Monday 29 July 2013

What do you do when you engineer a deal that delivers you a $440 million windfall? Spend it, and then set about putting together another deal that will deliver an even bigger bonanza. That's what mining magnate Nathan Tinkler did and the strategy made him Australia's youngest ever billionaire. Now he's been forced into a fire-sale of assets. Will he rise again or is he down for the count?

"Tinkler sort of indulged all the stereotypical Australian male passions, horse racing, fast cars, footy teams, all of those businesses are money pits, you know. You put a lot of money and you get very little out."

Four Corners tries to find out what makes Nathan Tinkler tick. How did the boy from Inverell engineer the deals that put him on Australia's rich list and how did things go wrong?

Reporter Stephen Long tracks down the people who knew Nathan Tinkler as a hard-running rugby league player, those who helped him get to the top and those he burnt along the way. Long delivers an unvarnished portrait of a man with an apparently insatiable appetite for risk. Whether he's backing horses or buying coal leases, Tinkler is prepared to roll the dice.

It's a story that runs from rural Australia to the exclusive foreign enclaves in Singapore, where Tinkler lives away from the spotlight. At this point in his life he's made and lost two fortunes; will he come back for another run at the big time?

Some say yes he can:

"He's too young to be written off and, as I say, he's got this eye for the underappreciated assets and that's a pretty key skill."

Others aren't so sure:

"I don't know how Nathan's (story) will end. I wish him well. I hope the best for him but it seems that he's going the same way as that kind of person always seems to go."

"In Search of Nathan Tinkler", reported by Stephen Long and presented by Kerry O'Brien, goes to air on Monday 29th July at 8.30pm on ABC1. It is replayed on Tuesday 30th July at 11.35pm. It can also be seen on ABC News 24 on Saturday at 8.00pm, ABC iview and at abc.net.au/4corners.

Transcript

IN SEARCH OF NATHAN TINKLER - Monday 29th July 2013

KERRY O'BRIEN, PRESENTER: He was Australia's youngest billionaire.

JAMES THOMSON: I haven't seen anyone get so rich so quickly.

TIM CURRY: He's a grub and he doesn't pay his bills.

KERRY O'BRIEN: He crashed through and then he crashed.

CONOR DUFFY, REPORTER: How much financial pressure are you under Mr Tinkler?

NATHAN TINKLER: No comment. Thanks.

PADDY MANNING: Everything Tinkler owns is hocked.

KERRY O'BRIEN: Has Nathan Tinkler done his last big deal?

JAMES THOMSON: No, he's too young to be written off.

KERRY O'BRIEN: From black gold to coal dust, such were the dreams of Nathan Tinkler.

Welcome to Four Corners.

Along with a boost to the national wealth, Australia's mining boom has created spectacular personal wealth, for a few. Nathan Tinkler was one of them. By 35 he'd become Australia's youngest ever billionaire. Not bad for an apprentice electrician at a Hunter Valley mine.

It seems the self-made coal entrepreneur had a well cultivated nose for under-valued assets. In one case, he turned a $1-million investment into $400-million and that was just the beginning.

But one look at the patterns of his recent life give some insight to why his spectacular rise and rise has been followed by an equally spectacular decline. In a short business life he lit an unprecedented investment torch under horse racing in Australia, bought iconic sporting teams, accrued mansions, fast cars, a private jet and other accessories of the rich while leaving a long string of angry, unpaid creditors in his wake.

In the end, he gambled it all on the price of coal, and along the way trampled on business partners and colleagues.

Reporter Stephen Long has been on the Tinkler trail.

STEPHEN LONG, REPORTER: A winter afternoon in the upper Hunter Valley. It's the local derby: the Muswellbrook Rams taking on the Singleton Greyhounds.

These fields have fond memories for Australia's youngest ever billionaire.

NATHAN TINKLER, NBN NEWCASTLE: I was probably a lot more committed to sport and that sort of stuff than I was ever interested in school, I can tell you that, so.

INTERVIEWER, NBN NEWCASTLE: And the Muswellbrook Rams, now they were something special, were they?

NATHAN TINKLER, NBN NEWCASTLE: Yeah, not when I was there unfortunately. Ah, you know, it was a, you know, just a good, typical Hunter Valley club, you know. But ah, yeah, no silverware when I was there unfortunately.

STEPHEN LONG: About 20 years ago Alan Baker, now club president at the Rams and still playing, used to pack down with Nathan Tinkler in the scrum.

ALAN BAKER, PRESIDENT, MUSWELLBROOK RAMS: Yeah, he was pretty average footballer. He was a good front rower, you know, just cart the ball up the field like all front rowers do.

STEPHEN LONG: The club historian Graham Varley remembers Tinkler as a reserve grade journeyman, without great skills, and carrying some baggage.

(to Graham Varley) Which one's Nathan Tinkler?

GRAHAM VARLEY: Fourth one in the back row. As you can see he's got a real young looking face in that and he's a big boy, as you can see.

STEPHEN LONG: He is a big boy but not quite as big as he got?

GRAHAM VARLEY: No.

STEPHEN LONG: No.

GRAHAM VARLEY: As a footballer he needed to be a lot fitter than he was.

STEPHEN LONG: Never destined for greatness on the paddock, but the lessons he learned on the football field carried over into his business career - crash or crash through, and when necessary bend the rules and play rough.

CONOR DUFFY, REPORTER: How much financial pressure are you under Mr Tinkler?

NATHAN TINKLER: No comment. Thanks.

CONOR DUFFY, REPORTER: Why don't you pay your bills?

NATHAN TINKLER: No thanks.

TIM CURRY: He's a grub and he doesn't pay his bills.

KEITH DE LACY, FORMER CHAIRMAN, MACARTHUR COAL: I don't think he's got quite the reputation that Alan Bond had but there's obviously similarities.

CONOR DUFFY, REPORTER: Have you got enough money in the bank to pay your bills?

REPORTER: How are your finances going Mr Tinkler?

STEPHEN LONG: The Nathan Tinkler story is a rags to riches tale. A man who started out in the coal pits and ended up owning mines, as well as football teams and a vast stable of thoroughbreds. A blue-collar worker who backed his judgement, took huge gambles and made a billion dollar fortune.

JAMES THOMSON, EDITOR, BRW MAGAZINE: I haven't seen anyone get so rich so quickly. 2008 he appears on the rich list, three years later he's a billionaire and, you know, 2013 he's off the list completely. Um, it's an amazing sort of rise and fall.

STEPHEN LONG: Muswellbrook: a mining town nestled amid the rich coal seams of the Hunter Valley.

Nathan Tinkler moved here with his family in his late teens and seemed destined for a life in the mines.

NATHAN TINKLER: School wise I wasn't, ah, too impressive, and so getting a trade was a, was a pretty good option for a guy like me. So, ah, fortunate enough to get a start at the old Bayswater Coal, which is now Mt Arthur North, as an electrician, and um yeah, had a good, had a good apprenticeship.

STEPHEN LONG: This is the mine where Tinkler started out in 1994 as an apprentice electrician, in the tradies' parlance, a "pit leco".

By 2003 he was running a company supplying services and tradesmen to the mines.

By late 2006, he'd bought a coal lease.

With the support of family, friends and other backers he scraped together a million dollar deposit on the Middlemount lease in Queensland and raised another 30 million. A year later, he struck gold.

KEITH DE LACY: We were looking to expand Macarthur Coal because we had good cash reserves, um, so we acquired Middlemount from him. We paid him some cash but most of it by way of equity. You know, shares in Macarthur Coal.

It's not just the rich few people that get all the money, it's...

STEPHEN LONG: Former Queensland treasurer Keith De Lacy was chairman of Macarthur Coal when it bought Nathan Tinkler's company, and its 70 per cent stake in Middlemount, for $275-million.

That alone would have made Tinkler enormously rich but by opting to be paid in shares rather than cash, he took a big gamble and won.

KEITH DE LACY: No sooner had he acquired those shares, the Macarthur Coal price spiked for two reasons. The price of coal increased again to all time highs and there was all of a sudden speculation that Macarthur Coal was subject to a takeover.

So the share prices spiked to $20 which was more than twice the share price that, you know, we had done the deal on. Ah, he sold out and pocketed enough money I guess that would make most people's eyes water.

STEPHEN LONG: In May 2008, a decade after finishing his apprenticeship, Nathan Tinkler walked away with $442-million - not a bad return on a million dollar outlay.

JAMES THOMSON: Certainly his timing was great. But there's certainly a bit of skill, I think, that Tinkler showed in finding what were relatively unloved assets and turning those into big windfalls.

AMBER MACKINNON, MINING ANALYST, NOMURA AUSTRALIA: It's an enormous, enormous investment return by anyone's standards.

STEPHEN LONG: What does it tell you about Nathan Tinkler?

AMBER MACKINNON: I think it tells you that he saw an asset that had potential, and he managed to time his investment well with the coal markets, and he also, I think, got lucky.

STEPHEN LONG: The amazing thing is that just a few short years before he hit the rich list, Tinkler gave all the appearance of being stone cold broke.

Between 2003 and 2006 a series of creditors got court judgements against him. Singleton Council called in the repo men. It got an order from the sheriff's office to repossess his household goods, from the couch and the TV right down to the whipper snipper.

That wasn't the worst of it for Nathan Tinkler and his wife Rebecca.

In early 2003 they bought this home at Singleton in the upper Hunter Valley. Eighteen months later they were forced to sell after they defaulted on the mortgage and their lender foreclosed, getting a court order to repossess the property.

Tinkler bet the house, literally, and lost. But it didn't dampen his appetite for risk, and the high stakes gambling that would make him a multi-millionaire by his early 30s.

KEITH DE LACY: He got too rich, too young. Now I know that's a problem a lot of people would like to have to deal with but, um, it's not that easy. You know, you have to have the psychological adjustment and I don't think he had. So, ah, it went to his head a bit and, um, or maybe a big bit.

STEPHEN LONG: What does a young bloke from the mines do with all that money? Spend big. Fast cars, private jets, luxury homes, race horses - Nathan Tinkler spent like there was no tomorrow. Or rather, as if his future success was guaranteed.

JAMES THOMSON: Tinkler made quite a splash that year. He spent about $19-million and bought over 50 horses in I guess what was the biggest ever splurge at the Magic Million sale. It was, ah, very impressive and that's when we started to see the stories about, you know, who is Nathan Tinkler and the background information started to come out.

STEPHEN LONG: He aimed to make his Patinack Farm the biggest horse-racing empire in the country. But Tinkler's old pattern of not paying debts stuck.

BRIAN FLETCHER, CEO, HAWKESBURY RACE CLUB: I was at the Magic Million sales there when he first come on the scene and, um, I'd never seen John Singleton and Gerry Harvey so happy at the end of the sales.

STEPHEN LONG: Brian Fletcher runs the Hawkesbury Race Club west of Sydney. Tinkler's Patinack Farm was training horses there but left owing money.

BRIAN FLETCHER: When Nathan left the place he was a few months behind in his track fees and, ah, we sent them accounts to be paid up which, ah, which we never received payment for. But we were pretty fortunate actually because a couple of weeks after that they'd left, they had a horse start in our major race, the Panthers Hawkesbury Gold Cup, called Isopach.

COMMENTATOR: Darci Be Good on the outside moves up, then Isopach, Darci Be Good and Malavio up a hundred from Isopach...

BRIAN FLETCHER: And fortunately Isopach ran second.

COMMENTATOR: Isopach but it's Darci Be Good for the cup, Isopach second...

STEPHEN LONG: Brian Fletcher rang Racing NSW and asked them to seize the money the club was owed from Tinkler's winnings.

BRIAN FLETCHER: To the credit of Racing New South Wales, ah, they done that and we received our outstanding track fees, which was roughly around $13,000 and, um, finished up with um no outstanding debts of Patinack Farm.

STEPHEN LONG: Racing Victoria had to seize even more - $100,000 for outstanding stud fees owed to an Arab sheik.

Newcastle Race Course took similar action and it wasn't just the race clubs. There was a chain of creditors stretching from Newcastle to Brisbane who were battling to get paid.

DANIEL CLISSOLD, PILLIGA NATURAL TIMBERS: Mr Tinkler, or Nathan, we've been dealing on and off with, oh, four or five years now I guess. Ah, been interesting I suppose, a bit of a roller coaster ride. He's a double or nothing man, a bit of a gambler.

STEPHEN LONG: Pilliga Timbers at Tamworth has done about a million dollars worth of business with Nathan Tinkler, providing fence timber for his horse properties.

The company's owner Daniel Clissold appreciates all the work Tinkler's Patinack Farm has sent his way. But at times he's had a long wait for payment.

(to Daniel Clissold) How much money were you owed?

DANIEL CLISSOLD: Ah, yeah okay. At one stage it reached close to quarter of a million, it did, for a short window. Ah, however around $70,000 was owed, ah, for a fair chunk of time. We would make a few phone calls. It'd fall on deaf ears. We made, ah, one bit more of a firmer phone call and the money started coming back in again. Um, we're probably fortunate. I believe a lot of people didn't have such success.

STEPHEN LONG: Daniel Clissold is still dealing with Nathan Tinkler's business, though he now insists on cash up front. Despite the difficulties, he still admires Nathan Tinkler.

DANIEL CLISSOLD: In some ways we need more people like Nathan Tinkler probably for the simple sense that, ah, they're go getters, they're entrepreneurial and they're trying to go ahead. They're not just, ah, wanting to be an average employee you know settling for a humble life driving a dump truck round. He's very entrepreneurial and, ah, if he needs a dollar to fund another project I daresay he ceases everything in his tracks and, ah, gets all his coins together to start his next project.

STEPHEN LONG: Four Corners has spoken to many other small business people like Daniel Clissold who were owed big sums of money, sometimes for years - effectively giving interest-free loans to Tinkler's companies. Some eventually got their money. Others weren't so lucky.

TIM CURRY, CURRY POWER: Mmm, just ruthless.

BRUCE CURRY, CURRY POWER: Yeah.

TIM CURRY: Cut-throat, just does not care about anyone or anything so I'll never do it ever again.

BRUCE CURRY: No, and I guarantee we're not the only blokes out there that have got the same thing hanging over their heads.

STEPHEN LONG: Bruce and Tim Curry are specialist electricians from Tamworth. Three years ago they were contracted to install more than one and half kilometres of three phase power line for a Tinkler horse stud - an $80,000 job.

The electricians struggled to get paid all the way along the line. They're still owed about $30,000. It's taken a big toll.

BRUCE CURRY: We've got three other workers and Tim and myself never drew a wage for probably six or eight weeks but, ah, we made sure all our bills were paid and all the boys' wages and super and everything was taken care of. So, um, you know, we just, just had to struggle through it but it was, it was pretty devastating, you know, just for little guys.

STEPHEN LONG: Tinkler's not popular up here, then?

PATRICK O'HALLORAN, R.J. O'HALLORAN & CO SOLICITORS: Oh, no, not at all.

STEPHEN LONG: Patrick O'Halloran's family has been practising law in Tamworth for three generations. He's representing the Currys, among others owed money by Tinkler.

PATRICK O'HALLORAN: There's a client of mine who did some carpentry work for Tinkler, he's owed $10,000-odd. There's an electrical contractor, he's owed, ah, $20,000-odd and then there's another, ah, client of mine who's owed about $70,000 for supply of goods and services.

I'm outraged about it because these people are honest people, decent people and they deserve better.

STEPHEN LONG: When he tried to take legal action, Patrick O'Halloran was confronted by a complex and frustrating corporate web.

(to Patrick O'Halloran) Which company is this one?

PATRICK O'HALLORAN: Ah, this relates to the Curry family, Serene Lodge.

STEPHEN LONG: And the company's worth how much?

PATRICK O'HALLORAN: A dollar. A dollar. Just like the other companies for Patinack, you'll see there are eight different companies all with the same name Patinack, and for example if we look at the first company, um, ah, Nathan's mentioned here as a director...

STEPHEN LONG: Yep.

PATRICK O'HALLORAN: ...but he doesn't own the company. It's owned by his wife, Rebecca Tinkler.

STEPHEN LONG: And again it's just a dollar company.

PATRICK O'HALLORAN: Only a dollar company.

STEPHEN LONG: The creditors were left wondering who to sue.

PATRICK O'HALLORAN: The modus operandi of these companies, ah, was clearly to avoid payment of money to creditors like Curry and other clients of mine and also to escape personal liability. You see, by hiding behind the corporate veil, ah, Tinkler was in a very lawful way manipulating the legal system to advance his own personal interests.

PADDY MANNING, TINKLER BIOGRAPHER: I've counted more than 120 different corporate entities in Australia and Singapore and that's not counting trusts and a lot of them are one or two dollar shelf companies.

STEPHEN LONG: Veteran business journalist Paddy Manning has done extensive research on Tinkler for a forthcoming biography.

PADDY MANNING: Nathan Tinkler fell out with his original business partner, Matthew Higgins, who had to take him to court in Queensland and hired a forensic accountant who found that $800,000 had been taken out, ah, of their joint account and diverted without authorisation into a Tinkler Group account. Ah, and in the end, Tinkler accepted that the money had been taken out but he called it a loan.

STEPHEN LONG: What did his original business partner think of that? Did he agree it was a loan?

PADDY MANNING: Absolutely not, and he wanted his money.

STEPHEN LONG: That legal dispute reached a confidential settlement, but it was just one of many.

Four Corners has found more than 50 court actions involving Tinkler and his companies, sued by everyone from businesses to bookies.

Betting agency Luxbet took him to court over unpaid gambling debts. These betting account records show that Tinkler was plunging up to $100,000 on a single race, and up to half a million a month.

KEITH DE LACY: Yeah, it's not a good look is it, but yes he started off with nothing and obviously he's lived his life right out at the end of the rope.

STEPHEN LONG: Maules Creek, near Boggabri in north-western New South Wales was the scene of Tinkler's next big coal play. The vast, multi-seam coal deposit lies beneath the Liverpool plains. Tinkler bought it from Rio Tinto in November 2009. His company, Aston Resources, paid nearly half a billion dollars, relying almost entirely on borrowed money.

The incredible thing is that just a year and half after he sold his shares in Macarthur Coal, a $440-million payday, Tinkler had burnt through nearly all his cash reserves.

PADDY MANNING: Maules Creek was a $480-million transaction and Tinkler only had, by the end of 2009, a 5 per cent deposit, ah $24 million.

STEPHEN LONG: No local bank would touch him but Tinkler eventually found the finance in Singapore.

His backer was Ray Zage, who runs the Singapore arm of the big hedge fund Farallon.

But his Singapore financiers didn't know that even Tinkler's deposit was mainly borrowed money.

PADDY MANNING: Three months later they're having a meeting to sign off on the deal in Brisbane. The lawyers are there, Farallon's there, Rio Tinto's there, their wives are there because they are - a lot of the assets are in their name, and a text message comes up to the Aston Resources CEO and CFO, "Can you meet downstairs, it's Nathan Tinkler?"

So his own CEO comes down and meets him across the road at the Pig and Whistle pub. Tinkler's in shorts and thongs and he confesses he hasn't been able to come up with the extra money. They have to go back upstairs and tell Farallon, tell Rio Tinto right at the point where they're about to sign off on this half a billion dollar transaction that there's another liability we hadn't mentioned.

STEPHEN LONG: Farallon gave Tinkler the money for Maules Creek regardless, but there was hefty price. Debts to Farallon would eventually come back to haunt him.

PADDY MANNING: Tinkler had to borrow $500 million in round figures at interest rates of up to 17 per cent, credit card interest rates, and the clincher was he had to give a personal guarantee over his own assets to get the deal away.

STEPHEN LONG: Maules Creek has become a flashpoint for wider community tensions over mining - its impact on the environment and the encroachment of mining onto prime agricultural land.

PHIL LAIRD, MAULES CREEK COMMUNITY COUNCIL: The mine is planned to be 330 metres deep. that's going to have a major impact on water table in the region. There's 34 threatened and endangered species in the Maules Creek area.

STEPHEN LONG: Buying Maules Creek was a huge gamble. But as coal prices soared, it became a financial bonanza for Tinkler.

In August 2010, just nine months after the purchase, he floated his company Aston Resources for $1.2-billion. For the second time, he'd made a fortune by punting on coal assets with borrowed money.

Tinkler shot up the rich list.

JAMES THOMSON: 2011 he cracked the magic $1-billion mark. He was valued at $1.01-billion and I guess that was the, ah, the peak of his powers. Coal prices were surging, um, and his business, his business looked very, very healthy.

NEIL JAMESON, FORMER MEMBER, NEWCASTLE JETS ADVISORY BOARD: At a time in the history of coal when it was heading for a record peak, he played an incredible hand and not once but twice and against all the odds won lotto many, many times over. Twice. Incredible gamble.

STEPHEN LONG: A cashed-up Tinkler was about to make a splash in the sporting arena, taking control of Newcastle's two national football teams.

Former Newcastle Herald reporter Neil Jameson was on an advisory board to the coal town's A-league soccer team, the Jets, who were facing bankruptcy.

The football federation sent well known sports administrator Ken Edwards north to try to save the Jets. He called Tinkler.

NEIL JAMESON: Nathan said, "How much money is involved to get them to the end of the season?" and Ken said, "Oh something in the vicinity of $2-million and Nathan's response, ah, according to Ken, was along the lines was, "It be a pity to lose a Newcastle sporting flagship for the sake of $2-million. Count me in."

STEPHEN LONG: Tinkler soon agreed to take a 10-year licence for the Jets, but later tried to hand it back after another big mining speculator embarrassed him with this public spray.

CLIVE PALMER: We've paid $500,000 for our licence. We've met every criteria of that. Poor old Nick, Nathan Tinkler had to fork out $7-million for his licence, and the guy that took over at Wellington I think paid a similar amount. I don't know why that happened.

NEIL JAMESON: I think Nathan got the impression that he'd been sold a pup. That he'd paid too much for the licence. But it became a monumental problem when Clive Palmer shouted it from the rooftops.

JAMES THOMSON: Tinkler sort of indulged all the, you know, perhaps the stereotypical Australian male passions, horse racing, fast cars, footy teams, all of those businesses are money pits you know. You put a lot of money in, you get very little out at the end of the day.

STEPHEN LONG: After acquiring the Jets, Tinkler turned to the code that's his real passion, and the team that's the heart and soul of Newcastle.

RUGBY LEAGUE COMMENTARY: Wide to Mullen on his least preferred side but still good ball movement and it's on again for Newcastle!

STEPHEN LONG: Despite fanatical support, the Knights had always struggled financially.

ROB TEW, FORMER CHAIRMAN, NEWCASTLE KNIGHTS: The community rises and falls on their successes. It's a mighty entity for this valley and it's much loved in this valley.

STEPHEN LONG: Rob Tew played in the Knights' first game in the National Rugby League. He was the club chairman when Tinkler came knocking.

When Tew insisted that any offer from Tinkler's Hunter Sports Group be backed by a $20-million bank guarantee, the talks hit a brick wall.

ROB TEW: At the negotiating table I thought that that was a, ah, it was a matter which he accepted. Um, but subsequently, an alternative offer which we received from Nathan omitted, um, guarantees and when, ah, we put it to him that, um, we required guarantees in order to progress that offer, ah, he wouldn't accept that.

STEPHEN LONG: A game of high stakes brinkmanship played out through the press.

(excerpt from TV News item)

JOURNALIST: League's pre-season promotions have given way to boardroom battles. Newcastle's flirtation with privatisation ended in acrimony.

ROB TEW: Put simply the much talked about $100-million offer turned out to be a mirage.

(end News excerpt)

EVENT EMCEE: Nathan Tinkler.

(applause)

STEPHEN LONG: The media-shy mogul was forced to front up with a public pitch - as a selfless benefactor.

NATHAN TINKLER (At event): You know, philanthropy through sport is something different. We haven't seen a lot of people do that in Australia but certainly, you know, around the world there's lots of people that take these sort of things on as their, ah, as their way of giving back to their communities. This is, um, I suppose one of the ways that I see of giving back to a community that not only do I live in but I feel gives, gives back to me.

EMCEE: Well Nathan...

(applause)

STEPHEN LONG: Tinkler finally agreed to give the bank guarantee the Knights' board was demanding, Tinkler-proofing the club against any future failure.

JOHN TATE, FORMER NEWCASTLE LORD MAYOR: They were criticised by some sections of the media and other people felt a level of frustration, just why don't you just get on with this? But I've got to say Robbie Tew did a good job on behalf of the community and I felt at the time perhaps we'll see the benefit of the wisdom of the, of the deal that they struck and, ah, perhaps that's happening now.

STEPHEN LONG: In March 2011, 97 per cent of Newcastle's members voted in favour of a Tinkler takeover, with big Nathan hailed as the saviour.

PUBLICITY EXCERPT: This coalminer turned coal magnate has turned the Newcastle Knights from paupers into princes almost overnight.

STEPHEN LONG: His public stocks were riding high, but behind the scenes it was a different story.

NEIL JAMESON: A sense of dogma started to appear whereby you had to adhere to the cult of Nathan; that Nathan was a genius, that what Nathan had achieved that no one else had achieved and you, things had to done his way or not at all and, ah, later that became known as you had to be drinking the cool aid. It was almost like a cult. It was almost like being in a cult. You had to subscribe to the cult of Nathan

PADDY MANNING: Tinkler hires good people but he chews them up and spits them out. So there's a pattern going back to his earliest days. His most trusted advisers, his partners, his CEOs, his CFOs, he's churned through them. He sends expletive-laden emails and texts when he's unhappy.

STEPHEN LONG: Tinkler certainly has a colourful turn of phrase.

Four Corners was shown this text by a former employee. He says he received it after suggesting to Tinkler that they catch up for a coffee:

EXCERPT OF NATHAN TINKLER TEXT MESSAGE: No thanks. Ur just another c**t that I give an opportunity to, wasn't up to it and dogged me everywhere so fuck off. I check the paper for your funeral notice you fuckn deadbeat.

STEPHEN LONG: It wasn't just his temper that was starting to slip.

RACING COMMENTATOR: No one's gone to wet tyres here, certainly not the first part, Nathan Tinkler.

(to Nathan Tinkler) Well Nathan Tinkler that was a very interesting way to finish off the session. Talk us through it.

NATHAN TINKLER: Ah yeah, no, it got very wet very quick and I was just still on slicks and coming up mountain straight I changed back and braked a little bit too hard and ran them round so, yeah, bit of fun.

STEPHEN LONG: Tinkler was losing his grip as his business empire began to spin out of control.

NEIL JAMESON: We wanted this guy to succeed. He was one of us and he'd come from humble origins. We cheered his race horses home. We were incredibly grateful for what he done for our sporting teams and we wanted this wonderful narrative to continue. What we didn't see initially that there was a flipside to it. That as warm as the love was initially, it could very, very rapidly cool and, ah, turn into something bordering on contempt.

STEPHEN LONG: Back on the foreshores of Newcastle harbour, Tinkler was making another audacious play.

The coal loading facility here is one of the biggest in the world. Tinkler wanted his own.

NEIL JAMESON: It would have given him one of the most important stakes in the coal chain that runs from north-west New South Wales to the Port of Newcastle and there are no more important elements in that chain than the coal loaders themselves. They are such a fundamental key to the riches that coal generates for New South Wales.

STEPHEN LONG: Land on the former BHP steelworks site was the vehicle for his coal loader plan.

Tinkler had acquired a development company with rights over the property. But there was a catch. It was meant for an entirely different purpose.

BOB HAWES, GENERAL MANAGER, HUNTER DEVELOPMENT CORPORATION: The community were probably going to be rightly be concerned about having, you know, fairly large coal stacks fairly close to their existing residential areas but they were never contemplated for that site and they were never contemplated in that position.

STEPHEN LONG: Allowing Tinkler's coal loader could have exposed the State Government to litigation from unsuccessful bidders for the site, and a voter backlash.

Despite intense political lobbying, the plan was knocked back And the coal price that Tinkler had ridden on the way up was about to turn against him.

In April 2012, Whitehaven Coal agreed to merge with Tinkler's Aston Resources to form one of the biggest players in the coal industry - a $5.1-billion merger with Tinkler as the biggest shareholder.

But just days afterwards Whitehaven shares began to fall, in tandem with coal prices. Tinkler blamed Whitehaven's management and within months made an acrimonious bid to buy the whole company.

EXCERPT FROM PROGRAM, THE BUSINESS (voiceover): In case anyone was in any doubt what he thought, Mr Tinkler gave an interview to the Financial Review newspaper in which he described Whitehaven chairman Mark Vaile as knowing nothing about mining, company boss Tony Haggarty as a man who spends more time with cars than his management team, and former Tinkler Group employee and now Whitehaven independent director Philip Christensen as like a piece of gum on the bottom of my shoe.

STEPHEN LONG: Shareholders stuck with Whitehaven.

WHITEHAVEN SHAREHOLDER: I'll be voting with the board today and against Nathan Tinkler.

JAMES THOMSON: Look, I think the cracks first started to appear around the Whitehaven takeover. That's when we really got a sense that the market was starting to, I guess, not believe the Nathan Tinkler story.

STEPHEN LONG: Tinkler's tendency to make commitments and worry about the money later was about to catch up with him in spectacular fashion.

In May 2012, he agreed to buy a one-third stake in a mining exploration company called Blackwood for $28-million. Tinkler set up a company named Mulsanne to do the deal.

PADDY MANNING: True to form, ah, Tinkler had failed to meet the deadline for payment and then weeks came, months came and went, he still hadn't come up with the money, so they wound up his shelf company Mulsanne to get this money.

It was only a $2 company but the legal consequences of that wind up action were severe. Tinkler could be prosecuted for insolvent trading or for breaching director's duties and face a ban on acting as a director of a company in Australia.

STEPHEN LONG: Tinkler was pursued for insolvent trading by the liquidators. He eventually settled but first he had to endure a public grilling in court.

CONOR DUFFY, REPORTER: Mr Tinkler, do you worry you could be the next Alan Bond?

NATHAN TINKLER: (laughs).

STEPHEN LONG: During his day and a half in the dock, Tinkler constantly invoked legal privilege so his evidence couldn't be used against him at a later date. Under oath he said his taxable income for 2011 was less than $10,000. But he did have the benefit of tax-free money from a family trust.

(excerpt from court proceedings)

INTERVIEWER (voiceover): Who is the trustee of the trust?

NATHAN TINKLER (voiceover): Privilege. I believe that's my wife Rebecca.

INTERVIEWER (voiceover): How do you get drawings out of the trust?

NATHAN TINKLER (voiceover): Privilege. I'm not sure, I'm not exactly across, across those issues.

INTERVIEWER (voiceover): So is this what happens? Your wife gives you money from time to time?

NATHAN TINKLER (voiceover): Privilege. I'm very lucky, yes.

INTERVIEWER (voiceover): Bank accounts, do you have any bank accounts in your own name?

NATHAN TINKLER (voiceover): Privilege. I have joint bank accounts with my wife.

INTERVIEWER (voiceover): What would be the totality of cash at bank at the moment - once again I'm not going to hold you to it - but your best estimate?

NATHAN TINKLER (voiceover): Privilege. $250,000, something like that.

INTERVIEWER (voiceover): Motor vehicles, do you have any motor vehicles in your own name?

NATHAN TINKLER (voiceover): Privilege. No.

INTERVIEWER (voiceover): Do you own any stocks or shares in your own name?

NATHAN TINKLER (voiceover): Privilege. No.

INTERVIEWER (voiceover): Bonds, any asset of that type?

NATHAN TINKLER (voiceover): Privilege. No.

(end excerpt)

STEPHEN LONG: As creditors circled, the would-be racing tycoon and coal baron left Newcastle and headed north to Singapore, the Switzerland of Asia, home to many a rich exile.

Business writer and commentator Assif Shameen has been following Tinkler's journey in Singapore.

He says Tinkler initially looked at a buying in Sentosa Cove, an exclusive expat enclave where homes cost a fortune.

(to Assif Shameen) So how much would one of these houses set you back?

ASSIF SHAMEEN, THE EDGE, SINGAPORE: Something like $25-$30 Singapore million.

STEPHEN LONG: Are there many Aussies living here?

ASSIF SHAMEEN: There are. Gina Rinehart bought a couple of houses and Tinkler was actually looking at one of these places and somehow he didn't buy. He got a place in Swettenham Road. Maybe he didn't want to live next door to Gina, I don't know.

STEPHEN LONG: Swettenham Road, where Tinkler ended up leasing, is just as ritzy. Houses here rent for $30,000 a month or more.

Apparently, Tinkler was forking out rent for not one but two houses.

ASSIF SHAMEEN: He actually got two adjacent houses, um, one for himself and I believe the other house was occupied by his security staff and this is in Singapore which probably one of the safest countries on Earth. You don't need a security guard, ah, nobody has security guards in Singapore. No billionaire has security guards in Singapore.

STEPHEN LONG: We decided to ring Tinkler's bell. And lo and behold the doors opened.

(to cleaner) Hi, is Nathan Tinkler home?

CLEANER: No, he's not here.

STEPHEN LONG: We were looking for the owner, or the person who's living here.

CLEANER: Mmm. They're not here.

STEPHEN LONG: Nathan Tinkler is not home? Do you know when Nathan Tinkler will be here?

CLEANER: I have no idea.

STEPHEN LONG: The cleaner went off to make inquiries, and came back with news.

CLEANER: Okay, so he not here anymore. He never rent here anymore.

STEPHEN LONG: Mr Tinkler's not living here? Do you know where he's gone?

(closes door)

PADDY MANNING: Everything Tinkler owns is hocked. His company stakes, his mansions in Maui, in Brisbane, in Coffs Harbour, in Newcastle, at Patinack, right down to the lawnmowers.

STEPHEN LONG: Last year, Paddy Manning gained confidential information about the Tinkler Group's finances. It got a court injunction to suppress the news but the facts are now out. Tinkler's company had a huge and unsustainable debt.

PADDY MANNING: $634-million and that's just the principal. It was accumulating interest at 12 to 15 per cent.

STEPHEN LONG: In April 2012, the hedge fund Farallon had refinanced Tinkler's company with a massive short-term loan. It had to be repaid in just 12 months.

PADDY MANNING: He missed a repayment for part of the loan in November, $200-million he was supposed to repay, that's six months into the loan, he couldn't come up with the money. The loan was due by the end of April, it was only a one year loan, due by the end of April 2013 and he couldn't repay it. From that point on, Tinkler was living on borrowed time.

STEPHEN LONG: Time ran out this year in June. Tinkler had to let slip his last known foothold in the coal industry.

Tinkler's financial backers finally lost patience and called in the debt. He lost control of his 19.4 per cent stake in Whitehaven Coal, his most significant asset and one of the few generating income. Tinkler tried to spin it as a sale but it was more like a foreclosure.

(to Keith De Lacy) How would you sum up his contribution to the mining industry?

KEITH DE LACY: I don't think Nathan really made a contribution to the mining industry. Um, he never developed an operating mine.

(auctioneer talking at the Magic Millions sales auction)

STEPHEN LONG: At the Magic Millions sales this year, the man who'd bought an unprecedented number of horses five years earlier flooded the market with unwanted stock.

By this stage Patinack Farm had achieved the worst possible credit rating, 99.9 times below average.

In its last outing, Tinkler's horse Pane in the Glass ran second last at Doomben.

GERRY HARVEY, OWNER, MAGIC MILLIONS: He's put a huge amount of money in and I don't know how much he's going to end up losing, $100-million or $200-million or some huge amount of money, but the whole industry has been a beneficiary of that money. So, you know, I think he's done a lot of silly things and he's - but he tried, he tried.

STEPHEN LONG: You wouldn't write Nathan Tinkler off?

JAMES THOMSON: No, he's too young to be written off and, ah, and as I say he's got this eye for the underappreciated assets and that's a, that's a pretty key skill.

NEIL JAMESON: It's hard to imagine that he can repeat the incredible good fortune that he's had, that lightening will strike thrice and that he'll have another massive win as a speculator.

STEPHEN LONG: In many ways Nathan Tinkler's story embodies some of the key themes of Australia's recent history. A nation of gamblers which rode the mining boom to riches, and plunged into debt, speculating on assets.

No one knows for certain how his story will end. Will it be the rise and fall of Nathan Tinkler? Or the rise and fall and rise again?

KEITH DE LACY: I don't know how Nathan's will end. I wish him well. I hope the best for him but, you know, it seems that he's going the same way as that kind of person always seems to go.

KERRY O'BRIEN: A story whose ending has not quite yet been written. It's a statement of the obvious but we did make every effort to get Nathan Tinkler himself on the program but he declined.

Next week on Four Corners, the deeply moving story of war photographer Giles Dooley, who lost both legs and an arm while on assignment in Afghanistan and having recovered has returned to record the plight of the many civilians who've lost even more than he has. Until then, good night.

END

Background Information

DATA VISUALISATION

GRAPH: Tinkler's Monthly Betting Records - Nathan Tinkler's fortunes rose and fell with the price of coal. Here we plot the coal price against Tinkler's betting records. Between 2009 and 2012 Tinkler bet more than $1.4 million, according to records from betting agency Luxbet. View the graph. [JPG]

KEY DOCUMENTS

ASX Release: Proposed Settlement Agreement | 3 June 2013 - In June 2013, energy and resources company Blackwood Corporation announced that its ongoing litigation with Nathan Tinkler entity Mulsanne Resources had been resolved, with a $12 million settlement. Read the sharemarket announcement here. [PDF 362Kb]

Court Documents - In 2004 Nathan Tinkler defaulted on his home loan with the Members Equity Bank. After taking the matter to court, the bank received an order to take possession of Tinkler's home, in Singleton NSW. Read the court's judgement. [PDF 42Kb]

NEWS COVERAGE

Nathan Tinkler: Admired by some, disliked by many | ABC News | 29 Jul 2013 - Nathan Tinkler, the working class bloke who became a billionaire, would be admired if it was not for his behaviour along the way. By Stephen Long and Paddy Manning.

The Tinkler question: has Australia's youngest billionaire run out of luck? | The Guardian | 28 Jun 2013 - Nathan Tinkler, the mine electrician who became a coal entrepreneur, has been stripped of his biggest asset, by Paddy Manning.

Tinkler in $12m settlement with Blackwood | The Australian | 28 Jun 2013 - Nathan Tinkler has made good on his promise to pay coal junior Blackwood Corporation $12 million after a bungled takeover attempt last year that threatened to bankrupt the one-time billionaire.

Tinkler ends business that started it | Newcastle Herald | 26 Jun 2013 - Nathan Tinkler has moved to disband the company that helped propel him from a Hunter Valley pit electrician to multimillionaire.

Another Queensland Mansion Linked To Nathan Tinkler Is Up For Sale | Business Insider Australia | 25 Jun 2013 - Another Queensland mansion linked through a holding company to embattled former billionaire Nathan Tinkler is up for sale.

Five reasons Nathan Tinkler might not be finished yet | BRW | 20 Jun 2013 - While Nathan Tinkler's fortunes have taken a big hit in 2013, he's got form on building wealth quickly and won't be starting again with nothing.

VIDEO: Former billionaire Nathan Tinkler sells out of Whitehaven | The Business ABC | 19 Jun 2013 - Nathan Tinkler's dream of becoming a mining magnate appears to be over, for now at least. Today the former electrician turned mining magnate sold his 19 per cent stake in Whitehaven Coal. Investors welcomed the move, with Whitehaven shares jumping 9 per cent on the news before pulling back a bit. The $580 million dollar sale comes as the deadline looms to settle a long running debt dispute.

Nathan Tinkler sale: Group One winner Nechita fetches $1.55m at Patinack Farm auction | ABC News | 30 May 2013 - The racing and breeding empire of embattled businessman Nathan Tinkler is close to being dispersed following the sale of several of his top horses on Wednesday.

Nathan Tinkler departs BRW Rich 200 | BRW | 22 May 2013 - Former billionaire Nathan Tinkler has failed to qualify for this year's BRW Rich 200... His exit from the list of the country's 200 wealthiest people caps off a dramatic 12 months for Tinkler.

Email highlights Tinkler's plight | SMH | 16 Mar 2013 - An email from Nathan Tinkler's phone to his main banker last September showed how much pressure the coal baron was coming under, as lawyers for Blackwood Corp moved to wind up his shelf company Mulsanne Resources.

Nathan Tinkler's wife 'worth $1bn' and funding him | The Australian | 16 Mar 2013 - One-time billionaire Nathan Tinkler is facing bankruptcy: three of his companies have collapsed, assets have been repossessed and he is chased by creditors across the nation.

AUDIO: Questions over soccer licensing fee levels | The World Today | 22 Feb 2012 - Newcastle's owner Nathan Tinkler is questioning whether he was ripped off by Football Federation Australia after another club owner, the Queensland billionaire Clive Palmer, revealed his license cost far less than Mr Tinkler's.

AUDIO: The rise and fall of Nathan Tinkler | RN Breakfast | 7 Jan 2013 - If you think you had a bad year in 2012, chances are it wasn't as crippling as Nathan Tinkler's, the one-time billionaire mining entrepreneur from Newcastle. The 36-year-old former mining electrician who once headed BRW's Young Rich list saw his asset wealth drop to $730 million last year, and is now down to his last $400 million.

VIDEO: Australian billionaire's rise faces fall from creditors' call | 7.30 | 23 Oct 2012 - Newcastle businessman Nathan Tinkler's meteoric rise from electrician to billionaire is under threat as local businesses complain of bills not being paid and property giant Mirvac chases $17 million owed to it.

Nathan Tinkler unpicks empire for investors | The Australian | 15 Sep 2012 - Embattled resources entrepreneur Nathan Tinkler has moved to deregister five of the companies in his sprawling empire in an apparent bid to make it more appealing to investors.

AUDIO: Nathan Tinkler | RN Breakfast | 27 Sep 2012 - It's a question on many lips in the business community -- as commodity prices continue to weaken, will former billionaire Nathan Tinkler go the way of Christopher Skase or Alan Bond.

Tinkler sells Maules Creek stake for $370 million | Australian Mining | 4 Oct 2011 - Billionaire Nathan Tinkler's Aston Resources yesterday announced plans to sell a ten per cent stake in the Hunter Valley Maules Creek coal project for $370 million.

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