Going for Broke- Paul Barry- How Alan Bond got away with it- Book Review

Paul Barry is a trained journalist who has worked for the ABC as an investigative journalist, mainly for Four Corners on ABC Television here in Australia.

This book therefore, is well researched and well written. Alan Bond hates Paul Barry with a passion, because Barry has been on Bond’s case for many years. Namely in another book, “The Rise and fall of Alan Bond”, exposing Bond’s every weakness and most of his lies.

This book is no different and Barry goes into intricate detail in regard to the dodgy goings on in Alan Bonds business world.

If you would like to copy Bond, then this is the bible for bankrupts, and how to avoid paying your debts, although a lot of the law has changed since Bondy was manipulating the system. The law was in fact changed to beat Bondy.

The book tells how Bondy ripped off Robert Holmes a’Court’s Bell resources to the tune of 1.2 billion dollars. It then goes through the history of how Bond kept his creditors at bay, as well as the police and his bankruptcy trustee.

Some of it is quite complex and hard to understand but it is still a good read, especially the bits where Bond feigned mental illness in court, only to earn him more millions. Bondy frustrated everyone at every turn, and just when they thought they had him a new twist would emerge.

It explains how Bond stole a 15 million dollar Manet painting and it touches on his time in jail. This author in fact met Alan Bond in jail- (see my other stories).

We are taken on a journey all over the banking and business world. To offshore tax havens, and discretionary trust funds. The book also looks into the specifics of Bond’s relationship with Jorg Bolag, the financial adviser from Zug in Switzerland and the man who controlled Bonds funds.

It is a pure harsh reality that Bond played the Australian legal system like a fiddle and also made a total fool of them in the process. Every single decision was questioned in court right down to the minutiae and for good reason, making more and more millions of dollars, although not his money, he is in control of it and there is no chance he will give it back.

The book also touches on bonds personal friendships and relationships with women. It seems most people who came into contact with him and befriended him were also keen to help him commit more crime. No doubt big money was an influence.

This is a great read, as are all of Paul Barry’s books. Look out for these titles- “The Rise and Rise of Kerry Packer”. “Who wants to be a Billionaire- The James Packer Story”, and “The Rise and Fall of Alan Bond”