Pod Insights ABC Rewind 04 | Skase | The Chase for Skase About this episode In June 1993, the Australian Federal Police get a call. Someone from Christopher Skase’s inner sanctum, someone who knows all the ins and outs of his business dealing, who knows exactly where all the bodies are buried, is defecting. But Skase isn’t going down without a fight and he’ll use every trick in the book to avoid extradition back to Australia.
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0:36 Speaker 00 It's June 1993, when Australian federal police officer David Moore gets a call.
0:43 Speaker 03 I had a phone call from my commander, asking myself and another officer to attend the Gold Coast Airport. We weren't given any warning or we weren't told exactly what it was about.
0:55 Speaker 00 Moore jumps in his car and drives the hour south from Brisbane to Coolangatta Airport.
1:00 Speaker 03 We were just told to attend the airport. Make sure you are armed and to meet up with some officers or investigators from the Australian Securities Commission.
1:10 Speaker 00 Turns out, David Moore is being sent to meet someone who will blow the case against billionaire tycoon Christopher Skase wide open.
1:19 Speaker 03 They advised us that a person was coming into the country who had decided to provide evidence against Christopher's case.
1:27 Speaker 00 Someone from Skase's inner sanctum. Someone who's worked closely with Skase, who knows the family intimately, the ins and outs of his many business deals. And now, suddenly and unexpectedly, they're defecting.
1:42 Speaker 04 There is a defector from the house of Skase. And he brings news that could finally bring the failed entrepreneur out of his self-imposed exile to face a host of charges in Australia.
1:53 Speaker 00 This defector is flying all the way from London to spill everything they know.
1:58 Speaker 03 It seemed to be a bit of a coup for Australian investigative authorities. I didn't know what had motivated them to come to Australia, but that was soon to reveal itself.
2:11 Speaker 00 After years of trying to pin him down, could this turncoat be the smoking gun in the Skase case? The key to finally forcing him back to Australia? I'm Mark Humphries and from ABC Rewind, this is Skase: Fall of a Tycoon.
2:39 Speaker 00 Last time, Skase made an exorbitant bid for the Hollywood studio MGM United Artists, sending his company Quintex into a downward spiral.
2:48 Speaker 05 We got gazumped at the last minute by Rupert Murdoch.
2:52 Speaker 00 Quintex collapsed and Skase fled the ruins of his empire, secretly setting up a new life on the Spanish island of Mallorca. The media battled it out to be the first to find the runaway tycoon.
3:05 Speaker 06 She said, "Does he have a wife who has very big blonde hair?" And I said, "Pixie." She said, "Yes, that's it. They're my neighbours."
3:13 Speaker 00 The Skase were outed, and now, three years after they fled Australia, this turncoat is threatening to turn Skase's world on its head yet again. So who is this defector? This person who's going to spill everything about Skase? Well, it's Skase's right-hand man, his close confidant, and, up until recently, the fiance of his stepdaughter Alex. His name is Laurence Vander Plaats. He's not only broken up with Alex, he's broken up with the whole Skase family. And now, he's ready to blab.
3:48 Speaker 04 I was fully involved, both on the corporate and the personal side, with Mr. Skase since 1989. So I do have not a full knowledge, but an intimate knowledge of offshore companies, their structure, the setup of those companies, and the transfer of funds out of Australia and into those companies.
4:08 Speaker 00 Ooh, amma! This is episode four, The Chase for Skase.
4:20 Speaker 00 As the AFP's David Moore is making his way to Coolangatta Airport, he's not quite sure what he's in for, but Lawrence makes a strong first impression.
4:30 Speaker 03 Lawrence was quite suave. He was sophisticated. He spoke very well. He seemed to have an air of authority around him.
4:39 Speaker 00 So why has Lawrence Vander Plaats turned against his former boss and future father-in-law? And who even is he? Luckily for us, he wrote a book all about it. Too Good To Be True. It's only got one rating on Goodreads, so it can't be that good, but it certainly seems to be true. So we do have a good idea of what was going on in his head. Lawrence enters the story back in 1989, and one of the producers on this series, Jake Morecambe, is here to tell us all about him. Jake, tell us about Lawrence Vander Plaats. Who is he?
5:11 Speaker 07 So Lawrence is in his early twenties, working as a financial futures and commodities broker in London, when he meets Alexandra Frue. This is Skyes's youngest stepdaughter. And they kick off a pretty serious relationship. After about six months of dating Alex, Lawrence finally gets to meet her stepdad, Christopher Skyes. And Lawrence is really impressed by Skyes. Now, Lawrence works in finance, so he's clearly got a grip on Skyes's world. And he really rates him as an entrepreneur. He talks about Christopher having this aura of power about him, and he really sees that Skyes is something out of the ordinary.
5:51 Speaker 00 Man, he really does know how to suck people in, doesn't he?
5:53 Speaker 07 Mmm, big time. And so as Lawrence and Alex become closer, he starts to spend a lot more time with Christopher and Pixie. He even gets an invite to join them on a family holiday to Italy. Then Christopher buys Alex a house on Chesson Road in Fulham. This is a posh part of London. And Lawrence ends up moving in with Alex into that house. This Chesson Road house does become an important part of the Skyes saga. But I just want you to tuck that away in the back of your mind for now.
6:23 Speaker 00 Consider it tucked. So when does Lawrence start working for Skyes?
6:27 Speaker 07 Around May of 1990, so this is more than six months after the collapse of Quintex. And at this point, Skase is living on Mallorca and he started a new company called Hausian.
6:41 Speaker 00 You've got to love these Skase names. There's always that not so subtle meaning. There's Mirage and now Hausian, you know, he's clearly looking back on the good old days.
6:49 Speaker 07 Yeah, looking back fondly on his time with Quintex. Because with Hausian, what Skase is trying to do is essentially recreate the Mirage Resorts in Spain. And that's when Skase offers Lawrence a job and he accepts. And then Lawrence starts trying to work out if any of Skase's resort plans have any legs. And one resort that Skase is really keen to develop is called Reisha. This is an older estate on Mallorca. And Skase is so keen, he puts a $500,000 deposit down on Reisha. And it's only later that Skase learns the Mallorcan government actually has plans to rezone half of the Reisha grounds into a national park.
7:31 Speaker 07 So Skase ends up losing that $500,000 deposit.
7:35 Speaker 00 Skase is also meant to be bankrupt at this point and instead he's just, he's got half a million to just throw around and waste on a deposit. Okay, so when does Lawrence's view of Skase change?
7:44 Speaker 07 Over time, Lawrence starts to have his doubts about Skase constantly professing his innocence. Because I guess he's seeing how he's working from the inside. And Lawrence is also watching the evidence pile up against Skase that maybe he's done one or two things wrong. Lawrence also talks about Skase being late to pay him and that Skase just has these lame excuses as to why he can't pay him on time.
8:10 Speaker 00 I mean, in fairness, that is Skase's whole business model.
8:13 Speaker 07 Yeah, so the man that Lawrence once looked up to and respected as a businessman, he has started to resent. On top of that, by early 1993, Lawrence's relationship with Alexandra is souring and they ultimately break up. So it's all super tricky, right? Lawrence has become completely immersed in the Skase' lives, personally, in business. But in the end, Lawrence decides to make that difficult decision and leave Hausian. But he knows he'll be taking many of Skase's secrets with him, so it's not going to be super easy for him to slip out.
8:51 Speaker 00 Now, we've always had this idea that the Skase are living it up on Majorca. And, you know, they do live on a lovely estate on a lush Spanish island. They have wealthy friends. It certainly beats being in prison. But as Lawrence is walking out of Skase's world in 1993, it's not all sunbaking and margaritas by the pool at Lenoria. When Christopher Skase came here to Port Andraj in Majorca, he believed he'd found a safe harbour. He fortified his villa with gates, fences and cameras, and controlled the flow of information on himself to the outside world, particularly information about his health and his wealth. It can't be great living with the constant fear
9:36 Speaker 00 of being hunted down by the media and outed to Australian authorities. For Pixie especially. She didn't ask for any of this. She's had to leave her life, her friends, her family, her hairdresser, to live in exile. And it's crowded at the Lenoria compound. It's become a family affair. One day in mid 1990, Pixie and Christopher call Pixie's daughter Amanda and her husband Tony, who live and work in Sydney. Out of the blue, they say, "Why don't you throw it all in and come and live and work with us on Majorca?" So, over a bottle of red one night, Tony and Amanda Larkins decide they will. They quit their jobs and move into a bungalow at Lenoria with their little bub. Pixie is lonely and bored.
10:22 Speaker 00 Her world has become very, very small, like the bub. And she leans heavily on Amanda, popping into her house whenever she wants. It's all a bit much for poor son-in-law Tony, so he builds a fence to try and get a bit of privacy. It's a stressful time, and the threat of being extradited back to Australia hangs over them all constantly. Despite everyone's lives being turned upside down by Christopher, despite all the charges and allegations, those close to him have stayed incredibly loyal, except for Lawrence Vander Plaats.
10:57 Speaker 04 And I wrote to Mr. Skase advising him that I'd finished with his daughter and that I no longer wanted to work for him and be involved with his companies.
11:07 Speaker 00 I advised him I'd finished with his daughter, who says chivalry is dead. So Jake, after three years of working for Skase, Lawrence faxes him his resignation and he hears nothing. So what happens next?
11:19 Speaker 07 The next day Lawrence gets home to his new rental apartment to find that it's been broken into and there are a whole bunch of documents from his house and work that are gone. Things like invoices, reports, even Lawrence's employment contract. This, understandably, really rattles Lawrence, but it's actually what happens next when things turn up a notch.
11:44 Speaker 00 Oh, that's good sizzle Jake. What happens next?
11:46 Speaker 07 Three days later, on a Monday morning, Lawrence is by the front door of his apartment when all of a sudden the door blasts open. It's partially ripped off its hinges and there's two men standing in the doorway. The men then jump on Lawrence, pin him down, and Lawrence realises that one of the men is Bill Jones.
12:07 Speaker 00 All right, this is the bodyguard who helped Skase get his stuff out of the country.
12:11 Speaker 07 Yeah, that's him. He's also a former SAS commander, so Lawrence probably isn't looking to pick a fight with him. So Jones says to Lawrence, "If you ever give evidence against Skase or talk to the press, you're finished. We'll find you and come and get you. This is your only warning." So pretty terrifying words for Lawrence. Lawrence has a housemate who's watching all of this unfold, so she races to call the police. But before Bill Jones leaves, he tells Lawrence he has an eviction notice for him and that Lawrence needs to be out of his apartment by 10.30 that morning. The police arrive, they skim over the notice and say everything seems to be in order. So just like that, Lawrence has to pack up and move out.
12:57 Speaker 07 Now, keep in mind that Skase doesn't own this apartment. And in fact, Lawrence had spotted one of Skase's lawyers' signatures on the notice. So when Lawrence goes and speaks to his lawyers, they say, yeah, if it wasn't issued by a court or signed by a judge, that wasn't a legit notice.
13:15 Speaker 00 I mean, not everyone lives their in-laws, but rarely do they create fake eviction notices. So what does Lawrence do next?
13:23 Speaker 07 Ultimately, it's this ongoing intimidation from Skase's camp that pushes Lawrence to his limit, and from there, he makes a major decision. He decides to contact the Australian Securities Commission, the corporate regulator in Australia. And Lawrence tells them he has information on Skase and he's ready to talk.
13:45 Speaker 00 Which brings us back to that day in June 1993, when Lawrence lands at Coolangatta Airport on his way to give evidence against Christopher Skase. Australian Federal Police Officer David Moore has arrived to pick him up and to keep a very close eye on him. Lawrence's trip to Australia is supposed to be top secret, but he claims he's received threats, that he's being watched. So the AFP puts him under witness protection with armed guards around the clock. But as Lawrence and David leave the airport and start driving up the freeway to Brisbane, it becomes clear that somehow the Skase camp has found out he's here.
14:26 Speaker 03 He was under surveillance. He was being looked at by someone else who was clearly following us all the way into town. Now, whoever was doing it also seemed to know what they were doing because we weren't able to get so close as to be able to get registration details or even a photograph. And it may well have been someone who did not have Lawrence's best interests at place.
14:47 Speaker 00 The tailgaters back off as David and Lawrence turn into the car park of the Australian Securities Commission, the ASC.
14:57 Speaker 00 There are now two separate investigations underway into Skase's business dealings. One by the corporate regulator, the ASC, and a criminal one by the federal police. A defector from Skase's camp is a coup for both of them. Lawrence is their secret weapon, and he knows it. Lawrence has a long list of demands that he wants met before he'll spill.
15:20 Speaker 03 Things like access to telephones, access to a driver, access to, I think, fax machines, first-class travel, premium accommodation in Australia. I think at one stage he was also included a trip to the Barrier Reef. I just sat quietly as Lawrence went through the list. And then at one point Lawrence said, "Oh, and by the way, I want to see the brief of evidence compiled by the Australian Federal Police."
15:47 Speaker 00 Lawrence had been told by the ASC he could see it all: the highly confidential witness statements, police reports, all the dirt the federal police have on Skase. That's far from normal procedure, and David Moore is having none of it.
16:02 Speaker 03 And I've got to say, I was stunned that he should even put that sort of request. I said, "Mr Vanderpilale, I don't even know you. As far as I'm concerned, what assurances do I have that you're still not working with Mr. Skase? How do I know that you're not going to go back and repeat everything that's said and done in this room in support of Mr. Skase? I know you've been a partner to his daughter." So I said, "I'm sorry, your request is not going through." The room went deadly silent.
16:34 Speaker 00 They wrap up questioning for the day, and David escorts Lawrence back to his accommodation. As he's about to leave, Lawrence turns to him and says...
16:43 Speaker 03 "You really don't like me, do you?" And I said, "Lawrence, it's not that I don't like you, it's just that I don't trust you. And you need to earn my trust." And then he went to his briefcase and he removed a number of documents. And he said, "Will this help?"
17:00 Speaker 00 It sure will. The revelations in these documents are stunning.
17:05 Speaker 03 I remember I put each one of those documents in a sealed evidence bag and recorded all the details, and I walked out of there very happy.
17:15 Speaker 00 We're going to come back to exactly what's in these documents next episode. But remember them, because eventually David will take them out of their sealed bags and attempt to prove that Skyes has lied under oath. Lawrence spends a week with the ASC investigators before heading back to London. And over the next six months, he continues working with them, building a damning case against Skyes. It's critical evidence the Australian government needs to extradite Skyes to Australia. Extradition wouldn't just be a win for the government, it'd be a win for everyone Skyes still owes money to.
17:52 Speaker 02 When Christopher Skyes's Quintex empire went down in 1989, it took with it $2 billion in shareholders' funds and bank loans. He declared himself bankrupt in 1991, owing his personal creditors $170 million.
18:10 Speaker 00 It's one thing to rip people off, but it's another to skip the country altogether. It's, and I use this term reluctantly, bloody un-Australian. Skyes has fallen a long way from his glory days in the Queensland sun. He's gone from owning part of the Australian media to being hunted by them. But in a weird way, he's actually bringing people together. Hugh Remington is a journalist covering the story for Channel 9.
18:37 Speaker 03 Skyes was the one thing everyone in Australia could agree with. It didn't matter what your politics were, it didn't matter whether you were young or old, there was this 100% view that this guy was a rat bag.
18:51 Speaker 00 Please Hugh, this is a family-friendly podcast. Skyes has a shopping list of ailments he's been using for years now to avoid coming back to face court. A bad back, migraines, the flu, even diarrhoea, which is remarkable because usually he was the one giving people the shits. This time though, it's emphysema.
19:11 Speaker 02 In March this year, he gave an interview to Darren Hinch in Mallorca, claiming He had the debilitating lung disease, emphysema, which prevented him travelling by air.
19:23 Speaker 04 I'm being treated by various doctors in Spain and in Switzerland, among the best in the world. I've been told to radically change my lifestyle, to quit smoking cigars, which obviously I've done. I have a regular regime daily of medication and exercise. And I've been told very bluntly that on a worst case, I will need a double lung transplant in the near term.
19:51 Speaker 00 A double lung transplant? It already cost people an arm and a leg and now he wants their lungs? This isn't going down well with those who've lost money to Skyes, people who've lost all their super, or the workers for Lloyd's Ships. Bernie Watherspoon worked for Lloyd's, one of the umbrella companies that went up in flames when Quintex collapsed. Here he is speaking to the ABC in 1996.
20:14 Speaker 06 Well, it's not only me, it's all the guys from Lloyd's Ships. It's probably 175 guys that have still earned a lot of money, like wages. It's money that we haven't got. I was bringing up three girls and there's one wage coming in. And I know some of the guys, we had to tighten our belts like everybody else. Christopher Skase walked into my front door an hour and offered me twice as much money. It's owing to me, I wouldn't take it. He'd have to walk in the door with at least $500,000 so he could pay out all the workers from Lloyd's Ships.
20:44 Speaker 00 Then there are contractors like David Mackey, whose family business had done electrical work for Lloyd's Ships. Mackey spoke to the ABC's 7.30 programme.
20:53 Speaker 03 How much were you owed at that stage?
20:56 Speaker 04 Approximately $57,000.
20:59 Speaker 03 You've seen any of it since?
21:00 Speaker 04 Not one cracker, not one bit.
21:03 Speaker 03 You reckon you're likely to?
21:04 Speaker 04 No, never.
21:06 Speaker 03 So who was better off? Skyes with a bad back, bankrupt in Spain, or you trying to rebuild a small business?
21:13 Speaker 04 Well, he's definitely better off.
21:16 Speaker 00 Yeah, yeah, because he looks like he's enjoying himself. For those who'd lost money to Skyes, to see him living it up on Mallorca must have made them sick, like actual sick, not Christopher Skyes sick. But until the authorities are able to take action, the best anyone can do is relentlessly take photos. They photograph him dining in fancy restaurants and walking his dog up and down the hills around Lenoria.
21:41 Speaker 05 When Saint Christopher of Lenoria took a swim, walked the dog, or ordered a pizza, it was big news.
21:48 Speaker 00 They set up camp on the hillside around the family compound, ring the bell on the gate, trying to get Skyes to talk, get aerial shots of him reading by the pool. This is the blurry memory I have of Skyes from my childhood, and I do mean blurry, the photos were usually taken from some distance. And all these photos are trying to answer the burning question on everyone's lips: exactly how sick is Christopher Skyes?
22:15 Speaker 00 In early January 1994, the corporate regulator's case finally goes to court in Brisbane, and Lawrence Vander Plaats is there to give evidence.
22:24 Speaker 04 The Commonwealth's star witness arrived amid tight security. Today, he told the court of Christopher Skyes's elaborate three-point plan to avoid arrest. It involved continuing to feign ill health, possibly buying a Dominican Republic passport, or using the influence of a Russian prince, Mr. Skyes knew, to bog down extradition proceedings in the Spanish courts.
22:49 Speaker 00 A Russian prince? Buying foreign passports? Clearly, there's much more to the Skyes saga than the Australian public thought. Of course, Skyes isn't present in court because, emphysema, duh, he says he's too sick to fly. His lawyers present reports from seven different doctors backing this up. I've heard of getting a second opinion, but this is ridiculous. Their main argument is this: pressure in the plane at altitude could cause his lungs to puncture. It's called a pneumothorax. Skyes is very confident this strategy will work. He's already talked Lawrence Vander Plaats ear off about it.
23:26 Speaker 06 I remember one evening where he, over dinner, he claimed that "The bastards will never get me now." And that was a result of medical evidence that his doctor submitted to the Australian security.
23:39 Speaker 00 And he was quite confident then that they would never secure an extradition against him at that time. Because he would be able to use the health issue. Absolutely, to avoid extradition. But Skyes is wrong. The Australian government is not buying it. So they called in a respiratory specialist to get a medical opinion of their own, Dr. Bill Griggs. Griggs is an expert in safely transporting critically ill patients. He's been watching the Skyes saga unfold on the telly and has been making some clinical observations of his own.
24:13 Speaker 06 I also noted that he was able to walk from his home in Mallorca about three kilometres each morning down to a local coffee shop and then back up to his home. He was occasionally playing tennis and those two things made me feel that his respiratory difficulties were not as severe as some people I've seen.
24:35 Speaker 00 And certainly not severe enough to prevent him flying back to Australia. Skyes's doctors refer to the special treatment he's receiving at a clinic in Davos, Switzerland, the exclusive health resort town in the Swiss Alps where the wealthy go for their respiratory problems. Locals compare breathing the air to breathing champagne. Breathing champagne is not endorsed by the Australian Medical Association. If experiencing respiratory problems, please see a doctor.
25:01 Speaker 00 But Bill Griggs points out that it's a long way from Mallorca to Switzerland. Twenty-four hours all up when you can't fly and have to travel overland. Not the easiest trip for someone with a dangerous lung condition.
25:13 Speaker 06 One of my thoughts was that Switzerland is not renowned for its sweeping planes. There are a few hills there.
25:18 Speaker 00 Griggs does some calculations and works out that the drive up into the Swiss Alps actually puts more pressure on Skyes's lungs than what a controlled flight back to Australia would.
25:29 Speaker 06 The other advantage of being in the plane is we could bring him back with a medical team. The risk of a pneumothorax, I didn't think was great, but if one happened, I've dealt with tens, if not hundreds of those in my career and certainly something that's reasonably straightforward to deal with and we would be able to deal with it much better than were it to happen in the car with his wife.
25:49 Speaker 00 Griggs writes his own report saying...
25:52 Speaker 06 That we could safely get him back to Australia.
25:56 Speaker 00 With the report from Dr Griggs and Lawrence Vander Plaats evidence, the Australian Government finally has the ammunition it needs. And in late January 1994, the court agrees. An explosive decision is made. The judge says Skyes is exaggerating his medical problems, quote, "out of all proportions to avoid prosecution", and he calls Skyes "a conniving fugitive", he should have heard what Hugh Remington called him. And the judge doesn't stop there. He issues a warrant for Skyes's arrest.
26:31 Speaker 07 Christopher Skyes is now a wanted man with a warrant out for his arrest. It was issued today by a Brisbane judge, holding the former Quintex boss to be a fugitive.
26:41 Speaker 00 This arrest warrant guarantees an extradition trial. The Australian Government is one step closer to forcing Skyes home. On Majorca, Skyes is shocked, but doubles down on his claims when he talks to the ABC.
26:56 Speaker 06 Based on the medical opinions from some of the most reputable thoracic specialists in the world, I am at risk of death or disability. I may die in flight because I cannot get to a hospital. That is the point.
27:12 Speaker 00 But Skyes is clearly well enough for what happens next, because in true fugitive fashion, Christopher and Pixie high-tail it out of Lenoria and go on the run. So Jake, Christopher and Pixie, they literally flee Lenoria. How does this all go down?
27:26 Speaker 07 So a few days after the warrant is issued for Skyes's arrest, Spanish Interpol rock up at Lenoria, and they present a warrant to Skyes's son-in-law, Tony Larkins, who has no choice but to let them in. But Interpol quickly discover that Christopher and Pixie aren't there because they're hiding in safe houses on Majorca under assumed names, so the authorities can't follow their tracks. The Skyes are only on the run for a few days though, because Christopher realises he probably can't outrun the authorities on Majorca. It's a pretty small place. So Skyes does something which might seem a bit... Out of character and he actually hands himself over to the police.
28:09 Speaker 04 Skase's decision to hand himself over to Spanish police came as a surprise, both in Spain and in Australia.
28:16 Speaker 07 And Skase is probably thinking when he hands himself in that he's going to be out on bail in a few days. He's got his medical documents in one hand and he's clutching onto a portable ventilator in the other. And is hoping those two things will prevent him from being sent to a proper Mayorkan jail. In the end, Skase isn't thrown into jail. Instead, he's immediately placed under armed guard at the Palmer General Hospital on Mallorca.
28:44 Speaker 04 One of Australia's most wanted men, Christopher Skase, has become one of Spain's most celebrated patients.
28:52 Speaker 00 Could the chase for Skase finally be over? As Christopher starts his detention in a very basic hospital room, Australian media raced to Mallorca and set up camp outside the hospital. Helen Trinker is there as European correspondent for the Australian newspaper.
29:09 Speaker 02 So the General Hospital was a hospital for, really for poor people, I suppose. It was not the hospital where the elites went, it was the government hospital. And you'd see the occasional people who looked like drug addicts hanging about. At that stage, I was a smoker, smoking endless cigarettes, other people's cigarettes. And then we got a shot of Christopher Skase moving from one end of a hospital corridor to another, I think, from memory in his wheelchair. And this was gold in Australia.
29:33 Speaker 00 The journos might be sharing cigarettes and after-work drinks, but they're also desperately fighting it out, trying to land that exclusive scoop. Hugh Remington.
29:43 Speaker 03 There was an attempt by one journalist who had arrived somewhat late to the story to try to get a scoop. He put on a white doctor's coat and somehow rather glided past or talked his way past whatever security they had to get into the room where Skase was lying in bed. And that caused a fair degree of fury on behalf of the Spanish authorities that that had happened. They thought that was unethical behaviour.
30:10 Speaker 00 If they think that's unethical, wait till they find out what Skase did.
30:13 Speaker 04 Pixie Skase had also visited her husband, later crying while telling friends.
30:18 Speaker 02 How his condition had deteriorated. She says the hospital room is very badly ventilated. There's a lot of noise, there's a construction site not far from his room. And therefore he's, he's having a, a fairly tough time of it.
30:31 Speaker 00 Yes, please keep it down. The fugitive needs his beauty sleep. There's not much one can do when detained in a small room under armed guard. So Skyes starts planning his defence against extradition. And the Australian government gets working on its prosecution. It gets Dr Bill Griggs back on the phone and asks him to fly to Mallorca the next day as an expert witness. His mission, to suss out how sick Skyes is in person. Griggs is expecting the birth of his first child any day now, but, sorry darling, this can't wait. Griggs jumps on a plane under strict instructions. Watch your step.
31:13 Speaker 00 Skyes may be under armed guard, but he still has eyes and ears around the island.
31:19 Speaker 06 When I was met by the federal police in Mallorca. They showed me a series of photographs of people who were said to be employees of Mr Skyes. And they told us that we really needed to keep an eye out for these people. And if we saw them, we needed not to get anywhere near them because they were not nice people.
31:42 Speaker 00 Watching over his shoulder, Griggs makes his way to the Palmer General Hospital to meet Christopher Skyes and make his medical assessment.
31:50 Speaker 06 They asked me to wait outside and I could hear inside, a voice which I subsequently worked out was Mr Skyes. Raised in some degree of anger or vehemence about not wanting to have anything to do with me, not wanting to have me examine him. Seemed to actually have quite good lung function the way he was yelling.
32:11 Speaker 00 Skyes eventually realises he doesn't have a choice, but he refuses to let Griggs touch him with a stethoscope. That's okay with Griggs though.
32:20 Speaker 06 The first thing you do is you look at the patient. You don't actually have to put your hands on the patient. So I was able to see what his breathing pattern was. I was able to count the number of times he was breathing a minute. I was able to work out the depth of his breathing. I was able to work out whether he got short of breath when he was speaking and ran out of breath mid-sentence as people with severe lung disease do. I was even able to look at the pulse in his neck throbbing there and count his heart rate. And I've seen people with very severe airways disease. They have to stop every three or four steps to catch their breath. They can't complete a sentence. And he was a thousand miles from that. He certainly didn't look like he had that blue colouring you get when you've got a low oxygen level.
33:03 Speaker 06 He looked a good colour to me, and that was part of my medical report.
33:07 Speaker 00 Yes, he lacked that blue marbling he was always so fond of.
33:13 Speaker 00 On the 19th of July 1994, Skyes's long-awaited extradition trial kicks off. Outside the courthouse in Palma de Mallorca, the streets are buzzing with Australian journalists. By now, Skyes has been cooped up in a hospital for more than five months, and everyone's speculating, how sick is he? Journalist Hugh Rimetin is in the courtroom.
33:37 Speaker 03 Into this crowded little courtroom rolls the legal teams. And then just before the judge is about to walk in, in rolls, astonishingly, Christopher Skyes in a wheelchair with oxygen tanks attached to the wheelchair and an oxygen mask that he was sucking on ostentatiously to be able to breathe through this ordeal of this court case. And we all looked at him and thought, what a con. He is banging it on. He's gone down to the props department, he's found everything that he can find, and what an absolute outrageous fraud.
34:12 Speaker 00 Classic rat-bag behaviour. Other journo's aren't quite as scathing. Some reporting Skyes does look sick and pale. Pixie is also in the courtroom, perched on her seat in the front row, ever loyal. Dr Bill Greggs is there too, and always, he's watching Skyes intently with that physician's eye for detail.
34:34 Speaker 06 I noticed that he had the oxygen mask there, but the other end of the thing was either not connected or the cylinder was empty or the cylinder was switched off. He did not need either the wheelchair or the oxygen, but I can understand why his legal team might have decided that's how he
34:52 Speaker 00 When it's Skyes' time to talk, he dials up the drama. He takes off his oxygen mask and reads a prepared statement in broken Spanish. ABC journalist Neil Ross is watching.
35:06 Speaker 03 And it was quite an emotional statement. In one sense, he almost threw himself on the mercy of the court. He said, I want to stay in Spain. I'm a resident of Spain. It's my house, my future. And he talked about the collapse of Quintex. He blamed high interest rates, the contracting world economy. He talked about his condition. He said it was irreversible. He talked about perhaps the need for a lung transplant in the future. He also blamed the authorities for tapping his telephone and said families and friends were being harassed. And at the end, he just made a remark, he said, what price death? So I think he was quite depressed.
35:40 Speaker 00 The hearing winds up. The judges deliberate for nine excruciatingly long weeks. Everyone is on tenterhooks. The Skyes, the media, the Australian authorities, the Australian government, the Australian people. And then, finally, the moment comes.
36:01 Speaker 07 Former Quintex boss Christopher Skyes has been ordered to pack his bags. He's to be extradited to Australia.
36:15 Speaker 00 Despite using every trick in the book to avoid extradition, wrangling doctors in Switzerland, wearing an oxygen mask, being pushed around in a wheelchair, Skyes will be escorted back to Australia under police guard. Christopher Skyes is finally being forced home to face the music and the creditors he owes many, many millions of dollars to. It's the end of the road. Or is it? 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. I'm Mark Humphries.
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