Skase's Reign in Spain Turns Sour

Eric Ellis

05/27/1991

CHRISTOPHER SKASE will today step into a Southport courtroom to answer charges of assault, his first Australian appearance since November.

He will tell the court he is now based on the Spanish island of Mallorca and planning Mirage-style resorts there - "El Hombre del Futuro", as a Spanish newspaper has satirically cast him.

But as a Herald investigation has discovered, there is more to the Skase story since his sudden exit from Australia and the headaches of the $1 billion collapse of his Qintex television and tourist empire. Skase is alive and well, having recovered from the bad back that kept him away from the same court in February. But he is having a hard time doing business in Puerto de Andraitx, an exclusive hideaway on Mallorca.

The investigation into Skase's affairs has traced him to a substantial $US2 million ($A2.58m) estate, La Noria, at Puerto de Andraitx, a Palm Beach-like village 38 kilometres south-west of the Mallorcan capital of Palma.

Skase is dividing his time between La Noria and a luxury flat in the same area.

The Australian Securities Commission (ASC), which is investigating the 1989 collapse of Qintex, has confirmed that Mr Skase is connected with La Noria, which it said was co-owned or rented by a daughter by a previous marriage of his wife.

The Skase story in Mallorca started several years ago when he first visited the island and began dreaming of developing a Mirage-style resort. But it only really started to gather steam after the Qintex collapse 18 months ago, when Skase began making efforts to acquire a property on the island.

Last year, he assembled a team comprising his wife Pixie, his mysterious New Zealander companion, Mr Lawrence Van Der Plaat, the Gold Coast architect of the Mirage resorts Mr Desmond Brooks, and bilingual Valencian commercial lawyer Senor Enrique Calomardes.

In May, the team bedded down in the $A387 a night suites of the Melia Victoria Hotel, Palma's best, and went deal-making.

"Everyone spent a lot of time on the phone, calling Australia and London mostly," remembers the Melia Victoria's front desk man Miguel Perello. "They were very confident. Mr Skase was very urbane, an elegant man."

The group set about conducting meetings and lunches with a view to acquiring "a major property", as one member of the team puts it. Not long after, Skase thought he had that property.

Raixa is probably Mallorca's most famous estate, situated in 500 hectares of gardens at Bunole, 12 kilometres north of Palma.

It was built in the early 1800s by Senor Debuig, the former Count of Montenegro, and he filled the hacienda with beautiful art and hosted grand parties for kings, dukes and wealthy merchants.

Today, the property is owned by his descendants, the aristocratic Mallorcan family of Jaume Torres. With four elderly brothers and eight sons and nephews, the ownership of Raixa has been a headache for the Jaume Torres, so much so that the family decided 18 months ago to list the property for sale.

Family patriarch Eduardo, 82, spends his summers at Puerto Pollensa, a resort 70 kilometres north-east of Palma, and it was here that he met and was cultivated by a local real estate agent, Senor Jesus Martinez Ortega.

With a keen eye for the main chance, Senor Martinez offered to list Raixa for sale and advertised it in the local Diario de Mallorca.

In about April or May last year, as Senor Martinez tells it, he received a phone call from an Australian man who said he was a resort developer interested in talking about Raixa and other properties on the Martinez books.

"He seemed quite OK to me and I was happy to develop a business relationship with him," said Senor Martinez. "He said he was setting up an infrastructure in Mallorca of lawyers, accountants and so on, and on this basis I was happy to help him."

Everyone the Herald has spoken to regarding this relationship says Senor Martinez was appointed as Skase's agent in Mallorca. Senor Martinez denied this and said he had merely been acting in a normal intermediary capacity. He maintains two offices and 10 staff in a medium-sized practice on Mallorca.

The venture gathered steam. Senor Martinez arranged introductions with local government officials, including those responsible for the Bunole region and the Spanish Tourist Council.

Senor Eduardo Jaume Torres remembers Skase as having a penchant for blue shoes and being very aggressive, very charismatic, a style which does not always go over well in the tight-knit Mallorcan business community.

"He seemed like a man who could have built a golf course on the top of Everest," he said.

Nevertheless, the Jaume Torres were (and remain) keen sellers of Raixa and a deal was struck. A deposit was paid, believed to be up to $US1 million($A1.29m), and Skase introduced Mr Brooks and his development plans for a golfing resort, centred on the Raixa house as a hotel.

Senor Jaume Torres remembers Mr Brooks as short, "a fat man" who was much quieter and less aggressive than Skase.

Everything seemed to be going swimmingly until an incident on September 12 when Skase clashed with Australian journalists on his trail who had tracked him down to the Melia Victoria.

"He looked like he had seen the devil when the newspapers came," said the Melia Victoria's Miguel Perello.

Skase and entourage quickly checked out of the Melia Victoria for another hotel (the bill paid in full by cash and cleared credit cards). The booking in the other hotel was cancelled and he disappeared from view.

Soon after the Melia Victoria incident with the journalists, residents along the secluded Carrer Cala D'Egos in the village of Puerto de Andraitx noticed a lot of activity at a grand house, La Noria, that was formerly occupied by a minor member of the Spanish royal family.

According to a woman who lives in a house adjacent to La Noria, the people identified themselves as Australians and said they had recently moved to Spain from California to do business. (One of the Skase family's last major intended purchases before the Qintex collapse was an $US11 million mansion in Hollywood.)

La Noria was in reasonable condition, the gardens less so and the new occupants immediately set about a large renovation and restoration program.

"They were quite friendly, very personable, I saw them once down in the village at a restaurant and they yelled out to me. I didn't recognise them and the woman said 'it's me, Pixie, your neighbour'," said the woman.

The Herald recently called at La Noria and a man, identified only as Brian, with a strong Australian accent, said Skase was "not at home".

On the business front, Skase was running into obstacles. Despite setting down a deposit for Raixa, he was alarmed to learn the island government had enacted a preservation law that sought to conserve Raixa as a national treasure.

Senor Martinez set up more appointments with local officials, and Skase lobbied hard to influence them to change the law, or at least win them over with his environmentally-friendly plans. But Bunole officials refused to discuss their meetings with Skase.

He also began a campaign at the tourism council, which must approve such developments, trying to cultivate the council's legal officer, Senor Antonio Tarrago, as a contact and point of influence.

Although the story of the Melia Victoria incident escaped the papers, word began to spread that there might be more to Skase than met the eye. Senor Martinez and the lawyer Senor Calomardes claimed to have severed their connections while another deal with a French banker fell over.

Another blow came in February when Senor Tarrago, Skase's tourism council contact, died.

Although Senor Calomardes said he ended his association with Skase "around Christmas", subsequent investigation revealed he had still been in contact as recently as February 7, and possibly up until a week ago.

On February 7, Skase took delivery of a medical certificate signed by Dr Onofe Alba Vidal, of Palma. The certificate, a copy of which has been obtained by the Herald, says Skase has problems with his "lower extremities" which prevented travel for at least three months. This was the excuse he gave a Queensland court to explain his lack of attendance at a February hearing.

Despite Senor Calomardes's claim that he had severed his tie with Skase, his signature appears on the medical certificate. Further, a letter from a senior partner of the London firm Baileys Shaw and Gillet received by the local newspaper, Diario de Mallorca, before it published an article about Skase's activities on the island, cited Senor Calomardes as representing Baileys Shaw and Gillet in acting for Mr Skase.

The letter also claimed that Australian authorities had known of Skase's whereabouts "for many months". The ASC denies knowing where he is.

The letter said Skase would "vigourously defend" in person today's assault charge. It said he was "not aware" of any official investigation into his past actions relating to Qintex.

Skase blames Qintex's downfall on "the actions of the Australian Government" in driving interest rates up to 23 per cent, as well as the 1989 airline pilots' strike. He had previously blamed the media and "communists"for Qintex problems.

He also says he did not take an option on the property Raixa, but a company advised by him did. Subsequent investigations have revealed that Skase controls up to 96 per cent of the company involved in the Raixa negotiations, with Senor Calomardes and a colleague signed on for the remaining share. Senor Calomardes also has a power of attorney over the company.

A company search shows the company, Halcyon Mallorca, was formed on February 4, 1991, just three days before the date of the doctor's certificate and Skase's problems in his lower extremities.

The search lists Skase as resident in London, at either 62 or 82 Chesson Road, West Kensington. The Herald has visited both properties and found no trace of him. No. 82 is occupied by a City commodities broker who claims to have bought the place two years ago from an English family, while 62 is owned by a young English couple who bought it a year ago from a long-resident Turkish family. The couple at 62 believe they received some "official-looking"mail about six months ago addressed to Skase.

The documents also disclose that Mr Skase was issued with Australian passport EO23767 in Melbourne on January 24, 1989.

The Herald has also learned that Skase has applied to stay on in Mallorca and Spain but his application has been frozen by Spanish immigration and government authorities, pending the outcome of the various court matters in Australia. The national Guardia Civil in Madrid have reportedly instructed the Mallorcan authorities to keep an eye on his affairs.

As in Australia, Mr Skase is having considerable difficulties doing business in Mallorca.

Negotiations have ceased on Raixa and at the very least Skase seems to have blown his substantial deposit on the property. His resident status is unclear, as is that of the ownership of La Noria. At the time of print, the ownership of La Noria was being established with the local property register.

The staff at the Melia Victoria say he has not stayed there since last September but has appeared occasionally, usually for business meetings and lunches. The last time deskman Miguel Perello saw him was a fortnight ago.