Alan Bond: Is he a hero or a villain?



Who can forget the wave of euphoria that swept the country when Alan Bond's Australia II syndicate won the Americas Cup for the first time in 100 odd years? As the yacht swept to victory on its controversial winged keel and the boxing kangaroo flew defiantly overhead, Men At Work's 'Down Under' pumped through the speakers and 'Bondy' was a national hero.

The shareholders of the plundered Bell Resources would hardly be swayed by such memories, with over a billion dollars taken out of their company in a manoeuvre that later proved to be illegal. After a celebrated court case in which his memory failed repeatedly, Alan Bond found himself behind the bars of a Western Australian prison.

Friends portray Alan Bond as a good bloke and a patriot, a man who got caught up in the corporate excesses of the eighties and did some bad things for which he has now paid. They claim there is genuine remorse on his part and point to the way he set about redeeming himself in prison. It has also been hinted that he may have taken the fall for other high profile figures.

Others see him as an integral part of the corrupt "W. A. Inc." and suspect him of being less than candid with the bankruptcy trustees.

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