by Elisabeth Sexton, Sydney Morning Herald

Photo: Peter Braig

THE trustee overseeing the bankrupt estate of the late Rene Rivkin has stepped up his efforts to
retrieve assets from Jersey, a noted tax haven.

In the Federal Court in Sydney last week the trustee, Anthony Warner, an accountant, asked Justice
Roger Gyles to approach the Royal Court of Jersey for help.

Justice Gyles approved the text of a letter asking the Jersey court to give Mr Warner powers similar
to his Australian ones, which allow him to seize all Mr Rivkin’s property and divide it among his
creditors.

The letter specifically asks the court to order a Jersey company and its bank to hand money to Mr
Warner.

The estate of Mr Rivkin, who died in 2005, was declared bankrupt in November last year after the
Taxation Office issued a demand for tax of $21 million.

The demand is understood to relate to the proceeds of Mr Rivkin’s share trading held in Swiss bank
accounts, which was exposed in The Australian Financial Review in 2003.

The bulk of any money retrieved by Mr Warner will go to the Tax Office, as the largest creditor of the
bankrupt estate.

In July Mr Warner reached an agreement with members of Mr Rivkin’s immediate family to contribute
more than $3 million in cash to the bankrupt estate and to forgo claims to recover about $5 million
from it.

Since then Mr Warner has focused his efforts on gaining control of offshore assets.

The letter to the Jersey court says that Mr Warner believes that Mr Rivkin used six Jersey companies
“to hold assets which he treated as his own”.

Shares in the companies are said to be held in the name of Equity Trust (Jersey) Limited as nominee
for Mr Rivkin.

One of the six, Thameslink Ltd, listed as a $7 million asset the luxury motor yacht Dajoshadita, which
Mr Rivkin leased and moored in Sydney Harbour.

Thameslink sold the boat shortly before his death.

The letter asks the Jersey court to direct Equity Trust and its bank, the Royal Bank of Scotland
International, to “pay over” to Mr Warner the assets of Mr Rivkin and/or the six companies.

It also wants a direction for the transfer of “such fund(s) standing to the credit of the [six] companies
as are known by Equity Trust (Jersey) Limited not to be encumbered by any liability, charge,
encumbrance or claim”.