Australian (ASX) Stock Market Forum

Alan Bond: Hero or Bastard?

Jump to new
Garpal Gumnut

Garpal Gumnut

Ross Island Hotel
Joined
2 January 2006
Posts
13,827
Reactions
10,653
As Alan Bond lies in an induced coma ( I do like adjectives used by my betters, he's in a coma/near cactus/ ) we need to think about his legacy and effect on investors many unable to rest in a coma-form state after his abuse of good corporate governance in the 80's.

He did win an Americas Cup, and was feted by ole Silverhair, Bob Hawke, unfortunately our PM at the time..

Is he a misunderstood hero?

Or is he one of the greatest Ponzi operators who ever lived, a bastard to those who invested in his schemes.

gg
 
Re: Alan Bond : Hero or Bastard

Garpal Gumnut said:
As Alan Bond lies in an induced coma ( I do like adjectives used by my betters, he's in a coma/near cactus/ ) we need to think about his legacy and effect on investors many unable to rest in a coma-form state after his abuse of good corporate governance in the 80's.

He did win an Americas Cup, and was feted by ole Silverhair, Bob Hawke, unfortunately our PM at the time..

Is he a misunderstood hero?

Or is he one of the greatest Ponzi operators who ever lived, a bastard to those who invested in his schemes.

gg
Click to expand...

Shades of grey, not black and white.

Bond corp, Bell Corp, Channel Nine suffered under his hand. He did win the Americas Cup and start Bond University, which is more than Christopher Skase did I suppose.

Certainly not a hero, but maybe too ambitious with other peoples money.
 
Re: Alan Bond : Hero or Bastard

You've answered your own question GG.

Both.

Regardless of the past, I have sympathy for his family at the present time.

It's also good to see you've escaped from Rura Penthe.

Only Klingons should rest Klingon class. ;)
 
Re: Alan Bond : Hero or Bastard

Packer was quoted as saying "You only get one Alan Bond in your lifetime, and I've had mine".

The world is full of mediocrity, of people who pontificate on the virtues of others. That critique is established on hindsight. When Bond brought the America’s Cup to Australia, he was the toast of a nation. When he built the university, he was the darling of the educationalists. Today he is yesterdays sullied hero, banished in the best traditions of Australian ockerism. Bond’s biggest crime was that he succeeded, in a country of mediocrity.
Click to expand...

http://www.brwhiteside.com/yen_chapter_36.htm

GUILTY ... of having a go and getting greedy. 1990 recession did not help him either :2twocents
 
Re: Alan Bond : Hero or Bastard

Alan Bond : Hero or Bastard?

Both...clearly achieved hero status and was a bastard if you held Bond Corp or Bell Resources shares.
 
Took money from others and never attempted to repay it. After prison re-focused on his own wealth.

Money is not everything is it?
 
Read Paul Barry's "The Rise and Fall of Alan Bond" way back when... didn't get a good impression of him.

Still remember reading there how he got a contract to paint some rock or building and all he used was a bucket of paint - and add lots of water. That kinda does it for me.
 
Ah how I remember Alan, Lawrie, Peter, Ray, Brian, etc. The West Oz business mafia that enjoined politics, money and the have a go Wassie spirit to build the great frontier state of the Swan River Colony.

It was very sad how Robert Holmes à Court was done over by the gang, which ultimately led to his death. Robert made the mistake of turning away from corporate raider to be builder of industry and WA fortunes, when real men continued to empty the tills and pick the bones clean for fun and profit. I'd expect Janet is polishing her dancing shoes ready to dance on someone's grave.
 
Bastard, damaged Australia, his wives, his shareholders.
If there is a hell, he will rot in it.
 
Re: Alan Bond : Hero or Bastard

trainspotter said:
Packer was quoted as saying "You only get one Alan Bond in your lifetime, and I've had mine".

http://www.brwhiteside.com/yen_chapter_36.htm

GUILTY ... of having a go and getting greedy. 1990 recession did not help him either :2twocents
Click to expand...

Of the two, I consider Packer the greater criminal by far. IMHO, creating and exploiting a gambling addiction is as bad as, if not worse than, drug dealing. Of course the proponents of unfettered Capitalism will disagree. As do our Politicians, who collect taxes from one, but not from the other.
(Reminds me of the Opium Wars of days gone by when Drug Dealing was considered legal.)

Alan Bond is a Visionary, who thought in grand concepts, but was unfortunately surrounded by sycophants who understood only small parts of his plans. In true Aussie style, they pushed their own barrow, spending other people's money where they saw their own section of the whole benefit them. But none of the Instos and Bankers that supported them can complain to have been defrauded: They should have had the nous and done DD enough to take responsibility for their investment decisions.

True, the 1987 Crash didn't help, and getting into bed with crooks of WA Inc was the final straw. Holmes a Court had a better understanding and/or better advisors.

PS for Tisme: Janet will probably disappoint you. She has far too much style and noblesse to dance on anyone's grave. Probably to do with breeding and self-respect...
 
Hell of a life, at least he had the guts to do his prison time - RIP Bondy.
 
Came in Oz too late, was just a name for me: stories about his priison time, the millions spent for his daughter wedding while bankrupt, but as I am distrustfull of media and with the trend to bash success in this country reading these opinions were formative;
strange he flew back from the UK to have a bypass here?
Anyway, let's share a bit of Julia's spirit
RIP: at least he tried.
And nice to see you back GG
 
He was a crook who took money under false pretenses and feigned illness when it suited him. He resiled from personal responsibility.

Along the way he did one or two worthwhile things with a portion of the money he misappropriated.

But that doesn't make it right - it's like the man who mugs a little old lady then shouts the bar at his local pub. For everyone to think he's a good bloke makes for a great injustice.
 
Muschu said:
Took money from others and never attempted to repay it. After prison re-focused on his own wealth.

Money is not everything is it?
Click to expand...

It says it all Muschu, and a good quote from ole Marcus Aurelius.

A stoic Bond was not. More a whimpering grabbing fool, not necessarily in that order.

gg
 
I feel for his family as they would have loved him.

But Alan Bond had an immature and narrow understanding of life. Winning an America's Cup, and whatever that "may" have meant to the nation, was about ego.

I hope, if I was to cause financial and emotional damage to the lives of many fellow Australians, that I would commit the rest of my life to paying them back as best I could.

Bond did not have that integrity... Or, to be kinder to him, that understanding.

His family also need to live with that memory. Perhaps they could give his financial legacy to those whom he "owes"?

What a moral test that could pose.... And one so easily rationalised away.....
 
Top