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How a billionaire pub baron wound up with just $3 · The Front

• 0:05
  Speaker 1: From The Australian. Here's what's on the front. I'm Christinamiot.
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: It's Friday, October three, twenty twenty five. A defense treaty
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: between Australia and Papua New Guinea will be signed as
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  Speaker 1: early as next week, following weeks of delays. It's a
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  Speaker 1: big win for Anthony Albanesi, who'll attend the NRL Grand
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: Final in Sydney this weekend with his P and G
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: counterpart James Marape. The treaty requires both countries to respond
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: to threats from the common Danger and opens the door
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: for pup ones to join the Australian Defense Force. Its
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: last drinks for a Sydney pub baron. Investors who poured
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: millions of dollars into the Public Hospitality Group are unlikely
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: to recoup their cash after founder John Ajimus declared bankruptcy.
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: And what about the boss. He'll never run a company again.
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  Speaker 1: That's today's episode. Friday Night in Sydney, workers shake off
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: the week with a wine or a beer at one
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  Speaker 1: of the city's many beloved pubs. If you pulled up
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  Speaker 1: a chair at one of those pubs at some point
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  Speaker 1: in the past decade, there's a good chance it was
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: owned by John Agimus, the high flying founder of the
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: Public Hospitality group.
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  Speaker 2: John is a kind of larger than life character. I mean,
• 1:36
  Speaker 2: there's a kind of pantheon of publicans in this world.
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  Speaker 2: You've got justin Ham's, You've got the Lawndies. I think
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  Speaker 2: John definitely aspired to be amongst them.
• 1:46
  Speaker 1: David Ross is a reporter with The Australian.
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  Speaker 2: He is very much a man known for nice cars,
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  Speaker 2: hot girlfriends, nice watchers. I spoke to a former colleague
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  Speaker 2: of his once who said that he was well known
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  Speaker 2: for being a bit of a figure on the dating circuit.
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  Speaker 2: You know, he's the kind of man about town. So
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  Speaker 2: the first story I wrote on John was a feature
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  Speaker 2: for The Australian's Property section. Looking at John Agemus, you know,
• 2:11
  Speaker 2: he was this big new thing. He basically burst onto
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  Speaker 2: the scene during COVID, when all of a sudden there
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  Speaker 2: were all these big deals being done to buy pubs
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  Speaker 2: and there was basically one buyer and that was John. Now.
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  Speaker 2: He snapped up the Norfolk Hotel, he snapped up the
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  Speaker 2: Manor House, the Oxford House, and the biggest one I've
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  Speaker 2: all was Noah's in Bondai was a huge sum that
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  Speaker 2: he put down on that I really put his name
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  Speaker 2: on the map when he bought Noah's Weird. The Australian
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  Speaker 2: wanted to get us sense of who was this man
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  Speaker 2: who was going around Sydney buying every pub he possibly could.
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  Speaker 2: And the first time I met him, you know, I
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  Speaker 2: literally walked in and we had a parmer. That's quite
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  Speaker 2: a way to meet a publican really.
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  Speaker 1: But this week the Agimus empire came crashing down as
• 2:53
  Speaker 1: his venues were seized by administrators. Agimus declared bankruptcy, saying
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: he accepts responsibility for the historic collapse.
• 3:03
  Speaker 2: And we know that John knows probably about one point
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  Speaker 2: eight billion dollars, which would make him amongst the most
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  Speaker 2: broke people in Australia at the moment. There is a
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  Speaker 2: little bit of room in that number. There's some suggestion
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  Speaker 2: that it's a kind of reflection of a bit of
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  Speaker 2: double counting by some of the lenders. You know, we
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  Speaker 2: can certainly say that he owes a hell of a
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  Speaker 2: lot more than most people.
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: The Australian Tax Office is circling two. In August, The
• 3:27
  Speaker 1: Australian reported the ATO was investigating allegations of a potentially
• 3:31
  Speaker 1: fraudulent GST scheme connected to John Agimus's companies. That means
• 3:37
  Speaker 1: he could be on the hook for a further three
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: hundred million dollars.
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  Speaker 2: John had a ninety five foot yacht, the Hallani, which
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  Speaker 2: is owned by Shirley Temple. He was living in the
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  Speaker 2: Bang and Olson House in Point Piper for quite some time,
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  Speaker 2: and then he's now recently moved to Bondi where he's
• 3:51
  Speaker 2: living in will Vicker's penthouse apartment.
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  Speaker 1: Argimus's yacht has been sold and his mansions have been seized.
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  Speaker 2: As we know, had about three dollars seventy ninety in
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  Speaker 2: these bank accounts. It's a little hard to imagine how
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  Speaker 2: all of these luxuries could be afforded given how little
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  Speaker 2: was in his accounts. The bankruptcy trustees for John have
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  Speaker 2: said that about fifteen million dollars was taken from the
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  Speaker 2: pub's business, some of which went to fund John's lifestyle,
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  Speaker 2: in addition to a wage that he paid himself out
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  Speaker 2: of that business. And in fact we know that the
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  Speaker 2: rent on his bond iPad was being paid for by
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  Speaker 2: one of the companies that John was a controller of,
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  Speaker 2: so it's quite clear that this luxury lifestyle was being
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  Speaker 2: funded through this pub's business and through this property enterprise.
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  Speaker 1: So, David, how did this happen? What do you know
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  Speaker 1: about the way John Agumis ran his businesses that allowed
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  Speaker 1: him to get in this.
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  Speaker 2: Deep You know, in days past, people borrowed money from
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  Speaker 2: banks and it was clearer who owed money to who.
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  Speaker 2: John's model was about borrowing money from private credit lenders. Archibald, Jemmy,
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  Speaker 2: your Quay, Angus Securities. These are just some of the
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  Speaker 2: names that John knows money to, and quite often these
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  Speaker 2: private credit lenders were being worked with and not. John
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  Speaker 2: is not unique a lot in doing this alone. There
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  Speaker 2: are others who've done this, but you know, they were fast,
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  Speaker 2: they didn't ask too many questions, they didn't require too
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  Speaker 2: much documentation, and when it all came crashing down, it
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  Speaker 2: became quite clear that they had all lent on the
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  Speaker 2: same stuff and probably didn't realize that they had done this.
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  Speaker 2: A lot of the loans on these pubs were funded
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  Speaker 2: on a at complete valuation. That's where you're borrowing as
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  Speaker 2: though it's finished, but often it's not. The vine in
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  Speaker 2: Collingwood in Melbourne is still a bomb site. The Saint
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  Speaker 2: was opened, it's now closed Noah's in Bondai. It's never
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  Speaker 2: reopened since John bought it. There are so many on
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  Speaker 2: this list that were borrowed on an at complete valuation
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  Speaker 2: that have never been completed.
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  Speaker 1: For months, John Agimus has been trying to stop these
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  Speaker 1: chickens from coming home to roost. At one point, his
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  Speaker 1: proposed solution relied on a cash top up from his
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  Speaker 1: mum and sister, but it was rejected by lenders, and
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  Speaker 1: so he beat everyone to the punch by declaring bankruptcy.
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  Speaker 2: John didn't want to be made bankrupt because if you
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  Speaker 2: get made bankrupt, you end up driving in this and
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  Speaker 2: micro and you can't leave the country. So what he
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  Speaker 2: did is he put up this thing called personal Insolvency Agreement,
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  Speaker 2: and it's basically a deal which says, if you don't
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  Speaker 2: make me bankrupt, I'll do this. And so John proposed
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  Speaker 2: that his mum and his sister would give him some
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  Speaker 2: money and that money would be then distributed amongst his
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  Speaker 2: creditors and they would get a zero point one point
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  Speaker 2: five cents return and the dollar. It meant that he
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  Speaker 2: wouldn't have to give up his cars, but he would
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  Speaker 2: give up certain things, some artwork. The three dollars seventy
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  Speaker 2: nine on his bank account. But now that's all off
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  Speaker 2: the table because John has pulled the tregeground his own bankruptcy.
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  Speaker 2: The plan is over and it's all the play for.
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  Speaker 2: So bankruptcy can solve many problems, but it can't solve
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  Speaker 2: them all, one of which is an allegation of a fraud.
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  Speaker 2: I'm not suggesting that this is true, and obviously these
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  Speaker 2: things would have to be reproved in court, but there
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  Speaker 2: appears to be some allegations of a very serious GST
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  Speaker 2: fraud that has happened in companies that John controlled or
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  Speaker 2: controls by making himself bankrupted. These do not go away,
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  Speaker 2: and they will remain to be investigated. Liquidatas are investigating
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  Speaker 2: these companies. But people here are going to take an
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  Speaker 2: absolute bath. Like it's looking from the current returns from
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  Speaker 2: the last set of reports, they're going to get zero
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  Speaker 2: point zero six cents in the dollar return. So if
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  Speaker 2: you gave John ten bucks, you get zero point six cents.
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  Speaker 2: It's nothing. So these investors are going to get nothing
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  Speaker 2: and they're all being burned. Whereas if this was a bank,
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  Speaker 2: the bank would wear the loss.
• 7:40
  Speaker 1: Coming up, John Agimis's journey from deal maker to bankruptcy.
• 7:51
  Speaker 1: John Argimis's spectacular fall from financial grace puts him up
• 7:55
  Speaker 1: there with some of the biggest bankruptcies in Australian history.
• 8:00
  Speaker 3: Corporate high flyer Alan Bond is once again a free man.
• 8:03
  Speaker 3: He was originally jailed in nineteen ninety seven for four
• 8:06
  Speaker 3: years after being convicted of the frauding Bell Resources of
• 8:09
  Speaker 3: more than one billion dollars. In Business News, the chase
• 8:13
  Speaker 3: for Christopher S CAS's millions is unveiling some surprises. Some
• 8:17
  Speaker 3: of the best accounting minds in the country are now
• 8:20
  Speaker 3: focusing on the web of companies that Skate set up
• 8:23
  Speaker 3: to surround his Quintex operation.
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  Speaker 1: At one point, Agimus had dozens of properties and venues
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  Speaker 1: to his name.
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  Speaker 2: It's a little difficult to establish, and I have kind
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  Speaker 2: of used the phrasing more than twenty two venues. However,
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  Speaker 2: it has become clear that there were these other property
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  Speaker 2: things that John had picked up along the way and
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  Speaker 2: glued into this empire. There was a rooming house in Annandale,
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  Speaker 2: there was a block of flats in Paddington. There's a
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  Speaker 2: block of land out in hurst Field that he had
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  Speaker 2: plans to build a praishon. You know, at its peak
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  Speaker 2: it was a very large business with quite a number
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  Speaker 2: of operating pubs or pubs were renovation projects or construction projects.
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  Speaker 2: You know, there were these kind of little bits and
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  Speaker 2: pieces of property that John had assembled along the way.
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  Speaker 1: Ajimus got his start as a deal maker at KPMG,
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  Speaker 1: where he oversaw the floating of outdoor retailer Katmandu on
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  Speaker 1: the Stock Market and the acquisition of Neil Perry's Rockpool
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  Speaker 1: restaurant Group. He made the jump to property development later,
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  Speaker 1: but his plan to build a sixty story tower on
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  Speaker 1: Sydney's Lower North Shore also fell over. Undeterred, Adimis gathered
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  Speaker 1: up his various venues and launched the Public Hospitality Group
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  Speaker 1: in the middle of a pandemic.
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  Speaker 2: It is a brave thing to do to open a
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  Speaker 2: pub's business during COVID. Even after the pandemic ended, there
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  Speaker 2: were kind of restrictions on how many people could be
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  Speaker 2: in these places. The borders were closed. And this was
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  Speaker 2: not a gaming business. Most people do pubs to make
• 9:52
  Speaker 2: money off poke machines, especially in the South Wales. The
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  Speaker 2: Public Hospitality Group model was not a gaming business. It
• 10:00
  Speaker 2: was a drink, dine and destination business. You stayed upstairs.
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  Speaker 2: You know this was the kind of return to hotels
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  Speaker 2: as hotels under John. You know he recreates all these
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  Speaker 2: hotel rooms upstairs and a lot of his venues sets
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  Speaker 2: something new. Restaurants downstairs puts more than just two is
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  Speaker 2: on tap. You know that was the model.
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  Speaker 1: David Ross is a business reporter with The Australian. You
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  Speaker 1: can read all his reporting about the end of the
• 10:32
  Speaker 1: Agumus Empire right now at the Australian dot com dot
• 10:35
  Speaker 1: au