Photo Courtesy of: heraldsun.com.au
Shortly after I was locked up under house arrest last year I received a desperate cry for help from a businessman claiming he was being destroyed by a well-known [as in notorious] flamboyant Melbourne millionaire. The man said: ‘I can’t let him ruin my family. I am desperately asking for your help in fighting this bully through the legal system.’
They were partners in a business venture for a revolutionary product that went sour. The man went on to say in his email: ‘Since then he has broken his commitment and as a consequence has caused myself and my young family severe financial hardship, home evictions, children removed from school, loss of patent, damaged my credit rating to the point we cannot even buy school shoes for my children. My wife, I am worried she is going to have a breakdown, her health has deteriorated terribly. I myself find it hard just to keep going. Have even thought of ending it all. He has defamed me, used me as an excuse for his own gain’.
I couldn’t do anything to help him. I was under house arrest and could not get involved with anything. But the man he was talking about is back in the business headlines. One Geoffrey Edelsten.
The man, Paul Main from Grey Water Recycler International and Edelsten are currently in court with claims and counter claims. And we’ll leave that for the courts.
But at the weekend Edelsten was the subject of a clinical dissection over two full pages of the Australian Financial Review under the headline The Private Wars of Geoffrey Edelsten. The story started:
‘It looked so much like a “new beginning” – young wife, luxury cars, boats and planes – yet the glitz belies a messy business’.
And the story goes on to describe in detail how ‘Edelsten is mired in disputes and legal action with disgruntled business partners. He also faces charges brought by the Australian Tax Office’. They relate to failing to produce documents relating to tax affairs between January 2007 and December 2010.
It also lists a number of business deals in which Edelsten has put down ten per cent and then reneged. As his ex-wife Leanne said ‘So, Geoffrey’s back in the 10% business again’. It’s worth a read.
It’s worth a read because Edelsten in his new book, and in an interview on a current affairs show, is again trying to rewrite history. And that’s hard -- even with a new blonde wife and all those trappings and opening night pics – when serious papers like the Fin Review keep reminding people of the 1987 bankruptcy, being deregistered as a doctor in 1988 for over-servicing. [We had stories about his Medibank shenanigans in the 1970s]. Then his 12-month jail sentence for soliciting a hitman to assault a former patient and for perverting the course of justice.
All of this is important in 2012 because there are rumours that Edelsten is keen to get re-registered as a doctor. He’s currently banned in New South Wales and Victoria. And if that rumour’s true then there’s one story I know Geoffrey Edelsten certainly wouldn’t want to come out.
And I don’t think even Brynne knows about this one.
Geoffrey Edelsten has said publicly that he has no children. That’s not true. He has a son, born in Sydney on June 2, 1989. The boy’s name is Matthew. His mother’s name is Isabel Beard. And in the past, after a paternity test, Edelsten sent the boy birthday cards and paid some monthly maintenance. Why should this be anyone’s business? A lot of people have skeletons in the closet. And this is very personal stuff. As I said, why is it anyone’s business?
Well, there’s a problem. And Geoffrey knows it. You see, Isabel Beard was not only married at the time: She was one of Geoffrey Edelsten’s patients. She and her husband Frank had had two miscarriages. She discussed some marital woes with her doctor and ended up pregnant to him.
Not the sort of thing you want to come out if you are thinking of re-applying to get registered as a medical practitioner. Not with Geoffrey Edelsten’s other baggage.
You see, you can con the media and divert a lot of attention with shiny gold suits, luxury cars, dyed hair and a buxom blonde on your arm. But it’s hard to explain away a 22-year-old son – the living proof of a doctor-patient indiscretion.
Medical boards tend to take a dim view of such things. Right, Geoffrey?