywood bid, Quintex is up to its eyeballs in debt. Apparently, it's one and a half billion in the red. But Craig Pratt is pushing ahead, trying to get the deal over the line.
2:14 Speaker 01 And we expected we were going to get there until we got zumped at the last minute by Rupert Murdoch.
2:21 Speaker 00 Rupert Murdoch, the chairman and CEO of News Corporation, has swept in and made a stunning counterbid to MGM's owner, Kirk Cucorian.
2:31 Speaker 03 Murdoch offered 400 million more. Kirk completely pulled the rug from underneath Skase.
2:37 Speaker 00 Skase immediately jumps back on his private jet and flies to Los Angeles to meet with Cucorian, desperate to save the deal.
2:45 Speaker 03 And he did. He outbid the legendary Rupert Murdoch.
2:51 Speaker 00 And not just by a little. Skase goes way over Murdoch. That 1.2 billion-dollar bid, it's now nearly 2 billion, or more than 5 billion in today's money. And Cucorian? Needless to say, he accepts. Now, the bid might feel like a win for Skase, but if Quintex were struggling to find 1.2 billion dollars, how on earth is it going to stump up nearly 800 million more?
3:18 Speaker 04 Skase has yet to reveal how he'll pay for it without being overwhelmed by debt.
3:23 Speaker 00 If Christopher does have a plan, it fails to materialise quickly enough because within weeks, the market loses faith in Quintex.
3:31 Speaker 04 The value of Quintex has been slashed in half since Skase announced his plan to buy MGM. The market performance of Quintex Australia is bleak. Two years ago, it traded around $4. Today, a record low of 66 cents.
3:45 Speaker 00 And the deadline for Quintex to make its 50 million-dollar deposit to MGM comes and goes.
3:51 Speaker 03 The first payment of 50 million dollars, you can pay for it.
3:54 Speaker 04 MGM terminated the deal because Skase failed to pay a non-refundable deposit due last month.
4:00 Speaker 00 Did Skase really believe he could pull this off? What was he thinking? Well, none of that matters now because his company, his empire, is on the brink of collapse. Skase bounces from one meeting to the next, desperate to stop Quintex from completely falling over.
4:21 Speaker 00 In late October 1989, Ted Harris, a newly appointed independent board member and former AMPOL executive, calls an emergency board meeting. He wants to know what the bloody hell is going on with Quintex. Historian Quentin Beresford.
4:38 Speaker 03 Ted Harris was a business person of integrity and knowledge.
4:45 Speaker 00 The board meets, high up in the Intercontinental Hotel in Sydney's central business district, and it's tense. Skase is panicking. He sees his life's work crumbling before his eyes, so he makes a bold move to try and save his own hide. He asks the board to sign off on some payments that have already been made, $42 million worth. But Ted Harris has questions, because these payments were made to a private company under the Quintex umbrella without the board's prior approval. They've been ambiguously labelled 'management fees'. Basically, Skase is charging his own company for his own management services.
5:29 Speaker 00 He's used to the board signing off on his requests without batting an eyelid, but Ted Harris, well, he nearly falls off his chair. This isn't the way he's used to doing things.
5:39 Speaker 03 Harris clearly saw that this was not in shareholders' interests that these payments were being made, and Harris refused to sign off on the payments.
5:50 Speaker 00 Skase says he won't pay back the fees, so Harris and another board member storm out and resign. Harris is so incensed by Skase's unorthodox payment of $42 million, essentially to himself, that he blows the whistle and reports Quintex to the corporate regulator.
6:09 Speaker 03 And because Harris was a man of business integrity, contacted the National Companies Securities Commission that effectively started to look at the collapsing business model that was Quintex.
6:23 Speaker 00 The National Companies and Securities Commission, the NCSC, agrees with Harris. Something isn't right. So they launch an inquiry into Quintex. They're coming for Skase.
6:39 Speaker 00 Weeks later, Quintex is crumbling. It owes hundreds of millions of dollars and with no lifeline in sight, the curtain falls. A receiver is appointed who takes control and starts selling off all of Quintex's assets. The Mirage Resorts, the Brisbane Bears, Channel 7. All of it will be sold off to the highest bidder. The empire Skyes has built from the ground up lies in pieces before him. He's devastated.
7:10 Speaker 05 I had worked 100 hours plus per week for 15 years. I had made all the sorts of sacrifices that other successful people had made. I felt like someone had come in with a butcher's knife and cut my guts out.
7:26 Speaker 00 Everyone at Quintex, including Craig Pratt, is shattered.
7:31 Speaker 01 It was just a feeling of disbelief that after four years, it was no longer to be. It was sad, it was a lot of effort. I haven't worked with an executive team that was as hardworking, as intellectual and as committed as those executives in that group. And the effort they put in and for us to get where we got to, just the reality of, okay, it's finally happened, that was pretty depressing.
8:01 Speaker 00 On Quintex's final night, a small group gathers in the lunchroom for last drinks. Craig Pratt asks Skyes.
8:08 Speaker 01 So what now? And he said to me, I'm gonna start over again. And I said to him, well, I want to be a part of that. I want to be a part of that. I just thought, wow, what an inspiration.
8:21 Speaker 00 That's one way to look at him. But for some, it's true. Because despite everything and despite what comes next, Christopher Skyes has made his mark. He saw the future of luxury resorts. He transformed Channel 7. He was a visionary. It just seems his visions didn't involve doing things by the book.
8:41 Speaker 01 There were processes that probably weren't done properly. We had companies associated but not associated to the group and things were going through there and I personally question whether that's right or not. So there was... You know, illegal things that they could get prosecuted for. But that wouldn't be normally something that you go and spend years in jail for. You know, you might pay a fine and get, you know, six months behind bars. But at what stage does grey become black than not grey?
9:15 Speaker 00 Just how grey Quintex's practices are will soon come to light as the corporate regulator lifts the bonnet on the company. But, and here's one of the most galling parts of this story, Skyes has seen this coming. He must have known the collapse might come because before the Quintex ship even starts sinking, he's put life jackets in place. Months earlier, Christopher opens a number of bank accounts, including one in London, and he puts Pixie's dad in charge. That way, he can move the money and Skyes's name won't appear anywhere. The money slips out of Australia undetected.
9:56 Speaker 00 Skyes wants to make sure his pockets are full if Quintex goes under and they have to make a run for it. And oh boy, they'll be full all right as Skyes's father-in-law moves 1.7 million dollars out of the country. Back home, Skyes is forced to sell Bromley, the Brisbane mansion that hosted some of Australia's most extravagant parties. And while the rest of us fear one day losing our marbles, Skyes fears losing his marble. Statues, staircases, he's going to lose it all. But Skyes really doesn't want to part with the expensive antiques and luxury goods he's acquired over the years. Remember that shipping container full of valuables he had packed up in Sydney
10:39 Speaker 00 around the time the Raquel Welsh movie was being filmed? Well, in December, Skyes starts packing up everything else. He orders his bodyguard, Bill Jones, to clear out his penthouse at the Port Douglas Mirage. Just before midnight, Jones sneaks in a team of removalists to load up Skyes's valuables. They can't do it in broad daylight, the resort guards might get suspicious. Here's Jones talking to the ABC in 1998.
11:11 Speaker 03 As they change shift at 11 o'clock, as they went back into their little hardy hole, they don't come out again until about half past 3, 4 o'clock in the morning. They gave me adequate time to get the vehicles in, load up, slam the door and bug out. And then those shipping containers literally go Rolls Royces, antique furniture, jewellery, Pixie's clothes, package up and get sent to London to an undisclosed location.
11:44 Speaker 00 Skase smuggles nearly a million dollars' worth of antiques out of the country.
11:52 Speaker 00 With their valuables all safely packed away, the Skase enjoy a decadent final Christmas at their Bromley mansion. The whole family gathers. Pixie's daughter Alex flies over from London and brings her new boyfriend, Laurence Vanderplatt, who's now firmly ensconced in the Skase inner circle. It's a proper Christmas bash, opening presents around the tree, a boozy Christmas lunch and a spot of tennis. The burning turd pile that is Quintex fades to the background. Out of sight, out of mind, right? Then, the Skase enjoy a night aboard the luxury yacht Mirage 3. Yes, another Mirage, but considering the state of the business, a more fitting name might have been Titanic.
12:35 Speaker 00 After another feast coupled with champagne, the Skase make their final walk down the plank. Before disembarking the yacht, Pixie apparently swipes a number of trinkets, crockery and ashtrays into her Louis Vuitton bag. But as the Skase cruise into the new year, the investigation by the corporate regulator revs up a gear and Christopher isn't keen on sticking around to see it reach full speed. So, what does he do? He jets off to London with his wife Pixie and the ashtrays.
13:13 Speaker 00 The Skase might have left behind an empire in flames and a heap of bills unpaid, but they're certainly keeping up appearances, hiring a private driver and booking a suite in a Palladian mansion. I didn't know what a Palladian mansion was either, but now that I've looked it up, I can tell you, it's pretty schmick. But in March 1990, their life in London is suddenly interrupted. Skase is ordered back to Australia to appear before an inquiry into Lloyds Ships, one of the Quintex companies that went under. And the investigation by the corporate regulator, the National Companies and Securities Commission, is also picking up steam. It's got its own questions for Skase.
13:54 Speaker 06 I went over and asked him some questions about his role.
13:59 Speaker 00 Rosalyn Atkinson is the counsel assisting the NCSE, and she questions Skase for the first time.
14:05 Speaker 06 To examine who he was, what his attitude was, what his likely culpability was for what had happened in Quintex. He was very evasive in his answering of the questions, very arrogant, and it became apparent that Lloyds was just a very small part of very complicated things going on in the Quintex empire.
14:32 Speaker 00 As soon as that fun chat is over, Skase jumps straight on a plane back to London. Rosalyn and the NCSE keep investigating Quintex, calling former employees, directors and company officials to give evidence. And boy, are they finding where the bodies are buried.
14:49 Speaker 06 It became obvious that the share price of Quintex had been manipulated, presumably by Skase. So just before the close of business, either Skase or one of his friendly companies or someone who owed him money would buy up Quintex shares so that the price would spike up and the report would be that the share price was very healthy.
15:14 Speaker 00 This is a huge no-no, because it misleads investors, makes them think their shares are more valuable than they actually are.
15:22 Speaker 06 As a result, ordinary people, parents of people I knew, bought shares, relying on this information from Skase, who seemed to have great business and political connections, relying on the truth of what he was saying. Members of the public were buying into this company that was going to be worth nothing at all and their shares were going to be worthless.
15:47 Speaker 00 Now, remember that questionable $42 million in management fees the Payment Board member Ted Harris refused to sign off on? Well, that's the thing that's really gonna bite Skase in the arse.
15:59 Speaker 06 The management fees were central to the inquiry because they were the personal enrichment of Christopher Skase at the expense of all the members of the public who'd invested in Quintex in good faith.
16:16 Speaker 00 But don't worry, these management fees are being put to good use.
16:20 Speaker 06 Skase used the company as his personal bank account, just took money out for all sorts of personal expenses without ever getting the approval of the Board of Directors, almost like it was his petty cash. He spent it on everything and anything. Both he and Pixie used it for gifts for grandchildren, flowers. When I say flowers, I mean tens and tens of thousands of dollars worth of flowers on one occasion for one party. So they spent lavishly on their personal lifestyle using Quintex money.
17:03 Speaker 00 It's now September 1990 and the fallout of the Quintex collapse is gathering momentum. Skase is forced back to Australia after two warrants are issued for his arrest. Then the NCSC calls him back in too. Oh, and Skase knows he's about to be hit with a swarm of lawsuits. So, to avoid being served, he arrives at court surrounded by his new right-hand man, his stepdaughter's boyfriend, Lawrence Vander Plaats, and four bodyguards. Here's Rosalind Atkinson again.
17:34 Speaker 06 The four bodyguards were huge and menacing, and I'm a very small woman. They stood at the entrance to the courtroom where they said to me, "Who are you?" And I said, "Well, I'm councillor's sister." Who are you? And they said, we're Mr. Skase's bodyguards. And I said, not in here, you're not. And sailed through them and went in and they obediently waited outside.
17:58 Speaker 00 Note to self, don't [__] with Rosalyn. Going in for her second round, she grills Skase for a fortnight in forensic detail.
18:07 Speaker 06 We just went through everything. The history, the takeovers, the loans, the payments that have been made to him. So just relentlessly asked questions about each one to get him on the record about it. He was very arrogant, very narcissistic, very antagonistic. It was humiliating for him. He thought he had fooled everyone. He found it, I thought, particularly humiliating to be examined by a woman. There were no women in the executives in Quintex or indeed on the board of directors. So gave me some added pleasure to see his discomfort, a bit examined by a woman.
18:52 Speaker 06 And as each day went on, he deteriorated. He was muttering under his breath, trying to ignore questions by singing under his breath. He'd be very agitated, but you know, I was, just kept going.
19:08 Speaker 00 Skase is shaken by how much the NCSC has managed to uncover. And once again, as soon as questioning is done, he high tails it out of the country.
19:17 Speaker 06 Once he realised what we knew, I formed the view that he would never come back to Australia. The fear of being convicted and imprisoned was too great for him to come back.
19:34 Speaker 00 Rosalyn is right, Skase goes dark. Over the next six months, no one will be able to work out exactly where Skase is. There are rumours he's ditched London and is spending most of his time in Spain. This is somewhat backed up by his lawyers, who say Skase is in and out of Spanish hospitals with a bad back. Other sources suggest Skase is up and about, shacked up somewhere on the Spanish island of Mallorca, a magnet for wealthy expats.
20:04 Speaker 00 The Australian media is in a frenzy, racing to land a scoop on where Skyes is hiding.
20:10 Speaker 07 I received a call from a colleague in Sydney and he'd picked up that Skyes, who had fled Australia, he's hearing that he's in Mallorca in Spain and would I like to go there. And I said, why not?
20:27 Speaker 00 Eric Ellis is the Sydney Morning Herald's correspondent based in London.
20:31 Speaker 07 So I bought a cheap bucket shop airfare, can't remember what it was, £50 perhaps, had a photocopy of his image. And I hired a car, a small little car in Palma, in the main city in Mallorca. I had a little bit of Spanish, so I went to various yacht clubs with my photo and just went into bars and said, have you seen this guy? No one had seen him. I had one or two links, oh, it looks familiar, not sure.
20:57 Speaker 00 Eric's worried the tip-off might be wrong. He thinks, if I were Christopher Skyes, where would I hide? On a hunch, he travels to a small but wealthy fishing village on the southwestern tip of the island called...
21:10 Speaker 07 Puerto de Andrats.
21:12 Speaker 00 Thanks for that, Eric. Not sure I would have nailed that.
21:15 Speaker 07 It was a pretty miserable day, I remember. I struggled at this little bar adjacent to this marina, this yacht club. It was very dark and dingy. No one else was in the bar except a woman in the back. It turned out she was Hong Kong Chinese. I'd previously been a correspondent in Hong Kong and I had a little bit of Cantonese. I went up somewhat despairing. I said to her in Cantonese, you know, how are you? And she responded quite delighted. She said, I think that guy is my neighbour. Does he have a wife who has very big blonde hair? And I said, that sounds familiar. And she said, does she have a funny name? And I said, Pixie. I said, yes, that's it. They're my neighbours. I said, oh, great. Jackpot.
22:00 Speaker 00 The woman invites Eric over the following morning at eight to see Skyes for himself.
22:05 Speaker 07 And she says, "Every morning at eight o'clock, he gets on the balcony and he comes out and he stretches his arms and yawns and scratches his tummy." And she sort of did this action. I said, "Oh, okay, great." And eight o'clock rolled around and sure enough, on clockwork, there he was, maybe 50 metres away from where I was standing with a perfect view. And it was definitely him. Of course, I recognised him. So, yeah, hit the jackpot.
22:28 Speaker 00 Eric's just landed the scoop on one of the biggest Australian stories of the decade. He's found exactly where Christopher Skyes is hiding.
22:39 Speaker 00 Eric races to call his editor, who tells him to stay on Mayorka and dig deeper into what Skyes is up to. "Nice work if you can get it." Eric teams up with a local journalist and they confirm Skyes has been on Mayorka for almost a year. Turns out, Christopher and Pixie are holed up in a place called Lenoria. Now, if you were worried about Christopher's possible back problems, you'll be relieved to know he's able to lie down in one of Lenoria's eight bedrooms. It also has a tennis court and a swimming pool.
23:10 Speaker 07 I think it was valued at about $2 million, whatever US dollar equivalent at the time, which is a lot of money 40 years ago. So, yeah, it was a nice house. He certainly wasn't doing a duff.
23:20 Speaker 00 Coincidentally, in May 1991, when Eric's exposé on Skyes's Mayorkan hideaway hits the papers, Skyes is back in Australia, but not by choice. As if things aren't bad enough for Skyes, he's been charged with assaulting a photographer on the Mirage tennis courts, what tennis fans might call an unforced error. He's already failed to appear once, claiming his bad back prevents him from travelling. Now, he has to show up, or he could be in big trouble. But there's a surprise in store for Skyes.
23:53 Speaker 04 Today's personal appearance by Christopher Skyes before an Australian court was a rare moment, one the Australian Securities Commission did not pass up.
24:01 Speaker 00 The corporate regulator, the NCSC, it's just been renamed the ASC, the Australian Securities Commission. It's the sexiest rebrand since Chris became Christopher. And it makes a dramatic move. It's early afternoon in the Gold Coast Criminal Court. The assault hearing is adjourned and Skyes is waiting to make a discreet exit out a side door to avoid the media pack. Suddenly, the door flings wide open and the Australian Federal Police burst in. Here's how Skyes remembers that moment a few years later when he speaks to John Moores.
24:37 Speaker 05 He literally leapt out from behind the bushes and said, "Here's a whole lot of charges and we want your passport." And one of them was heard to mutter, "And you'll never get out of here again."
24:49 Speaker 00 Skyes is handcuffed and an AFP officer reads out the charges that could land him in jail for up to five years.
24:57 Speaker 04 He was charged with misusing his position as a director of Quintex Australia Limited to gain $19.3 million. The Australian Securities Commission says the money was paid into several companies, of which Mr. Skyes was a director, including his personal company, Carmia.
25:12 Speaker 00 That pesky $42 million in management fees has finally caught up with him. Here's historian Quentin Beresford.
25:21 Speaker 03 And then he's let away. And he's got his personal assistant, Laurence Vander Plaats, with him. And Skyes turns over his shoulder to Vander Plaats and says, "Get me out of here." He was just pale-faced and shaking, almost crying.
25:37 Speaker 00 Wearing a tailored three-piece suit and an Hermes tie, Skyes is locked up in a cell under the courtroom. He sits there, distraught, for two hours until his bail is paid by Pixie's dad and then he's released. "Thanks, Dad." He rejoins his lawyers, slumps over a table and starts weeping.
26:01 Speaker 00 This moment would change Skyes forever. He will do everything in his power to never be locked up again.
26:14 Speaker 00 But Skase can't jump on his private plane and jet back to Mallorca just yet. He's stuck, forced to face the ASC later in the week. Meanwhile, the banks he owes millions to are circling. They're preparing to declare him bankrupt. When that happens, a bankruptcy trustee will be appointed. Now, Skase knows if the banks declare him bankrupt, then they get to choose the trustee. And who knows what they'll turn up. But if he declares bankruptcy first, then he'll gain the upper hand.
26:44 Speaker 01 One-time business high flyer Christopher Skase has been declared bankrupt on his own petition. Skase owes creditors more than $170 million.
26:55 Speaker 03 In those days, if you were declaring yourself bankrupt, you could nominate a trustee.
27:01 Speaker 00 Max Donnelly has led some incredibly high-profile bankruptcy cases, including drug baron Robert Trimbley and medical entrepreneur Geoffrey Edelston. Max says by choosing his own trustee, Skase hopes to find someone more amenable to his requests.
27:18 Speaker 03 And he chose someone that obviously was going to accommodate his wishes and whatever else. His name was Neville Pocock.
27:27 Speaker 00 When the banks learn Skase has beaten them to the punch by choosing his own trustee, they are livid. They move to oust Pocock as trustee, so they can appoint their own. But to do that, they need the majority of creditors to agree. Once again, Skase is a step ahead.
27:45 Speaker 03 Skase, with the help of his lawyers in Brisbane, chased up the hairdressers and the, you know, the doctor owed $25 and lawyers, accountants.
27:54 Speaker 00 Skase rallies his own majority, 22 of the smallest creditors, mostly friends, who together are owed just $83,000 to vote in favour of keeping Pocock as trustee. It's enough to outvote the eight major creditors, who are owed way more, a whopping $120 million.
28:15 Speaker 03 Yes, technically they're a creditor. But they're friends, like the hairdresser's a friend, you know, the doctor's a friend.
28:21 Speaker 06 Friend, the lawyer's a friend, the accountant's a friend. And they'll go, yeah, we'll vote to keep Neville Pocock in his job.
28:27 Speaker 00 Hmm, wonder if they're still friends. Either way, it works. The banks are fuming. Skase slips through their attempt to claw back some cash. And remarkably, Christopher still has one more trick up his sleeve. When Skase declared bankruptcy, he had to hand in his passport. Makes sense, right? You don't want someone who owes millions jetting off to paradise, to some elite island in the Mediterranean, for instance. But once again, having that Skase-appointed trustee, Pocock, pays dividends.
29:02 Speaker 06 So if you had a friendly trustee, or one that you'd come to an arrangement with, he could just simply hand it back to you. And then you'd complied with the bankruptcy act and you were able to go.
29:13 Speaker 00 Yet again, Skase has outfoxed authorities. Quentin Beresford.
29:19 Speaker 03 Skase is able to convince Pocock that he needs to go overseas again. He's got another business deal in Spain. He's got to go, yes, of course he'll be back, trust me. Pocock gives him his passport.
29:29 Speaker 00 Big mistake. Less than 24 hours after declaring bankruptcy, Skase is handed back his passport and is free to leave the country. His first stop, wait for it, a nursing home. Oh, how the mighty have fallen.
29:45 Speaker 03 They rented two apartments. One was on the Gold Coast and one was in a nursing home.
29:51 Speaker 00 No, this isn't a new ABC series, Old People's Home for Disgraced Businessmen. This is where Skase will launch his audacious escape plan. Skase's bodyguard, Bill Jones, has stocked up both apartments like five-star hotel rooms.
30:05 Speaker 03 And Jones and co. filled the nursing home apartment up with loads of good wine and good whiskey and literally waited for a month for instructions from Skase. And even then, all subterfuge had to be arranged. Jones arranged for two cars to go to the airport. One was a decoy and one carried Skase himself. Skase spent one night, the last night in Australia, in the nursing home as part of this pre-planned escape out. And of course, it must have been such a come down from Bromley. And it's this highly planned subterfuge, this organisational feat of great planning
30:49 Speaker 03 and determination to get out of the country so he wouldn't have to face court.
30:56 Speaker 00 Skyes outsmarts the system and slips out of Australia that night. First class, mind you.
31:06 Speaker 00 Australian authorities are furious. They've lost their man. And the chase for Skyes will become a national obsession in politics and in the media.
31:30 Speaker 00 Next time on Skyes: Fall of a Tycoon. Just when Skyes thinks he's in the clear, someone deep inside his camp turns on him. We were just told to attend the airport. Make sure you are armed because a person was coming into the country who had decided to provide evidence against Christopher Skyes. Will Christopher Skyes finally be forced home to face the music? Or will he outfox authorities one more time?
32:01 Speaker 00 Skyes: Fall of a Tycoon is a rewind production for ABC Radio National. It's produced on the lands of the Gadigal, Darug and Naluma people. And I'm Mark Humphries.
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