In the middle of July the details of the financing of luxury cruiser of Rene Rivkin have emerged which would lead to the trustee of his bankrupt deceased estate recovering millions of dollars from a bank account in Jersey. In case of success, the trustee will distribute the funds to the creditors of the boat’s owner. The largest creditor is the Australian Taxation Office.
All the case starts with the company registered in the British Virgin Islands – Derata. This BVI company was the sole director of Thameslink, a company registered in another tax haven, Jersey. The only asset of the Jersey company is a large boat, bought for $4.5 million and refurbished in 2002 for $2.3 million. This boat was chartered by Rene Rivkin for $25,000 a quarter, and the most important question is whether Rivkin was the owner of Thameslink and hence the owner of the boat.
The accounts of Jersey company showed a loan taken from “the shareholderâ€. Before refurbishing it was $4.4 million, after that it was $6.6 million. This meant that “the shareholder†had lent Thameslink an extra $2.2 million in 2002.
At a recent public examination in the Federal Magistrates Court, Rivkin’s bookkeeper, Margaret Woolveridge, gave evidence that while the boat was being refurbished in Cairns, she received invoices from the boat builder and paid them, as well as the charter fees. She received quarterly reminders from Rivkin’s solicitor, Richard Gelski, who will give evidence next month.