The Australian-born,Oxford-educated businessman is the face behind big tech’s latest nihilistic side-hustle that nobody needed – The Enhanced Games,or “what if you held the Olympics but allowed doping”.
So far,it’s been a success – at least so far as media attention is concerned. He’s had former Australian Olympic swimmerJames Magnussen promising to “juice to the gills”. D’Souza’s former business partner (more on that later),billionaire Republican megadonor Peter Thiel,is helping bankroll the venture. D’Souza has also appeared in challenging IOC member John Coates to a debate (Coates respectfully declined).
Well before the spurt of recent media attention,D’Souza had been evangelising on the gospel of performance-enhancing drugs. Announcing the launch of The Enhanced Games last year,he was suitably grandiose.
“I’ve spent my life fighting corruption and evil. I’m pleased to announce my next battle – the International Olympic Committee”.
This begs the question – what exactly does he mean? Perhaps it’s a reference to his role as the mysterious “Mr A” – the mastermind behind billionaire Thiel’s successful destruction of online news shitsheetGawker.
At D’Souza’s urging,Thiel spent around $US10 million in litigation,including a privacy lawsuit brought by former professional wrestlerHulk Hogan,which ended in a $US140 million payout that drove the website to bankruptcy.
WhileGawker could get a little tawdry,we find it troubling to call a thin-skinned billionaire suing a media company into oblivion as a clear-cut triumph of good over evil.
We went picking through the rest of D’Souza’s CV for more examples of brave moral crusades and instead found the remnants of forgotten business ventures. In 2015,along with local entrepreneurPhillip Kingston,he founded superannuation fintech outfit Sargon Capital,which soon enlisted former Labor communications ministerStephen Conroyand ex-Crown Resorts bossRob Rankinto its board,and counted Thiel as an early investor.
D’Souza departed Sargon in 2019,a year before the company’s spectacular immolation,and later took Kingston to the Victorian Supreme Court over $27 million he was allegedly owed for having sold his stake. The action was struck out with consent in October 2021.
But D’Souza is still being drawn into ongoing litigation surrounding Sargon’s collapse – last year,the Federal Court issued him with a summons relating to a case brought by the firm’s liquidators against its creditors.
As for D’Souza’s more philanthropic endeavour,starting the Nexus Australia Youth Summit,well,there hasn’t been one of those since 2022.
Whatever it all is,it’s hardly fighting corruption and evil.
SKY BLUES
John Shakespeare
CBD often has occasion to remind the masses of some of the freebies enjoyed by their elected representatives,so a refusal of a freebie by a federal parliamentarian caught our eye.
Dan Repacholi,the imposing Labor MP for Hunter,has filed a delightful update to his parliamentary register of interests.
“Received a complimentary streaming subscription from CEO Paul Whittaker on February 6,” Repacholi wrote. “Didn’t take up the offer.”
Now you might not be surprised that a Labor MP,who got into parliament with the support of conservative Australia’s nightmare – the Construction,Forestry,Energy and Mining Union – might be uninterested in the right-wing ranting that makes up so much of Sky’s output.
But people can surprise you,so we called Dan to check.
Turns out that he already has Sky News through Foxtel both at his electorate office and parliamentary offices as well as at home,so the refusal of the freebie was no snub to Whittaker.
But a Sky spokesperson told us that every federal parliamentarian had been offered a free pass,valid until the end of the year,so they could “stream Australia’s best political news coverage live and on the go”.
But what we really wanted to know was how poor old “Boris” Whittaker took the snub. They wouldn’t tell us.
FLYING TACKLE
Qantas’ secretive Chairman’s Lounge,where the country’s movers and shakers go to escape the airport hellscape,has provided CBD with no shortage of content.
Despite the airline’s best efforts to never say a word about the lounge,controversies around Qantas giving access toAnthony Albanese’s son have led to a bit more transparency from some public departments about their relationship with the airline.
Which is how,through documents released under freedom of information,CBD got hold of a membership form for the Chairman’s Lounge. A pretty standard bit of paperwork,although one section did give us an insight into the interests of Australia’s power players.
In the personal information part,there’s a line which asks for the nominee’s interests,with the examples listed as “AFL-specify club,Theatre,Rugby,Arts”.
But before followers of league,rugby union or roundball cry foul,the people over at the flying kangaroo reckon it’s just a standard question they’d ask of any members of the airline’s loyalty club – of which the Chairman’s Lounge might be said to a subspecies – described in the game as a data point to allow targeted marketing.
But we’re still not sure who made footy the king of the lounge.
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