WORLD EXCLUSIVE: WEDNESDAY WALK DOWN MEMORY LANE

Andrew Landeryou’s criminality and incompetence lead to the bankrupting of the courtroom amnesiac and alleged female impersonator Kimberley Kitching, the bankrupting of his shonky old man Big Bent Bill and the bankrupting of the 900 kilogram man himself.


But the criminality and incompetence Big Bent Bill Landeryou lead to the bankrupting of the state!

Today Slanderyou New presents a world exclusive: Wednesday Walk Down Memory Lane.

It’s very different from Landeryou’s self-hyped Monday Madness, yet another fraud by the fatman. Anyone mad enough to log onto his sleazy site at the start this week found nothing of interest there but dsicovered 24 hours later Landeryou had stolen all their online banking and sharetrading details and cleared out their accounts thanks to the malware cookies his site leaves in the PCs of anyone foolish enough to go there.

Slanderyou New has a real story.

We take you on a trip down memory lane to reveal one of Big Bent Bill’s most scandalous crimes and the part his morbidly obese failure of a son has played in the cover up.

Fat Andrew Landeryou has used both his failed and abandoned Blog of Sleaze and the little-read hate site Vexnews to lash John Cain and the left of the ALP for sending the state’s economy down the toilet at the end of the eighties.

Why does he go so feral? Why attack John Cain so when everyone knows he is an honest and decent man who bought Labor back into government after a quarter of a century in the wilderness?

Wednesday Walk Down Memory Lane is here to remind all decent hardworking patriotic and law abiding people why the failure and criminal Andrew Landeryou behaves in this way.

The authority that racked up $110 million worth of losses on the taxpayer’s tab was the Victorian Economic Development Corporation.

And guess who gave one of his mates and business partners a key position at the top of this show without the most basic due diligence?

It was a man who thankfully only briefly served as a minister before he was sacked for being an ethical void…

It was… BIG BENT BILL LANDERYOU!

Read on, patriots, as the Wednesday Walk Down Memory Lane takes you back to The Herald of December 9 1998:

EXCLUSIVE: How Minister appointed key man without knowing his background
VEDC director was a former bankrupt


By T Maher*


One of the directors of the Victorian Economic Development Corporation was a former bankrupt who admitted in court that he had falsified figures relating to a business venture, and attempted to deceive the Taxation Commissioner.


He is Mr David Efron, a 53-year-old Brighton businessman who served as one of the VEDC's nine directors from 1982 until August last year, a few weeks before the corporation was effectively abolished.


Records show that Mr Efron was declared bankrupt in 1971 and his bankruptcy was not annulled until February 1979, less than four years before his appointment to the board of the State Government's "business bank".


The Minister at the time who appointed him, Mr Bill Landeryou, told The Herald he had not known about Mr Efron's bankruptcy. He would not speculate on whether he would have appointed him had he known.


The transcript of Mr Efron's bankruptcy proceedings discloses that:


Mr Efron admitted attempting to deceive the Taxation Commissioner by providing inaccurate stock figures in the balance sheet of his family company, Witron Timber Pty Ltd; and


He admitted providing "falsified figures" to a prospective purchaser while negotiating the sale of the company.


Mr Efron's bankruptcy related to the collapse in 1970 of a deal to sell Witron Timber, a timber trading company owned by Mr Efron and his wife Lilian.


He left Melbourne, and was declared bankrupt on his own petition in South Australia in November 1971.


In his statement of affairs, Mr Efron listed his only asset as $15 "cash in hand" and said he owed more than $30,000 to 11 creditors. He said that he was "hopelessly insolvent".


During cross-examination, Mr Efron admitted that in Witron's annual return, the value of the company's stock had been under-stated by $10,000. The transcript records the following exchange: Q: "Are you saying that in order to deceive the Taxation Commissioner, the stock figures are not accurate?" Efron: "That is correct." Later in Mr Efron's evidence, he was questioned about the attempted sale of Witron Timber for $100,000 to a Mr Barnett.


Q: "The position is, then, that the figures Mr Barnett would have had when he was negotiating for the sale and purchase of this company would have been the falsified figures?" Efron: "Yes, that is right."


In 1973 Mr Efron applied to have his bankruptcy discharged. The application failed, after the South Australian Official Receiver objected on the grounds that Mr Efron had tried to avoid his creditors, and a few days before his bankruptcy had sold shares he owned in various companies to a relative for a "nominal amount".


In 1979 there was another critical report by the Official Receiver, Mr Francis James Pearce, who said that in 1975 he had applied for a warrant for Mr Efron's arrest to force him to contribute $10 a week towards his debts. The application was later withdrawn after Mr Efron agreed to make the payments.


"I do not consider the conduct of the bankrupt (Mr Efron) has been satisfactory . . . it is possible that (he) may have committed offences under the Bankruptcy Act, but I have insufficient evidence to proceed with any action in this matter," Mr Pearce said.


Mr Efron had his bankruptcy annulled, after nearly eight years, in February 1979.


Interviewed by The Herald, he said he had "paid every penny back" and defended his reputation.


In August 1982, the Cain Government advertised for applicants to join the board of the VEDC. The advertisement said the Government was looking for "persons of proven ability at the most senior levels in administration, commerce, industry or banking".


The ad said: "Applicants will need to demonstrate a mature approach to commercial matters, an understanding of entrepreneurial skills and their applications, and a familiarity with high technology projects."


The Herald makes no suggestion that Mr Efron acted in any way improperly as a director of the VEDC.


What we are suggesting is that Mr Efron at the time of his appointment to the VEDC board did not appear to have the necessary qualifications as specified in the advertisement; and that Mr Landeryou did not make adequate checks on his background.


Mr Landeryou was sacked from the Ministry in 1983 after a report on his financial affairs found that he had created the appearance of a conflict between his Ministerial duties and his private interests.


Mr Landeryou said that he and Mr Efron had been friends since the early 1970s through their association with the Essendon Football Club's coterie group, the Essendonians. In 1982 Mr Landeryou appointed Mr Efron to his staff as a consultant.


Mr Landeryou said he had been aware that Mr Efron had "had his ups and downs" in business, but he did not know he had been a bankrupt until The Herald told him.


Mr Efron was made a director of the VEDC in October 1982, and left when his term expired in August.


Corporate Affairs records show that Mr Efron has been associated with about 20 companies over the past few years - some as a private businessman, and some as a VEDC-appointed director.


As a VEDC director he was on the boards of Horticultural Holdings Ltd, Sperry Transportation Systems Pty Ltd, Belah Pty Ltd, VEDC Leasing Pty Ltd and Hickory Fashions Pty Ltd.


Mr Efron told The Herald: "I don't believe my previous background impinged on my ability to be on those boards." As a private businessman, Mr Efron has been involved in property development, and hotels.


Mr Landeryou was also on the boards of some of these companies.


Mr Landeryou and Mr Efron were directors of Mitchell Park Estate Pty Ltd, which was involved in a profitable $700,000 subdivision at Sunbury between 1985 and 1987.


They were also on the board of Ledaway Pty Ltd, which operates the Skyways International hotel/motel complex at Airport West.


Mr Landeryou said he had resigned his directorships last April to avoid any suggestion of conflict of interest.



* Was the T Maher who wrote this story later Landeryou’s Crikey colleague Terry Maher?
.
.