Police have finally made their first arrest over the $100 million Firepower scandal but the surprise is it’s not any of the people responsible for diddling mums and dads. Instead, police have charged a Perth real estate agent with attempting to extort money from Firepower chief Tim Johnston.
Gold Coast detectives flew to Perth this week with a warrant for the arrest of Maxwell Raymond Healy over the alleged extortion attempt, which the West Australian reports was made last month.
Government departments are amazingly brave all of sudden in cracking down on the miracle claims of new fuel saving products. Independent testing of a New Zealand device touted as fuel saving, has found it is useless, Western Australia’s Department of Consumer Protection says. Consumer Protection said the Fuelstar Combustion Catalyst failed to deliver petrol savings and emissions reductions promised by promoters of the product.
But it is strange to see how history is re-written. This was the same state government department that sat on its hands for more than a year before moving on Firepower. And it is now claiming to have stepped in to stop the Firepower scam – giving the impression it moved quickly. Mind you, I will give it credit for being the only government department to even ask a question.
As if there wasn’t enough colour already, the president of the Russian Olympic Committee has emerged as figure in the Firepower saga. Leonid Tyagachev, a close friend and regular ski companion of the Russian Prime Minister, Vladimir Putin, was part of a failed attempt to raise money for Firepower in London financial circles in 2008. My sources tell me Mr Tyagachev invested $US1 million ($1.12 million) in Firepower. He declined to comment when pressed by my SMH colleague Jacquelin Magnay.
Jacquelin worked with me on many of the Firepower stories. She is now off to the Daily Telegraph in London to work as their olympics reporter.
I also decided to update readers of the Sydney Morning Herald on the story so far.
THE corporate regulator and liquidator of failed fuel technology company Firepower will begin poring over five days of Tim Johnston’s startling evidence in an attempt to determine if legal action will be pursued.
This week saw the end of five days of examination of the Firepower boss in the Federal Court in Perth, but the Australian Securities & Investments Commission has reserved the right to recall Mr Johnston if necessary.
Meanwhile Johnston has told the ABC that none of it was his fault and he is very sorry everyone lost their money. He also spun another line about working for Green Power. In fact, my sources say he hasn’t been seen anywhere near Green Power for quite some time.
Won’t be long now before another big name emerges – caught up in the on-going soap opera. For now, let’s just say the guy who was recently off skiing with Putin.
A man Firepower boss Tim Johnston says was abducted by a group of bikies at the behest of property developer Warren Anderson has dismissed the claim as ridiculous.
“It’s actually ridiculous. It’s a bit offensive really, there’s no substance to it whatsoever,” Nairn told ABC radio. Funny that.
After a break from seeing Firepower in the news almost every day, I see the fall-out has resumed. Property tycoon Warren Anderson is defending claims he pushed his estranged wife across a room and onto the floor over a missing computer containing information about the collapsed Firepower business empire. There seem to be a lot of missing computers in the Firepower saga.
Firepower boss Tim Johnston has told a court that he agreed to a $4 million cash transfer out of the company’s funds after a man had made threats against an unspecified person. In dramatic testimony delivered in the Federal Court in Brisbane via video link to Perth, Mr Johnston said yesterday he had caved in to the demands to transfer the cash to a company linked to a Warren Anderson, despite there being no proper basis for the transfer. Read on here.
And here (although note that Les Stein is not a former government minister but a former chairman of the WA planning tribunal).
So here’s my prediction. A major underworld figure soon emerges in the story. I look forward to Tuesday.
Firepower boss Tim Johnston was expected to spend his first night behind bars last night after a warrant was issued for his arrest, reports Perth’s Sunday Times. Johnston was questioned in Brisbane yesterday, via videolink to a Federal Court hearing in Perth, on his failure to attend a public examination of his failed company last Thursday. Johnston had cited health and safety concerns for his inability to attend the liquidators’ hearing in Perth, supplying a doctor’s affidavit to support his claim that he was too ill to fly. Lawyers for the liquidators of Firepower immediately applied for a warrant for his arrest, and that hearing was adjourned to Wednesday. Sorry for the cut-and-paste job but I am still overseas. But you can read on here.
UPDATE: I see Johnston has escaped being taken into custody despite a warrant being issued for his arrest.
I picked a bad time to go overseas on business, given all the the drama over the past few days. It began on Thursday when, as predicted, Firepower boss Tim Johnston failed to turn up to court. That led to an application for his arrest. The usual delaying tactics continued when Johnston applied for further leave to have his heart examined – stress and fear for his safety apparently. The new deadline appears to be Tuesday, when the Federal Court will sit again to discuss whether or not he is able to front the court and face a public examination over the $100 million collapse of Firepower. Even his old mate Warren Anderson is wondering what’s going on.
