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He's crazy about her

2005/05/25


Entrepreneur Ron Bakir says money is no object to secure Schapelle Corby's release. His creditors disagree, writes Nick Tabakoff.

Gold Coast businessman Ron Bakir has been called many things over the years. His emergence as the so-called financial saviour and backer of Schapelle Corby is just his most recent identity.
According to an affidavit filed by Bakir in a court case several years ago, he arrived in Australia from Lebanon in 1982 at the age of five. He has used at least three different names. Born Rani Muhuddine Hassan, he eventually adopted Bakir, his mother’s maiden name, and used the name Ron Larry to register the business name Crazy Ron’s in Queensland in 1996.
Bakir opened his initial store at Mermaid Beach on the Gold Coast in 1996, two doors up from a Crazy John’s outlet. It was the start of an ongoing war with Bakir’s rival phone retailer. It was also the start of a marketing blitz, during which Bakir opened new stores and gained a reputation for relentless self-promotion.
Last week, on the Nine Network’s Schapelle’s Nightmare: The Untold Story, Bakir said: “It’s not a matter of money. How can you put money or a price on an innocent girl’s life? You just can’t do it. If it costs a mountain of gold, then let it be.”
But where will the gold come from? Bakir has angered creditors of the Crazy Ron’s and Mad Ron’s group of companies – which Bakir founded – who say they have not been paid.
One major creditor, Brendan Fleiter, managing director of national mobile phone retailer Crazy John’s, told The Bulletin: “Don’t go on national TV and talk about mountains of gold for Schapelle Corby when you still owe your creditors hundreds of thousands of dollars.”
Mobileworld Communications – Crazy John’s parent company – sued the Crazy Ron’s group in 2003, alleging infringement of trademarks and breaches of the Trade Practices Act. Bakir’s companies were forced to change their trading name to Mad Ron’s.

The Crazy Ron’s group also received orders to pay $517,000 towards the legal costs of Crazy John’s. It is a sum that Fleiter says is unpaid.
Bakir has a colourful business history, with several company collapses. Most recent has been the fall of Crazy Ron’s Communications (CRC), in liquidation as of May 3. A liquidator’s report by Paul Brake, of Australian Corporate and Personal Insolvency, has been obtained by The Bulletin. Brake says “it seems likely there may be no readily collectable assets of any significance”.
Brake has also raised questions about the legitimacy of the “sale” of the group’s business and assets last September. “As liquidator, I may review that sale agreement in order to assess whether the transaction was a commercial one,” Brake says.
“If, in my opinion, the agreement was uncommercial, then the transaction may be deemed voidable under Part 5.7B of the Corporations Act.”
Fleiter claims the sale of businesses established by the Crazy Ron’s group is part of a pattern of setting up “phoenix” companies when creditors come knocking: “Every time creditors start asking to be paid, there seems to be the ‘sale’ of a business, or some other transaction, to a related party.”
Bakir did not return The Bulletin’s calls last week about his financial affairs.
An affidavit filed by Bakir in the Federal Court during the Crazy John’s case claims that the business was sold to the BHL Group in January 2002, although it says he has remained as the group’s “spokesman and public face”.
The affidavit also notes that he filed for bankruptcy in June 2002. The bankruptcy was discharged in October 2003.
While Fleiter is not unsympathetic to Bakir’s efforts for Schapelle Corby, he comments: “I’d like him to pay us before he pays the Indonesian lawyers.”

http://www.bulletin.ninemsn.com.au/b...25700900805623

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I wouldnt waste anymore time on ron bakir than I would waste on you