"A sordid story with no winners."
Five Australian businessmen, including Rip Curl founder Doug “Claw” Warbrick – a wild gunslinger whose surf DNA allowed Rip Curl to thrive while Billabong and Quiksilver went public, soared, then sunk, and pro surfer Dean Morrison, put five million shekels into a Rip Curl complex at Bali’s famous Uluwatu.
It opened last year with a restaurant, surfboard store and Rip Curl shop, and quickly became a hit with tourists.
Now the same investors say they’ve been shut out of their own business and don’t know who’s running it.
Jake Mackenzie, a Bali expat and minority shareholder who managed the venture, is accused by the other investors of siphoning company money into his own accounts, forging documents and paying bribes. He was removed as president-director in March, but he’s disputing that and fighting to get his role back.
Dean Morrison, the third and most naturally gifted surfer of the famous Coolangatta triumvirate that includes world champs Joel Parkinson and Mick Fanning, has been giving hell to Mackenzie on Instagram.
Mackenzie tells a different story.
He says the investors sent “gangsters” to intimidate him.
One investor, David Cullen, admits their lawyer showed up with security guards and changed the locks.
The company’s former accountant, Yulia Wahyuni Soetikno, is also in the fight. She quit this year and won’t hand back the accounting records, so the investors can’t audit the business. She’s now suing Rip Curl for more than seven mill.
Warbrick says he’s gutted. He wanted the venture to be a legacy project for Australian and Balinese surfing.
Instead, he calls it “a sordid story” with no winners.
The fight has spilled into Bali’s courts, with multiple lawsuits, police reports and criminal complaints now underway. One case is already in progress; another starts in January.
Investor Peter Grant summed it up thus: “If I’d have known what I know now about investing serious amounts of money in Indonesia, I’d say don’t do it.”
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About time ” Claw” got his , its been coming for a very long time.
So there is corruption in Indonesia??? Ya dumb cunts…
feel bad for his daughter guy seems like a real scumbag!
“She’s now suing Rip Curl for more than seven mill.”
what’s that in non indo money, like $7?
you could buy a surfboard and become world champ.
dingo is a piece of shit in and out the water
Not in my experience
There was a time when ex-pats made some $$ by investing in Indo but that never really involved anything connected to the ground, more of a make money now and get out. There has to be an Indonesian involved in any business that occurs there, foreigners can’t own land, and have very little rights to anything once it gets to the courts. Its a beautiful country but their economic laws are intentionally setup to curb ex-pat rights when it comes to $$.
I watched a somewhat obscure movie, last night, with Richard Gere and a young French actress named Valerie Kaprisky, called Breathless. What a gorgeous woman.
Anybody ever seen it? DR?
How can you watch anything with Richard Gere and not think of that poor gerbil?
BS rumours started by an asshole, in a catty industry, in a fucked up city.
I have many character flaws, but I’ve always been kinda happy that I don’t believe the crap that people say about each other, when there’s no evidence to support it.
Marilyn Manson removing his rib. That made its way into every secondary school on planet earth, even when many of those countries didn’t have widespread internet. Turns out that story precedes MM’s career and was attributed to other people before him.
The top musician in my country. The rumour was he ended up in the hospital to have condom moved from his anal cavity. Turns out that exact tale has been attributed to many famous people, in many countries, and they are all most likely bullshit. I have no time or tolerance for people badmouthing or disparaging other people, especially when the other person has been shown to be a decent person. So I don’t ever think about the gerbil because I don’t believe it.
I believe everything I read.
Only if its on the internet
Did you hear the one about lady gaga being a hermaphrodite? The balos fucken loved it, calling everyone lady gaga instead of benchong.
The original rib removal job was Adam. He should have cleaned up his crib instead of gobbing a mouthful of his nut on the fetid pile of surgical deritus
Breathless – with one of LA’s finest – X
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NOdMYZa3dA4
Yea. They did the song for the end credits.
Jerry Lee Lewis composed the main song for the movie.
What a mess – the protagonists should sort out their differences for the sake of the business, but that is unlikely to happen.
“Investor Peter Grant summed it up thus: “If I’d have known what I know now about investing serious amounts of money in Indonesia, I’d say don’t do it.”
Painting with a broad brush makes the work go by so much faster. Please ignore all the investors who have likely 3X, 4X or even 10X their money by investing in Indonesia.
Some lucky/intrepid aussie or brit or yank sipping his morning java, overlooking “his” beautiful cliffside vista, and reading his copy of The Australian and chuckling at these poor folks in this sad predicament.
Name them – I’ll wait
Are you under the impression that every foreigner who ever invested in Bali has lost money? Or just made a few bucks on top? Get real, brother.
Investing is investing. Some times you make a killing. Especially if you include a local investor, although that can come with its own unique hurdles.
I am quite sure many of the people who have invested in Indonesian-registered businesses in Indonesia have lost money, for various reasons – that is common knowledge.
There are many people who currently (or used to live) in Bali or elsewhere in Indonesia, but do so with money made outside of Indonesia – like dope dealers, fashion entrepreneurs, remote workers, hedge-fund managers, ect.
It is pretty clear that it is much better (and safer) to bring outside money into Indonesia, than to try to make your fortune inside the country, what with the frequent changes in rules, arbitrary enforcement, criminal intimidation, etc.
That is precisely why there are an estimated USD 30 billion in Indonesian-owned assets sitting in Singapore banks and not the other way round – no one is bringing cash by the bagful from Singapore to Indonesia, whereas the carry trade of Indonesian rupiah from Jakarta to Singapore is a valid business, with several licensed and bonded cash couriers on nearly every one of 217 weekly flights from CGK to SIN.
And the billions of dollars of annual tourism revenue? Generated by the hundreds of millions in investment across the archipelago. Does nobody receive this money? Or is it only the locals, and foreigners who are scraping by? Martin Daly. Taylor Steele. Anybody who invested alongside Rizal in the 90s. You think none of them have doubled their money, and more? You think that Claw didn’t have a business plan that showed that he’d make a healthy return on his investment; a business plan that was based on realistic inputs?
I’m not doubting you, John. I’m just having a conversation. I do not doubt that many people have lost their shirt, which happens everywhere. As for people moving money out of their home country. I think I’ve read about 100,000 articles over the years about ‘mericans, brits, aussies and every nationality under the sun moving savings out of their home country into a bank account in some other country.
AesopMiguel de Cervantes may have even had afableline in his great novel to explain the concept, if you use the metaphor of baskets as countries.I am talking mainly about individual investors, not corporate – if you can afford Jakart-based Bahasa-speaking lawyers who understand the Indonesian legal system, you can win your case but not many individuals can afford that level of representation.
Martin makes his money in Indonesia (outside Bali) and invests it in the Marshall Islands – not Indonesia, and no longer lives there either.
I am sure Mr Warbrick and everyone concerned went into this project with their eyes open and the best of intentions, but it hasn’t worked out that way and the same can be said for many foreigners who have invested in Bali and other Indonesia investment plans and schemes –
Recent cases include:
1. The Marina Bay City / Lombok Villa Scheme ($7 Million)One of the largest recent real estate fraud cases involved the Marina Bay City project. Promoted to foreign investors—primarily Australian “mum and dad” investors—as a luxury waterfront retirement villa complex, the project was linked to banned Australian businessman Jamie McIntyre. [1] (https://www.theaustralian.c…, [2] (https://www.linkedin.com/po… Losses: At least 30 investors lost a combined $7 million.
The Scam: Investors discovered that the land was strictly zoned for agricultural use and could not be built on. Bank statements later alleged that the victims’ funds were unlawfully diverted rather than spent on physical development. The Bali Regional Police launched a massive cross-border fraud investigation into the scheme. [1] (https://www.facebook.com/th…, [2] (https://www.linkedin.com/po…, [3] (https://www.theaustralian.c….
2. The “Golden City” Sumbawa Resort Scam ($7.8 Million)Though the physical development was planned for the nearby island of Sumbawa, this scheme heavily targeted the Bali expat community and was orchestrated by figures deeply embedded in Bali’s tourism scene. [1] (https://www.news.com.au/tra…, [2] (https://www.news.com.au/tra… Losses: 62 international investors launched a class-action lawsuit over $7.8 million in losses.
The Scam: The project was marketed as an island paradise where foreigners could buy land parcels starting at $8,000. The lawsuit was filed against Yansen Barry and Brett Sorenson (an American expat known as “Brett Black,” who co-owned the popular Clear Cafe branches in Ubud and Canggu). [1] (https://www.news.com.au/tra…, [2] (https://www.news.com.au/tra…
3. Putry Thornhill Villa Swindle. A smaller but widely publicised case of targeted villa fraud involved an individual named Putry Thornhill, who defrauded Western expats out of a combined $120,000. [1] (https://www.paradysehomes.c…, [2] (https://www.abc.net.au/news…
The Scam: Foreign investors from Australia and the US were convinced to purchase off-plan boutique villas in hotspots like Pererenan. The properties only existed in photos, and no formal contracts were ever actualised, leaving investors with zero equity
There is regular news coverage of all these events (and more) in Singapore –
Just patronize Drifter Surf Shop. Equally overpriced, but at least they employ and support locals, and the food coming out of the restaurant is nourishing after getting heat stroke in the Indo sun from dodging all the tourists on the roads and 1/2 of humanity in the water.
As seen on Claw & Order: Bali edition
Wow he’s got a serious surf rainbow pot of gold Dingo is waiving that kind of money around!?
He didn’t mean shekels….He meant Rupiah.
Maybe karma for all his dropping in on humans globally
Easiest way to make a quick million in Bali is to start with two million.
Who gives a fuck
They all ruined surfing, all the big companies, and screwed that place and everywhere else they spread their grubby maulers for the last 30 odd years with their lust for ego-bred attention, and cash.
And that last sentence is hilarious.
Coulda told him that for free by the end of the 80’s when ya could still ‘buy’ (hahaha) the whole country for fuck all of fuck all.
The song remains the same.
They should all do the honourable thing and dive headfirst off the cliff…
Yep I’ll only invest in mushie shakes an Maduran hookers
Leave the hookers
Take the ‘shrooms, nasi and Bintang
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