Bond's U.K. money business closes


Alan Bond, pictured on his release from jail in Australia in March 2000

SYDNEY, Australia (CNN) -- The latest business venture of disgraced Anglo-Australian entrepreneur Alan Bond has collapsed in the U.K.

Bond was involved with The Money Center, a London-based cheque-cashing and payday lending business, which went into voluntary administration this week, according to local media reports.

Calls to The Money Center in London went unanswered Wednesday, though its web site carries no information about the demise of the business.

Bond said he was merely a consultant to the company and not a director, according to an interview in the business daily, the Australian Financial Review.

However he helped launch the business in 2000 and was quoted by Money Center director John Saunders as being "distressed and disappointed" at its failure.

Bond, 64, has been living in London with his second wife Di Bliss, seeking to revive his business career following his release from a Western Australia jail in 2000.

Jailed in 1992 and 1996

Bond was jailed in 1992 and again in 1996 on corporate fraud charges. Liquidators have continued to hunt for any money left over from the string of corporate disasters he presided over.

Before the collapse of his Bond Corp in 1989 with debts of more than $4 billion, Bond had been among Australia's highest-profile businessmen.

During the hectic 1980s he vastly increased the size of Bond Corp, adding a television network, newspapers, breweries, property development and resources interests.

Bond became a national hero in 1983 when his 12-meter yacht, Australia II, defeated U.S. yachting giant Dennis Conner's Liberty to win the America's Cup trophy.

He further entrenched his name in Australia with the founding of Bond University on the Gold Coast

But Bond's deal-making luck ran out in 1989 when Bond Corp collapsed. He was declared bankrupt in April 1992 and a month later was jailed for two and a half years for his role in the collapse of the Perth merchant bank Rothwells.

He was released on appeal in August 1992 and cleared his bankruptcy in early 1995 with a settlement to creditors.

But he went to jail again in August 1996 for fraud involving an artwork, and had his sentence extended the following year for another fraud charge involving $600 million of asset stripping from Bell Resources to benefit Bond Corp. He was released in March 2000.