RenLabs was a rip-roaring success – two of the alumniSusruth Nadimpalli andJaskaran Gulati wound up on Forbes Asia’s 30 under 30 list this year. Two other co-founders, Loong Wang andTaiyang Zhang are featured heavily on the university’s promotional material as generous philanthropists,backing a computational biology accelerator,and funding a $40,000 per annum PhD scholarship in medical research. Ren,meanwhile,is set for a $75 million valuation.
Unfortunately,it wasn’t just crypto-optimists drawn to Ren’s platform. A published by blockchain analysts Elliptic this week found Ren had been used to launder at least $540 million in proceeds of crime by various unsavoury internet characters,including North Korean hackers,Russian ransomware operators,and a cybercriminal group who recently attacked the Costa Rican government.
There’s no suggestion any of the platform’s founders knew of,or had any involvement in,that activity. Rather,it’s an unfortunate risk associated with such blockchain-based cryptocurrency converters.
“As well as a legitimate tool,cross-chain bridges have also emerged as a key facilitator of money laundering,” the report says.
A spokesperson for the university told CBD that scholarships and donations went through a rigorous vetting process and due diligence,and said any questions about the use of RenBridge was a matter for RenLabs.
“The promotional material about our alumni focuses on their time at ANU and achievements since. It is not an endorsement of RenLabs or RenBridge or of the use of this software,and should not be taken that way,” they said.
Livingstone takes flight
As far as send-offs go it’s hard to imagine one as upbeat as the cocktail party to farewellCatherine Livingstone as chair of Commonwealth Bank on Wednesday night.
Fresh from signing off a full-year profit of $9.6 billion – 11 per cent higher than last year – Livingstone was joined by her senior executives and the biggest hitters in the banking and regulatory sector at an intimate affair on the top of Sydney’s Museum of Contemporary Art,as she passed the torch to her successor,former Bluescope CEOPaul O’Malley.
Up and away.John Shakespeare
Chief executiveMatt Comyn opened the speeches,praising Livingtone’s clarity,intellect and integrity,which he said was critical to turning around the bank’s culture and reputation after the battering it took in the royal commission.
Livingstone herself acknowledged the size of the task,joking she had the words “root cause” permanently burnt into her consciousness.
No doubt this psychological souvenir was bestowed by some of the people gathered in the room – as Livingstone pointed out that ASIC,APRA and Austrac were all represented in person.
Other guests included former premier and now-Optus exec Gladys Berejiklian,former Macquarie boss Nicholas Moore,former Queensland premier turned Australian Banking Association chiefAnna Bligh,and other CBA board members.
Livingstone,whose work ethic is legendary,told one attendee she had finished up signing board papers around lunchtime on her last day in the chair,and intended to slow down just enough to “get my weekends back”.
Adorable
Things haven’t been all that rosy for Adore Beauty,the e-cosmetics outfit founded,as the typical tech log-cabin story goes,out ofKate Morris’ garage in Melbourne in 2000.
The company’s 2020 float came with plenty of adoring commentary,a $650 million ASX listing,and an opening share price of $6.75 a pop.
Two years on,that all looks rather cosmetic. Adore’s share price has haemorrhaged nearly 80 per cent and is now about $1.34. We suggest they cut the free Tim Tam they send off with every package. And amid all that comes news that chief executiveTennealle O’Shannessyis out,jumping off the sinking ship to take the reins at educational services provider IDP – although she’ll stick around through reporting season and formally hand over the reins next February.
It’s not an altogether surprising move,given the state of things at Adore,and her background – she spent five years with Online Education Services as a non-executive director – would have made her highly desirable for IDP,who we hear came for her.
Meanwhile,Adore’s chairMarina Go (who recently departed troubled online bookseller Booktopia) said O’Shannessy had “done an excellent job delivering Adore’s financial and operational successes,including exceeding all prospectus forecasts,and leaves the business well-positioned for future growth.”
Let’s see how that goes.
Gill takes the cake
Happy birthday to outgoing AFL bossGill McLachlan,who celebrated his 49th birthday on Monday with a Paramount-themed cake delivered by the US entertainment giant.
Paramount is one of a group of companies (including Seven West Media,Foxtel,and Nine Entertainment Co,the owner of this masthead) bidding for the broadcast rights to the AFL and AFLW once the current contract expires in 2024. The cake was just a sweetener on top of a reported multimillion-dollar bid from Paramount.
AFL boss Gill McLachlan received a birthday cake from US Entertainment giant Paramount this week.Supplied
Like McLachlan,the company is also a Leo and sent cupcakes,balloons and other delights to Australian media this week to celebrate its first birthday.
A picture of McLachlan cutting into an oversized Paramount cake – so big it fed up to 100 AFL staff – surfaced on social media with a “happy birthday”. We wonder what he wished for.
Perhaps that a $600 million bid – which Paramount bossBeverley McGarvey was “plucked from thin air” – was in fact true?
Labor lawyers up
With months of Macquarie Street drama engulfing the Perrottet government and making NSW Labor look a serious contender,the party’s preselection race,due to be finalised at October’s state conference,has taken on added importance.
And recently,three barristers have thrown their wigs in the ring for a winnable upper house spot. That includes current MLC Adam Searle,who’s back despite speculation he’d move on – the Jodi McKay ally didn’t retain his position as opposition leader in the upper house after her dumping last year.
Cameron Murphy,son of Whitlam-era attorney-general and High Court judge Lionel Murphy, is having a crack at the upper house,after narrowly losing the marginal seat of East Hills at consecutive elections.
And former Dubbo mayor Stephen Lawrence,the barrister who helped overturn a ban on the 2020 Black Lives Matter rally in Sydney,is also in the running.