Steve Vizard

Stephen William Vizard, born 6 March 1956 in Richmond, Victoria, is an Australian media personality, comedian, businessman and philanthropist.

Early life

He grew up in the Melbourne suburb of Hawthorn and was educated at Carey Baptist Grammar School.^[2]

After finishing high school, Vizard then went on to study law at the University of Melbourne.^[2] While at university, he became the subject of controversy by being disqualified from the Melbourne Moomba festival bird man rally for sabotaging another contestant’s flying machine with grease^[3]. From 1981 to 1989, he worked as a corporate lawyer before entering show business.^[4]

Entertainment career

In turning his hand to entertainment, He produced and performed in hit sketch comedy show The Eleventh Hour^[5], and then became a household name for his work in Fast Forward. In 1991, Vizard was awarded the Gold Logie.

Steve Vizard is best known for playing character roles on Fast Forward, as Brent Smyth, Darryl (Stewards), 'Fakari' rug salesman Roger Ramshett, and Newsreaders Dirk Hartog. He also performed myriad impersonations, most notably of Derryn Hinch, Richard Carleton, Don Lane, Ian Turpie, George Donikian and even Gough Whitlam in one instance. He also scripted and acted in Fast Forward's memorable send-ups of popular TV shows such as The Cosby Show, Kung Fu and The Munsters.

In 1989, Vizard partnered with comedy writer Andrew Knight to form the company Artist Services.^[4] In the same year he started the TV show, Tonight Live with Steve Vizard, which ran through until 1992.^[4] The show was said to have borrowed heavily from the format used in Late Night with David Letterman, although Vizard was safely off the air by the time Nine Network decided to commence screening Letterman in Australia.^[6]

In 1995, Vizard sold his company Artist Services to John Fairfax Holdings for a reported sum of AUD$9 million (1995).^[4] The unit was later on-sold to UK based media company Granada Media plc.^[1]

Insider trading

Since retiring from the Entertainment industry in the mid-1990's, Vizard pursued a number of business interests.^[4] In 1996, he became a Director of the telecommunications company Telstra Corporation Limited, a position he held until his decision to retire from September 17, 2000 and not stand re-election to the board.^[4][7]

Allegations of insider trading first surfaced through former Vizard bookkeeper Roy Hilliard.^[8] At the time of Hillard parting company with Vizard in 2000, it was reported that they had parted on good terms. However, this good will evaporated after Hillard was accused by Vizard of siphoning over $3 m AUD (2000) out of his accounts. This caused Hillard to be involved in significant legal matters for a number of years after the allegations being made.^[8] Hillard continues to deny the alleged theft.^[8]

It was at the time of committal proceedings being brought against Hillard in the County Court of Victoria, that Hillard made public his concerns about Vizard's insider trading and use of his charities to avoid tax.^[8] Following this, the Australian corporate regulator, the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) chose to commence an investigation into Vizard's activities in 2003.^[9] On July 21, 2005, ASIC commenced proceedings in the Federal Court of Australia.^[9] It was during the course of this investigation, that ASIC undertook searches of Vizard's home and offices in December 2003.^{[citation needed]}

In their case, it was charged that during 2000, Vizard had committed Insider trading by trading in shares of companies Sausage Software, Keycorp and Computershare based on highly confidential information he had received in his capacity as a director with Telstra.^[10] The case of the Australian Securities and Investments Commission was that in the course of doing so Vizard had breached Sections 183 and 232 of the Corporations Act of 2001 (Cth).^[10]

In a related trial where Westpac Banking Corporation was pursuing a civil action against Hillard for $3m AUD (2005) for the unauthorised taking of the funds in question from Vizard's accounts, Vizard chose not to give evidence at the trial. It was reported at the time of the civil trial that Vizard's reasoning for not wanting to provide evidence was due to concerns that any evidence he may have given could be used by Federal Police and ASIC to pursue perjury charges against him.^[11]

The criminal charges brought against Hillard were later pleaded out in 2005, when Hillard pleaded guilty to 14 counts of false accounting, for which he received a two-year suspended sentence.^[8]

While Vizard was originally brought up on criminal charges of Insider trading, on July 28, 2005, the Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions formally announced that they had elected not to proceed with the criminal case against Vizard.^[12] In a media release, Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions Damian Bugg QC along with ASIC Chairman Jeff Lucy vigorously denied assertions by some sections of the media that they had gone soft on Vizard on account of his admissions during the civil penalty phase of the proceedings.^[12] At the time Vizard's admissions were made, they were unavailable from a prosecutorial viewpoint, and they were made well after his office had determined that there was insufficient evidence to proceed.^[12]

In his judgement handed down on 28 July 2005, The Hon Justice Raymond Antony Finkelstein found that Vizard had in fact breached Sections 183 and 232 of the Corporations Act of 2001 (Cwlth) through his activities.^[10] The penalties imposed on Vizard were part of a settlement agreed between him and ASIC in the form of an "agreed statement of facts", that was jointly presented to the Federal Court by Vizard's and ASIC's lawyers.^[10] Vizard agreed that the court should impose penalties for a breach of his duties as a director.^[10]

ASIC proposed $130,000 fine per offence and 5 years disqualification.^[10] Justice Finkelstein further ordered a disqualification of 10 years, on the grounds that 5 was insufficient.^[10] He said "a message must be sent to the business community" about such conduct. The judge did take into account Vizard's remorse, communicated to the court by his barrister.^{[citation needed]} Vizard also resigned his positions on various government boards and Melbourne sporting events.^{[citation needed]}

Media comparison between Vizard's treatment and that of recently convicted Rene Rivkin were inevitable. Business commentator Terry McCrann was highly critical of the outcomes of the case.

One of the key issues in the case was that the trades in question had not been made by Vizard, but instead by a company called CTI of which Vizard's accountant Gregory Lay was the sole shareholder and director.^[12] A Vizard family company lent CTI money to invest in cows and had an agreement to receive back proceeds (less a management fee).^[12] This structure meant that in order for a criminal prosecution to be mounted, ASIC would have required evidence from Lay to connect Vizard to the trades.^[12] Lay declined to make a statement, or not without a full indemnity for himself and his firm.^{[citation needed]} The DPP could not (under the Director of Public Prosecutions Act 1983) give an indemnity without first knowing what it would be indemnifying him against.^[12]

Bugg also explained that, contrary to speculation, as a matter of policy the DPP would not bring a prosecution and subpoena witnesses (such as Lay) in the hope of what they might say; it would undermine confidence in the justice system to start a prosecution merely hoping that critical evidence would become available.^[12]

Philanthropic activities

In 1991, he founded the Vizard Foundation, which in turn established Steve Vizard House, a refuge for people in need.^[4][14]

On April 27, 1994, the Vizard Foundation purchased 45 antiquities from an auction held by Christie's of London.^[15] These items are on permanent loan to the Ian Potter Museum of Art at the University of Melbourne.^[15]

Recent career

In 1997, he was made a Member of the Order of Australia, for service to the community, particularly through the Vizard Foundation, and to the arts.^[16] In 2008, after the insider trading scandal, Vizard resigned his membership of the Order of Australia.^{[17] [18]}

In 1998, Vizard was an elected as a delegate for his home state of Victoria at the 1998 Australian Constitutional Convention in Canberra, representing the Australian Republican Movement.^[4] After the constitutional convention, Vizard wrote the book Two Weeks in Lilliput: Bear Baiting and Backbiting At the Constitutional Convention (ISBN 0140279830).

In 2002, he received the Australian Father Of The Year award.^[19]

At the 2006 Logie Awards, Vizard appeared with long-time collaborator Michael Veitch in a sketch that reprised one of their most famous roles, that of two camp, bitchy flight attendants. Veitch's character lampooned Vizard's recent legal troubles.^{[citation needed]}

Vizard has also worked as a public speaker.^[1]

He has retained some involvement with the Entertainment industry since his decision to step back in 1995, including as Executive Producer for the telemovie Kangaroo Palace, and more recently as a creative consultant on the Ten Network comedy show The Wedge.^[20][21]

References

External links

• Steve Vizard at the Internet Movie Database