Paul McIntyre: The rise and fall of Rene Rivkin

Australia's flashiest stockbroker committed suicide on Sunday and few were surprised.

Until October last year, Rene Rivkin owned at least 100 cars, a A$16 million ($17 million) Sydney waterfront mansion, a A$6 million boat and he openly flaunted his associations with a strange coterie of young, good looking male friends. And always, there was a Cuban cigar and his 18 carat gold worry beads.

Rivkin, 60, suffered from depression, nervous breakdowns and had several operations for brain tumours. He attempted suicide last September using prescription drugs.

He was born in Shanghai in 1944 but emigrated with his family to Australia 10 years later, where he eventually became a renowned and rich eccentric who operated with and on behalf of many of the biggest business names in the country - Kerry Packer among them.

Indeed it was the purchase of a printing company from Packer's magazine division, ACP, and the subsequent ownership links to Swiss banks, which ultimately started Rivkin's slow descent.

A year after Rivkin purchased Offset Alpine in 1992, a fire destroyed the company's only asset, a printing plant in west Sydney. Although Rivkin paid Packer A$15.2 million for Offset, which by then had been placed into a listed entity controlled by Rivkin, an insurance policy resulted in a payout of A$53.2 million.

In 1995, the Australian Securities and Investment Commission (ASIC) started a process to determine the identity of the owner behind a 38 per stake in Offset held by two Swiss-based banks, Bank Leumi and EBC. It froze the stake shortly after, claiming the shares were housed in a secret "black box" Swiss account to which no one could be identified.

In response, the Offset board, chaired by Rivkin, issued a statement to the Australian Stock Exchange saying it was unaware who owned the mystery parcel. And Rivkin told the Sydney Morning Herald at the time: "I have absolutely no idea who owns those shares.

"But I'll tell you this: those ASIC investigators are very good. They've found out more about them than I ever could."

Eight years later the lid blew open on the Swiss connection, revealing former federal Labor minister and powerbroker Graham Richardson, former Packer executive Trevor Kennedy and Rivkin himself were the trio behind the mystery parcel.

But before any of those revelations emerged in late 2003, Rivkin had also been investigated for insider trading in FAI, the insurance arm once controlled by the recently jailed Rodney Adler, and HIH, although he was not charged. He was also warned to halt from activities where he was selling shares in companies that he was advising others to buy.

Rivkin, however, was charged with insider trading by ASIC in 2001 over 50,000 Qantas shares. He was found guilty by a jury in early 2003 and sentenced to 9 months' periodic detention. Last year ASIC banned Rivkin permanently from providing any financial services.

Last Sunday afternoon he was found dead at his mother's flat.

In a remarkably candid interview with ABC TV's Andrew Denton two years ago, Rivkin revealed some of his inner thoughts: "The ending of one's life, which I've thought about a lot, incidentally, because prior to Prozac I was often depressed, requires a certain amount of bravery which I don't have. I'm not a hero."

In the end, the complexities of Rivkin saw him go from a glittering attention addict to near recluse as the allegations against him became more serious. Former NSW Liberal politician Michael Yabsley says what happened to Rivkin was a tragedy of "Shakespearean proportions. There is a side to this very complex life which deserves explanation", he told the Australian Financial Review this week.

"The fact that he was so sick for so long is easy to overlook. It's true that flamboyance and erratic behaviour can be a serious byproduct of this kind of bipolar disorder and I think it's important that be understood."

Another close friend, radio broadcaster John Laws, says this of Rivkin's perplexing habit to flaunt with a band of young men: "He loved [his wife] Gayle very deeply. I couldn't understand why he spent time on his boat with what can only be described as strange young men."

Strange but true and ultimately Laws says Rivkin's end was inevitable. "I could see it coming. He was a very complex individual and very vain. The indignity of going to prison would have broken his heart. He was unhappy for a very long time. I think it was a blessed relief."

* Paul McIntyre is a Sydney journalist