Ray Williams is a free man again today. Photo / Reuters
Ray Williams is a free man again today. Photo / Reuters
KEY POINTS:
The man at the helm of Australia's biggest corporate collapse, Ray Williams, walked free from jail this morning after serving almost three years of his sentence.
Williams, 71, left Silverwater jail at11am today (NZT), after serving two years and nine months of a four-and-a-half-year sentence.
He was sentenced in 2005 for misrepresenting HIH's financial position three times prior to its A$5 billion collapse in 2001.
His release comes after fellow director Rodney Adler walked free from jail in October.
Williams served most of his sentence at Cessnock jail, but was moved to Silverwater in May last year when inmates attempted to extort him of money.
On April 15, 2005, Williams was processed as a new prisoner at Silverwater's reception centre. His well-cut suit was immediately swapped for a green prison uniform.
Two weeks later he was transfered to Cessnock Correctional Centre, where he was assigned to toilet-cleaning duties.
Always one to climb the "corporate ladder", however, Williams became a general cleaner, then a storeman.
His role carried a paypacket of A$60 a week, somewhat shy of his high-flying days with HIH.
A spokeswoman for corrective services says Williams has been a model prisoner.
He was expected to be driven to his wife's home in the swank suburb of Seaforth on Sydney's northern beaches.
