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Speaker 1: From The Australian. Here's what's on the front. I'm Christinamiot.

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Speaker 1: It's Friday, October three, twenty twenty five. A defense treaty

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Speaker 1: between Australia and Papua New Guinea will be signed as

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Speaker 1: early as next week, following weeks of delays. It's a

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Speaker 1: big win for Anthony Albanesi, who'll attend the NRL Grand

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Speaker 1: Final in Sydney this weekend with his P and G

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Speaker 1: counterpart James Marape. The treaty requires both countries to respond

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Speaker 1: to threats from the common Danger and opens the door

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Speaker 1: for pup ones to join the Australian Defense Force. Its

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Speaker 1: last drinks for a Sydney pub baron. Investors who poured

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Speaker 1: millions of dollars into the Public Hospitality Group are unlikely

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Speaker 1: to recoup their cash after founder John Ajimus declared bankruptcy.

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Speaker 1: And what about the boss. He'll never run a company again.

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Speaker 1: That's today's episode. Friday Night in Sydney, workers shake off

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Speaker 1: the week with a wine or a beer at one

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Speaker 1: of the city's many beloved pubs. If you pulled up

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Speaker 1: a chair at one of those pubs at some point

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Speaker 1: in the past decade, there's a good chance it was

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Speaker 1: owned by John Agimus, the high flying founder of the

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Speaker 1: Public Hospitality group.

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Speaker 2: John is a kind of larger than life character. I mean,

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Speaker 2: there's a kind of pantheon of publicans in this world.

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Speaker 2: You've got justin Ham's, You've got the Lawndies. I think

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Speaker 2: John definitely aspired to be amongst them.

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Speaker 1: David Ross is a reporter with The Australian.

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Speaker 2: He is very much a man known for nice cars,

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Speaker 2: hot girlfriends, nice watchers. I spoke to a former colleague

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Speaker 2: of his once who said that he was well known

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Speaker 2: for being a bit of a figure on the dating circuit.

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Speaker 2: You know, he's the kind of man about town. So

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Speaker 2: the first story I wrote on John was a feature

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Speaker 2: for The Australian's Property section. Looking at John Agemus, you know,

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Speaker 2: he was this big new thing. He basically burst onto

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Speaker 2: the scene during COVID, when all of a sudden there

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Speaker 2: were all these big deals being done to buy pubs

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Speaker 2: and there was basically one buyer and that was John. Now.

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Speaker 2: He snapped up the Norfolk Hotel, he snapped up the

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Speaker 2: Manor House, the Oxford House, and the biggest one I've

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Speaker 2: all was Noah's in Bondai was a huge sum that

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Speaker 2: he put down on that I really put his name

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Speaker 2: on the map when he bought Noah's Weird. The Australian

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Speaker 2: wanted to get us sense of who was this man

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Speaker 2: who was going around Sydney buying every pub he possibly could.

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Speaker 2: And the first time I met him, you know, I

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Speaker 2: literally walked in and we had a parmer. That's quite

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Speaker 2: a way to meet a publican really.

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Speaker 1: But this week the Agimus empire came crashing down as

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Speaker 1: his venues were seized by administrators. Agimus declared bankruptcy, saying

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Speaker 1: he accepts responsibility for the historic collapse.

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Speaker 2: And we know that John knows probably about one point

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Speaker 2: eight billion dollars, which would make him amongst the most

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Speaker 2: broke people in Australia at the moment. There is a

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Speaker 2: little bit of room in that number. There's some suggestion

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Speaker 2: that it's a kind of reflection of a bit of

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Speaker 2: double counting by some of the lenders. You know, we

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Speaker 2: can certainly say that he owes a hell of a

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Speaker 2: lot more than most people.

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Speaker 1: The Australian Tax Office is circling two. In August, The

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Speaker 1: Australian reported the ATO was investigating allegations of a potentially

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Speaker 1: fraudulent GST scheme connected to John Agimus's companies. That means

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Speaker 1: he could be on the hook for a further three

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Speaker 1: hundred million dollars.

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Speaker 2: John had a ninety five foot yacht, the Hallani, which

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Speaker 2: is owned by Shirley Temple. He was living in the

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Speaker 2: Bang and Olson House in Point Piper for quite some time,

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Speaker 2: and then he's now recently moved to Bondi where he's

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Speaker 2: living in will Vicker's penthouse apartment.

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Speaker 1: Argimus's yacht has been sold and his mansions have been seized.

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Speaker 2: As we know, had about three dollars seventy ninety in

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Speaker 2: these bank accounts. It's a little hard to imagine how

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Speaker 2: all of these luxuries could be afforded given how little

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Speaker 2: was in his accounts. The bankruptcy trustees for John have

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Speaker 2: said that about fifteen million dollars was taken from the

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Speaker 2: pub's business, some of which went to fund John's lifestyle,

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Speaker 2: in addition to a wage that he paid himself out

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Speaker 2: of that business. And in fact we know that the

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Speaker 2: rent on his bond iPad was being paid for by

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Speaker 2: one of the companies that John was a controller of,

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Speaker 2: so it's quite clear that this luxury lifestyle was being

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Speaker 2: funded through this pub's business and through this property enterprise.

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Speaker 1: So, David, how did this happen? What do you know

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Speaker 1: about the way John Agumis ran his businesses that allowed

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Speaker 1: him to get in this.

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Speaker 2: Deep You know, in days past, people borrowed money from

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Speaker 2: banks and it was clearer who owed money to who.

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Speaker 2: John's model was about borrowing money from private credit lenders. Archibald, Jemmy,

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Speaker 2: your Quay, Angus Securities. These are just some of the

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Speaker 2: names that John knows money to, and quite often these

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Speaker 2: private credit lenders were being worked with and not. John

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Speaker 2: is not unique a lot in doing this alone. There

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Speaker 2: are others who've done this, but you know, they were fast,

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Speaker 2: they didn't ask too many questions, they didn't require too

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Speaker 2: much documentation, and when it all came crashing down, it

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Speaker 2: became quite clear that they had all lent on the

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Speaker 2: same stuff and probably didn't realize that they had done this.

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Speaker 2: A lot of the loans on these pubs were funded

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Speaker 2: on a at complete valuation. That's where you're borrowing as

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Speaker 2: though it's finished, but often it's not. The vine in

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Speaker 2: Collingwood in Melbourne is still a bomb site. The Saint

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Speaker 2: was opened, it's now closed Noah's in Bondai. It's never

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Speaker 2: reopened since John bought it. There are so many on

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Speaker 2: this list that were borrowed on an at complete valuation

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Speaker 2: that have never been completed.

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Speaker 1: For months, John Agimus has been trying to stop these

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Speaker 1: chickens from coming home to roost. At one point, his

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Speaker 1: proposed solution relied on a cash top up from his

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Speaker 1: mum and sister, but it was rejected by lenders, and

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Speaker 1: so he beat everyone to the punch by declaring bankruptcy.

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Speaker 2: John didn't want to be made bankrupt because if you

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Speaker 2: get made bankrupt, you end up driving in this and

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Speaker 2: micro and you can't leave the country. So what he

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Speaker 2: did is he put up this thing called personal Insolvency Agreement,

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Speaker 2: and it's basically a deal which says, if you don't

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Speaker 2: make me bankrupt, I'll do this. And so John proposed

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Speaker 2: that his mum and his sister would give him some

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Speaker 2: money and that money would be then distributed amongst his

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Speaker 2: creditors and they would get a zero point one point

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Speaker 2: five cents return and the dollar. It meant that he

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Speaker 2: wouldn't have to give up his cars, but he would

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Speaker 2: give up certain things, some artwork. The three dollars seventy

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Speaker 2: nine on his bank account. But now that's all off

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Speaker 2: the table because John has pulled the tregeground his own bankruptcy.

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Speaker 2: The plan is over and it's all the play for.

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Speaker 2: So bankruptcy can solve many problems, but it can't solve

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Speaker 2: them all, one of which is an allegation of a fraud.

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Speaker 2: I'm not suggesting that this is true, and obviously these

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Speaker 2: things would have to be reproved in court, but there

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Speaker 2: appears to be some allegations of a very serious GST

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Speaker 2: fraud that has happened in companies that John controlled or

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Speaker 2: controls by making himself bankrupted. These do not go away,

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Speaker 2: and they will remain to be investigated. Liquidatas are investigating

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Speaker 2: these companies. But people here are going to take an

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Speaker 2: absolute bath. Like it's looking from the current returns from

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Speaker 2: the last set of reports, they're going to get zero

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Speaker 2: point zero six cents in the dollar return. So if

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Speaker 2: you gave John ten bucks, you get zero point six cents.

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Speaker 2: It's nothing. So these investors are going to get nothing

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Speaker 2: and they're all being burned. Whereas if this was a bank,

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Speaker 2: the bank would wear the loss.

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Speaker 1: Coming up, John Agimis's journey from deal maker to bankruptcy.

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Speaker 1: John Argimis's spectacular fall from financial grace puts him up

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Speaker 1: there with some of the biggest bankruptcies in Australian history.

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Speaker 3: Corporate high flyer Alan Bond is once again a free man.

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Speaker 3: He was originally jailed in nineteen ninety seven for four

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Speaker 3: years after being convicted of the frauding Bell Resources of

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Speaker 3: more than one billion dollars. In Business News, the chase

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Speaker 3: for Christopher S CAS's millions is unveiling some surprises. Some

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Speaker 3: of the best accounting minds in the country are now

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Speaker 3: focusing on the web of companies that Skate set up

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Speaker 3: to surround his Quintex operation.

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Speaker 1: At one point, Agimus had dozens of properties and venues

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Speaker 1: to his name.

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Speaker 2: It's a little difficult to establish, and I have kind

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Speaker 2: of used the phrasing more than twenty two venues. However,

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Speaker 2: it has become clear that there were these other property

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Speaker 2: things that John had picked up along the way and

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Speaker 2: glued into this empire. There was a rooming house in Annandale,

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Speaker 2: there was a block of flats in Paddington. There's a

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Speaker 2: block of land out in hurst Field that he had

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Speaker 2: plans to build a praishon. You know, at its peak

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Speaker 2: it was a very large business with quite a number

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Speaker 2: of operating pubs or pubs were renovation projects or construction projects.

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Speaker 2: You know, there were these kind of little bits and

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Speaker 2: pieces of property that John had assembled along the way.

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Speaker 1: Ajimus got his start as a deal maker at KPMG,

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Speaker 1: where he oversaw the floating of outdoor retailer Katmandu on

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Speaker 1: the Stock Market and the acquisition of Neil Perry's Rockpool

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Speaker 1: restaurant Group. He made the jump to property development later,

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Speaker 1: but his plan to build a sixty story tower on

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Speaker 1: Sydney's Lower North Shore also fell over. Undeterred, Adimis gathered

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Speaker 1: up his various venues and launched the Public Hospitality Group

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Speaker 1: in the middle of a pandemic.

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Speaker 2: It is a brave thing to do to open a

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Speaker 2: pub's business during COVID. Even after the pandemic ended, there

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Speaker 2: were kind of restrictions on how many people could be

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Speaker 2: in these places. The borders were closed. And this was

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Speaker 2: not a gaming business. Most people do pubs to make

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Speaker 2: money off poke machines, especially in the South Wales. The

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Speaker 2: Public Hospitality Group model was not a gaming business. It

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Speaker 2: was a drink, dine and destination business. You stayed upstairs.

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Speaker 2: You know this was the kind of return to hotels

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Speaker 2: as hotels under John. You know he recreates all these

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Speaker 2: hotel rooms upstairs and a lot of his venues sets

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Speaker 2: something new. Restaurants downstairs puts more than just two is

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Speaker 2: on tap. You know that was the model.

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Speaker 1: David Ross is a business reporter with The Australian. You

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Speaker 1: can read all his reporting about the end of the

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Speaker 1: Agumus Empire right now at the Australian dot com dot

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Speaker 1: au