Identity no secret - and never was

A court suppression order was not enough to prevent Marc Ellis' identity from becoming the country's worst-kept secret.

The day after police revealed that two former sports stars had been implicated in a so-called white-collar drug ring, emails and office gossip were rife with the names of the celebrities involved.

A Herald staff member received a text message from a relative in Waihi asking for the names. A second message soon after said not to worry - the barman at the bottle store had already told him.

Shares in Charlie's - the juice company that Ellis founded with childhood friend Stefan Lepionka - nosedived in the 24 hours after the first mention of his name in court.

Shares that had been issued at 10c each less than a week before the scandal broke had risen to 18c by July 18, the day before the first court mention.

In the next two days they fell by a third.

Ironically, after suppression was lifted yesterday the shares went up.