Court documents reveal that pubs and pokies baron Bruce Mathieson’s Endeavour Group may have underpaid $700,000 in stamp duty when buying the Captain Cook Hotel in Sydney, make that The Captain, recently renamed. Callum Foote reports.
The Captain Cook Hotel, just a hop skip and jump from the Sydney Cricket Ground and the new Alliance Stadium in Paddington, was purchased by BLM Group, directed by billionaire Bruce Mathieson and Ross Blair-Holt the chief executive of the Bruce Mathieson group earlier this month for a reported $13.5 million.
Earlier this month, FHT Nominees sold the hotel and its associated businesses to a company associated with pokies and hotel billionaire Bruce Mathieson for a reported total of $13.5 million.
Ben Horne is also a former director of FHT Nominees
Criminal proceedings
Ben Horne is a defendant in Supreme Court proceedings brought forward by his former business partner Stuart Crabb who alleges that Horne stole Crabb’s company BBARC Pty Ltd out from under him.
BBARC owned units in a trust that had housed the Captain Cook Hotel in Paddington since 2021. The case is being heard in the NSW Supreme Court and is expected to resume on the second of February 2023.
Court drama
When Crabb learnt that the Hotel was due to be auctioned on December 5, an urgent injunction was filed by his lawyers on December 1 seeking an order to have funds placed into the courts trust account from the sale proceeds.
Then, in a surprise move, the Judge ordered that Horne was required to produce evidence on that Sunday at 2pm. This evidence was to include copies of all sale contracts related to the sale to Mathieson’s company.
There were doubts surrounding this evidence, however, Mathieson’s lawyers produced the corresponding contracts to the court which supported Horne’s affidavit.
If this is the case, it represents a stamp duty shortfall of almost $700,000 on behalf of companies controlled by the pokies baron. Mathieson was unavailable for comment, as were his public relations people.
Mathieson’s pubs and pokies empire a family affair
Bruce Mathieson’s pokies and hotel empire, worth $2.2 billion according to the AFR’s 2022 Rich List, includes a 15% share in Endeavour Group.
Endeavour Group, of which Mathieson is the CEO, controls the ALH Group, the largest hotel operator in the country, operating more than 350 venues. The business is a family affair, Mathieson Senior having been replaced as a director of Endeavour and ALH by his son Bruce Mathieson Jr.
One of Mathieson’s daughters, Deborah Mathieson-Tomsic and her husband Dave Tomsic own Black Rhino Group which owns more than 1100 poker machine licences throughout Victoria in two dozen different venues.
Mathieson’s other daughter, Jodi Grollo and her husband Dianni Grollo own the Pubco Group which own and operate 10 licensed venues across Melbourne Metro and Regional Victoria along with 467 pokies machines.
The Mathieson family own 45% of Victoria’s poker machine entitlements.
Mathieson has been contacted to comment on whether the contracts his lawyers were mistaken in presenting the $13.5 million figure to the court, as have Ben Horne’s lawyers. Neither were available to comment on the shortfall. MWM also has a call in to the NSW OSR.
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Callum Foote was a reporter for Michael West Media for four years.