Bank Fraud in Australia - Tony Rigg vs. Commonwealth Bank of Australia - 1

 21 YEARS ON AND STILL FIGHTING THE COMMONWEALTH BANK OF AUSTRALIA

I am a builder, boilermaker, and roof plumber. I taught stage 1and 2 oxy and electric welding and I specialized in MIG and TIG welding. One of our apprentices topped the state two years running in roof plumbing. To-day we would have had more apprentices which would have helped with the shortage of trades people in Australia. I wanted to build a steel boat in our new factory for our own use and at the same time teach our staff welding procedures and techniques.

I was nominated as Business Person of the Year in 1985 by Shoalhaven City Council. The last paragraph reads,

THE OFFICIAL SEAL OF THE CITY OF SHOALHAVEN was hereunto affixed in recognition of outstanding service to the community, signed by HARRY SAWKINS, MAYOR, Dated at Nowra this 25th day of October, 1985.

With the support of BHP, Austrade and our local Council and others we had inquiries from Companies in 33 countries.  BHP, Austrade and others gave evidence of support in the Supreme Court of New South Wales.  BHP and Austrade financed our Export Pamphlets.  Austrade distributed our pamphlets overseas through their Trade Commissioners offices.  Austrade advertised our company in a trade magazine called “What’s New in Building” which is printed in Singapore and distributed throughout S.E. Asia.

For example, in the L B I NEWS, 20 August 1986:

For immediate release,

Steel showpiece for ASIA, a building centre constructed by a Nowra company has been chosen by the Australian Trade Commission to be promoted in Asia as a showpiece for steel framing. The South Nowra Building World was built by Tony Rigg Welding and Manufacturing Pty Ltd, a company on the south coast of NSW which specializes in steel framed, roofed and floored buildings. The commission will use it as an example of what Australian enterprises could be doing in South East Asia. [three-page document]

A similar story is in the KEMBLA NEWS November 1986. the internal newspaper of Port Kembla Steel Works, Slab and Plate Products Division. 

A letter from BHP Sheet and Coil Products:

Mr. Rigg has successfully tendered to supply BHP with steel framing and has successfully carried out construction work for BHP. Mr. Riggs experience in the building industry particularly related to steel framing is highly regarded.

Letter from J.L. Methven, Export Manager, LYSAGHT BUILDING INDUSTRIES 18 April 1989:

Dear Tony, your interest in the marketing of the steel framing concept offshore, mainly for the Asian region, is well known within the BHP Coated Products Division and appears most worthy of further investigation.

The letter goes on to say they will support in every way.

The following paragraphs are from the COMMONWEALTH BANK of AUSTRALIA’s staffs own files which is in Hansard and in Court records

Your office is well aware of our recent marketing efforts in this area and the substantial gains made from the Banks approval of this application will further our sound reputation in the local business community.

As the company will be earning off-shore income it will have a natural hedge against exchange rate movements for its foreign currency option.  We have discussed with applicants the possibility of having all off-shore income denominated in one or two currency with the forward exchange contract being geared in line with the income received, but COMMONWEALTH BANK of AUSTRALIA staff told Mr. Martin, we did not have foreign currency loan. AND the company has a good working relationship with Lysaght Brownbuilt Industries, which supplies the steel for the portal frames. With the assistance of Lysaghts and the Department of Trade, Tony Rigg Welding and Manufacturing is now advertising extensively overseas and there has been considerable interest shown in Tony Rigg Welding and Manufacturing’s product. Ron Jackson of the Department of Trade at Wollongong is well known to you. He has been of great assistance to Mr. Rigg in the Marketing of his product overseas and we have no doubt that export markets will open up in the short term.

Extract from Housing Australia, official journal of H.I.A. February 1987issue.

Tony Rigg, Welding and Manufacturing of Nowra, NSW, is one of anew breed of builders using steel framing exclusively. Tony built these steel framed townhouses in Glebe. They are designed to blend with the Victorian style building predominant in the Glebe area.

It has all gone because of FRAUD by the staff of COMMONWEALTH BANK of AUSTRALIA.  Today we would have been a major employer and exporter with joint ventures in other countries.  We were pioneers in our field and the whole community would have benefited.

Dennis Stevenson, a former Independent Member of the A.C.T. Parliament, read some of our evidence into Hansard of how we were going to bring people back to Australia and teach them the trade then joint venture with them in their own country using as many Australian products and expertise as possible. Austrade and B.H.P. thought that was a great idea. See the Hansard, BANKING INDUSTRY, Discussion of Matter of Public Importance, 7 December 1994, pages 4710 to 4715. 

It has all gone because of FRAUD by the staff of COMMONWEALTH BANK of AUSTRALIA.

I had developed a high rise building system especially for third world countries.  Engineers have told me the system would be up to 50% lighter than conventional systems and better for cyclones and earthquakes.

It has all gone because of FRAUD by the staff of COMMONWEALTH BANK of AUSTRALIA.

We had a thirty bed hospital on the drawing board to be a turn-key operation and designed especially for remote areas. I was going to use an auger foundation system so there was no need for concrete. 

It has all gone because of FRAUD by the staff of COMMONWEALTH BANK of AUSTRALIA.

I was invited to build orphanages in Bangladesh by Coffey Partners International

It has all gone because of FRAUD by the staff of COMMONWEALTH BANK of AUSTRALIA.

At one time we were the biggest distributor off Lysaght Steel Framing in Australia; Lysaghts is a division of BHP.

This bank fraud has cost Australia dearly. 

At the time the COMMONWEALTH BANK of AUSTRALIA staff pulled the plug on us our company was due to receive an Austrade subsidy of at least $250,000. These crimes started against my wife and I the day we signed the contract with the Commonwealth Bank of Australia in June 1985 to build our factory complex known as SOUTH NOWRA BUILDING WORLD, at 158 Princes Highway, South Nowra, NSW, Australia. We were pioneers in steel framing using it for commercial and residential applications alike.

A brilliant future for the Australian economy shuttered by bank fraud

I had built a house in Singapore in 1982 with the support of Austrade, [formerly the Dept. of Trade] and Lysaght Brownbuilt Industries which is a subsidiary of BHP. It was quite obvious I needed a bigger factory so that’s when I decided to built South Nowra Building World. I had plans drawn up and had the plans engineered for council specifications, I filed the plans in council and the plans were passed. The council refused to release the plans until we signed 10 meters of land over to council at the front of the land for $2 for widening of the Princes Highway which I strongly objected to but council had me over a barrel and I had no choice but to agree so I could get the project started. Rus Evans was the town planner at the time.