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Going for Broke: How Bond Got Away with it
The real-life financial thriller about multi-millionaire Alan Bond, and his hidden fortunes.'Brilliantly researched, expertly assembled and well written, Going for Broke is a masterful critique of all that's wrong with Australia's judicial system' -- Sydney Morning HeraldEveryone has a Bond story. This is the one you haven't heard ... Once upon a time Alan Bond was a hero - the man who won the America's Cup for Australia, the poor immigrant turned sign writer who became a billionaire, the Aussie battler made good.Then came a controversial expose by investigative journalist Paul Barry on ABC's 'Four Corners'. This explosive portrait led to Barry's bestselling The Rise and Fall of Alan Bond and soon afterwards the house of cards collapsed, Bond was made bankrupt and sent to jail.Now Bond is back, after spending less than three and a half years of his sentence for defrauding Bell resources of more than $1200 million - roughly one day in prison for every one million dollars shareholders lost.In Going for Broke , Paul Barry does what no one else has been able to show how Bond stashed his fortune overseas, and prove that if your pockets are deep enough and your lawyers good enough, you can get away with almost anything - as long as you go for broke.Going for Broke reads like a thriller, full of cloaks and daggers, car chases, courtroom dramas, larger than life villains and heroes - and it's all true. This is a story that had to be told. And no one else can tell it like Paul Barry.
- GenresBiography
451 pages, Hardcover
First published November 30, 2011
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
March 26, 2023
It was an eye opener to me.
I was exhausted with the dishonesty the lies the scams etc.
Each to his own I suppose but if we were all like Allan what would the world be like?
The saying The Rich get Richer shines in this book but they don’t get there by being ordinary or honest.
I was exhausted with the dishonesty the lies the scams etc.
Each to his own I suppose but if we were all like Allan what would the world be like?
The saying The Rich get Richer shines in this book but they don’t get there by being ordinary or honest.
December 29, 2012
The dedication reads “for all honest Australians”. As I read the book the back of my mind is thinking of all the individuals I know who would consider themselves to fit into that dedication, and yet part of them would also be wishing for the rewards, the lifestyle elements, the confidence and daring-do of someone like Alan Bond. Something about his larrikan ways appeals to far too many Australians, or he would not “get away with it” as the subtitle suggests. And it is just because so many want to gain some advantages for themselves that schemes are always so enticing and seductive, for the gambling element in the Australian population – which accounts for many more males than females, but is not exclusive to them.
Going for Broke is such an interesting term. The implication is that the endpoint will always be “broke”, no matter what success may be achieved or enjoyed along the way. There is all the excitement, all the effort, the total commitment of no holds barred – and all to get to the end with everything spent and nothing left over for anyone else.
But Bond hasn’t spent it all. He hasn’t even spent himself – though he play-acted that he had through some of his trials as a ploy for other purposes. He has always retained something up his sleeve, and been a few steps ahead of everyone with his planning and positions and connections and disappearing tricks. The extent to which he set up his elaborate strategies to siphon off what was not his makes it thoroughly plausible for him to say: “I have no hidden money,” and truly mean it within himself.
This is possible from two points of view: firstly, that it is not hidden when it is possible to see its results buying him time and distance from those who would stop his activities; and secondly, because it is not his. Even though he has retained control of large sums of money, and had large portions of it held in accounts of businesses under his direction, as stolen money it is not his, and as detached money it is not his either.
For anyone to question his audacity to lie in court, I suggest they consider whether they in fact asked him the right questions.
This is one of the greatest tricks of semi-educated businessmen. They beat intelligent and intellectual people in so many practical skills because they use their own prejudices against them. It is the values which people present which show up their own weaknesses. Confidence comes from recognising these tendencies in people and playing on them. The more you enjoy the game, the more you take the edge off their seriousness about things, the more leverage you have to make a space for yourself to play at their expense.
These are not new methods – they are age-old ones. Show the face people expect you to be. But underneath it be who you choose for yourself to be.
I used to tell my children “life is not about what you can get away with.” After witnessing the antics so many other people practice, I have had to reconsider. What you get away with is determined by what you aim at for yourself, which doesn’t have to be the same as what anyone else expects or aims for. But for those who love a show, who expect a performance to include all the paraphernalia that glamour can provide, getting away is decidedly an escape from the mundanity of ordinary lives. From this point of view I would have to consider that Alan Bond’s life is more ordinary than most, simply because it is filled with those common aspirations of things to show and there are more of them.
The tragedy of a life like Alan Bond’s is that what gets “broke” in the process of living it is the other options people have to not be caught up in those aspirations. To neither feed anyone else’s aspirations for what you don’t want yourself, nor to be drawn in any way by it, requires having your own values deeply embedded in all your behaviours as well as the outward signs of your presence and enjoyment. To spend your life in constant fear of what you will lose if “found out” must take its toll at some point. If being “found out” yet still not caught is part of your life plan, then I guess Bond’s display is the epitome of such a lifestyle. But I can’t help but wonder at those who spend their lives as satellites around such a force.
I don’t just mean those who are caught up in the whirl of girlfriends and mistresses, side-kicks and employees. I mean the reporters, the investigators, all those who make some kind of living from trying to bring down or make accountable such a person. They apparently do not aspire to be like him, yet all their energy is taken up by the focus upon him anyway. That seems so wasteful, so counter-productive, to me. To break your own spirit, your own sense of a worthy life, by wasting it in the chase for a dismantling of the glamour of others, is not to hold up your own values to shine in their own right. All your efforts are spent in the shadow of the false image you would dismantle. You rob yourself by such efforts.
It seems to me that every person who becomes such a focus of attention for their notoriety rather than their true accomplishments, is merely a distraction from what you would really rather be doing constructively with your life. To pursue more positively, with the same kind of determination, must surely produce better results and contentedness. But you would still have to pay for them for yourself. It is only the likes of Alan Bond who have figured out how to live their entire lives on other people energies – even though they also supply quite a deal of their own as the initiating motivator.
The gains and losses equal out. The names of those who have shared in the winnings and those who have paid the price are mostly hidden. The characters named in this book are only the tip of the iceberg for either. If we are truly honest with ourselves, we will see and appreciate this for what it is. Then we might better choose ways and means of identifying and working with those who hold better values aligned to those we choose to live out for ourselves, and leave the grander illusions to others without draining ourselves by over-concern with them.
Our greatest honesty is within ourselves, and for that to flourish we have to give up politeness and the pretence of appearances to be willing to be seen for who we are. I think we are all a long way still from that.
Going for Broke is such an interesting term. The implication is that the endpoint will always be “broke”, no matter what success may be achieved or enjoyed along the way. There is all the excitement, all the effort, the total commitment of no holds barred – and all to get to the end with everything spent and nothing left over for anyone else.
But Bond hasn’t spent it all. He hasn’t even spent himself – though he play-acted that he had through some of his trials as a ploy for other purposes. He has always retained something up his sleeve, and been a few steps ahead of everyone with his planning and positions and connections and disappearing tricks. The extent to which he set up his elaborate strategies to siphon off what was not his makes it thoroughly plausible for him to say: “I have no hidden money,” and truly mean it within himself.
This is possible from two points of view: firstly, that it is not hidden when it is possible to see its results buying him time and distance from those who would stop his activities; and secondly, because it is not his. Even though he has retained control of large sums of money, and had large portions of it held in accounts of businesses under his direction, as stolen money it is not his, and as detached money it is not his either.
For anyone to question his audacity to lie in court, I suggest they consider whether they in fact asked him the right questions.
This is one of the greatest tricks of semi-educated businessmen. They beat intelligent and intellectual people in so many practical skills because they use their own prejudices against them. It is the values which people present which show up their own weaknesses. Confidence comes from recognising these tendencies in people and playing on them. The more you enjoy the game, the more you take the edge off their seriousness about things, the more leverage you have to make a space for yourself to play at their expense.
These are not new methods – they are age-old ones. Show the face people expect you to be. But underneath it be who you choose for yourself to be.
I used to tell my children “life is not about what you can get away with.” After witnessing the antics so many other people practice, I have had to reconsider. What you get away with is determined by what you aim at for yourself, which doesn’t have to be the same as what anyone else expects or aims for. But for those who love a show, who expect a performance to include all the paraphernalia that glamour can provide, getting away is decidedly an escape from the mundanity of ordinary lives. From this point of view I would have to consider that Alan Bond’s life is more ordinary than most, simply because it is filled with those common aspirations of things to show and there are more of them.
The tragedy of a life like Alan Bond’s is that what gets “broke” in the process of living it is the other options people have to not be caught up in those aspirations. To neither feed anyone else’s aspirations for what you don’t want yourself, nor to be drawn in any way by it, requires having your own values deeply embedded in all your behaviours as well as the outward signs of your presence and enjoyment. To spend your life in constant fear of what you will lose if “found out” must take its toll at some point. If being “found out” yet still not caught is part of your life plan, then I guess Bond’s display is the epitome of such a lifestyle. But I can’t help but wonder at those who spend their lives as satellites around such a force.
I don’t just mean those who are caught up in the whirl of girlfriends and mistresses, side-kicks and employees. I mean the reporters, the investigators, all those who make some kind of living from trying to bring down or make accountable such a person. They apparently do not aspire to be like him, yet all their energy is taken up by the focus upon him anyway. That seems so wasteful, so counter-productive, to me. To break your own spirit, your own sense of a worthy life, by wasting it in the chase for a dismantling of the glamour of others, is not to hold up your own values to shine in their own right. All your efforts are spent in the shadow of the false image you would dismantle. You rob yourself by such efforts.
It seems to me that every person who becomes such a focus of attention for their notoriety rather than their true accomplishments, is merely a distraction from what you would really rather be doing constructively with your life. To pursue more positively, with the same kind of determination, must surely produce better results and contentedness. But you would still have to pay for them for yourself. It is only the likes of Alan Bond who have figured out how to live their entire lives on other people energies – even though they also supply quite a deal of their own as the initiating motivator.
The gains and losses equal out. The names of those who have shared in the winnings and those who have paid the price are mostly hidden. The characters named in this book are only the tip of the iceberg for either. If we are truly honest with ourselves, we will see and appreciate this for what it is. Then we might better choose ways and means of identifying and working with those who hold better values aligned to those we choose to live out for ourselves, and leave the grander illusions to others without draining ourselves by over-concern with them.
Our greatest honesty is within ourselves, and for that to flourish we have to give up politeness and the pretence of appearances to be willing to be seen for who we are. I think we are all a long way still from that.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews