Rene Rivkin
Encyclopedia
Rene Rivkin was an Australia
n entrepreneur
, investor
, investment adviser, and stockbroker. He was a well-known stockbroker in Australia for many years until his death in 2005.
, China
to Russian-Jewish parents in what was then Japan
ese-occupied China. His father, Walter, was a Georgia
n-born trader
who had fled to China
in the 1920s to escape the Bolshevik
s. The elder Rivkin had also once been a champion boxer
in Shanghai. The family emigrated to Australia in 1951. Rivkin attended the selective
Sydney Boys High School
in Moore Park
. In accordance with his father's wishes, he went on to study law
at the University of Sydney
. He went on to become the youngest ever member of the Sydney Stock Exchange
.
magazine's Stockbroker of the Year. Later, Rivkin gained recognition with his publication of the Rivkin Report, in which he would advise what stocks to buy and sell, and provide market analysis. He became famous in the Australian media for his entrepreneurial flair and wealth. He was associated with all of the leading political, media and business figures in Australia between 1982-1999 and became a household name.
Rivkin sold his share of stockbroking firm Rivkin James Capel after an operation to remove a tumour and the 1987 stockmarket collapse
. He was the Chairman and chief investor in the plant that was destroyed in the Offset Alpine fire
on 24 December 1993. He owned and part owned many businesses during his lifetime, including a half share of John Singleton Advertising between 1986 and 1991 with his friend John Singleton (Australian entrepreneur)
. He subsequently founded another stockbroking firm.
Conviction for insider trading
In April 2003, following a long-running investigation by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission
(ASIC), he was found guilty of insider trading
after having purchased 50,000 Qantas
shares after being made aware of information in relation to an impending merger of Qantas and Impulse Airlines
. He was charged with using confidential and market-sensitive information, having purchased – on behalf of Rivkin Investments – 50,000 Qantas shares on 24 April 2001, just hours after speaking to the executive chairman of Impulse, Gerry McGowan. The trade resulted in a profit of $2,664.94.
Rivkin was convicted and sentenced to nine months periodic detention on weekends. His sentence was delayed so he could undergo urgent surgery for a meningioma
. His period of custody was punctuated with time served at Long Bay Psychiatric Hospital
. After serving two days of his sentence at Sydney
's Silverwater Correctional Centre
, Rivkin collapsed and was hospitalised.
mansion and retired from business life. He was suffering from mental illness during this period. He later moved to the Darling Point home of his elderly mother where he took his own life on 1 May 2005. His funeral was widely attended by many notable people from Sydney's business community at Eastern Suburbs Memorial Park
where his body was cremated on 6 May 2005. He was survived by his wife and five children.
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
n entrepreneur
Entrepreneur
An entrepreneur is an owner or manager of a business enterprise who makes money through risk and initiative.The term was originally a loanword from French and was first defined by the Irish-French economist Richard Cantillon. Entrepreneur in English is a term applied to a person who is willing to...
, investor
Investor
An investor is a party that makes an investment into one or more categories of assets --- equity, debt securities, real estate, currency, commodity, derivatives such as put and call options, etc...
, investment adviser, and stockbroker. He was a well-known stockbroker in Australia for many years until his death in 2005.
Early life
Rene Walter Rivkin was born 6 June 1944 in ShanghaiShanghai
Shanghai is the largest city by population in China and the largest city proper in the world. It is one of the four province-level municipalities in the People's Republic of China, with a total population of over 23 million as of 2010...
, China
China
Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...
to Russian-Jewish parents in what was then Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
ese-occupied China. His father, Walter, was a Georgia
Georgia (country)
Georgia is a sovereign state in the Caucasus region of Eurasia. Located at the crossroads of Western Asia and Eastern Europe, it is bounded to the west by the Black Sea, to the north by Russia, to the southwest by Turkey, to the south by Armenia, and to the southeast by Azerbaijan. The capital of...
n-born trader
Trader (finance)
A trader is someone in finance who buys and sells financial instruments such as stocks, bonds, commodities and derivatives. A broker who simply fills buy or sell orders is not a trader, as they are merely executing instructions given to them. According to the Wall Street Journal in 2004, a managing...
who had fled to China
White Emigre
A white émigré was a Russian who emigrated from Russia in the wake of the Russian Revolution and Russian Civil War, and who was in opposition to the contemporary Russian political climate....
in the 1920s to escape the Bolshevik
Bolshevik
The Bolsheviks, originally also Bolshevists , derived from bol'shinstvo, "majority") were a faction of the Marxist Russian Social Democratic Labour Party which split apart from the Menshevik faction at the Second Party Congress in 1903....
s. The elder Rivkin had also once been a champion boxer
Boxing
Boxing, also called pugilism, is a combat sport in which two people fight each other using their fists. Boxing is supervised by a referee over a series of between one to three minute intervals called rounds...
in Shanghai. The family emigrated to Australia in 1951. Rivkin attended the selective
Selective school (New South Wales)
Selective schools in New South Wales, Australia are government high schools operated by the New South Wales Department of Education and Training, that have accepted their students based upon their academic merit...
Sydney Boys High School
Sydney Boys High School
Sydney Boys High School is an academically selective public secondary school for boys, located in the City of Sydney, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, with 1,180 students, from years 7 to 12...
in Moore Park
Moore Park, New South Wales
Moore Park is a large area of parkland in the Eastern Suburbs of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. It is part of Centennial Parklands, a collective of three parks being Moore Park, Centennial Park and Queens Park. Centennial Parklands is administered by the Centennial Park &...
. In accordance with his father's wishes, he went on to study law
Bachelor of Laws
The Bachelor of Laws is an undergraduate, or bachelor, degree in law originating in England and offered in most common law countries as the primary law degree...
at the University of Sydney
University of Sydney
The University of Sydney is a public university located in Sydney, New South Wales. The main campus spreads across the suburbs of Camperdown and Darlington on the southwestern outskirts of the Sydney CBD. Founded in 1850, it is the oldest university in Australia and Oceania...
. He went on to become the youngest ever member of the Sydney Stock Exchange
Australian Securities Exchange
The Australian Securities Exchange was created by the merger of the Australian Stock Exchange and the Sydney Futures Exchange in July 2006. It is the primary stock exchange group in Australia....
.
Career
Rene Rivkin will be remembered as one of Australia's most famous stockbrokers and entrepreneurs in a career that spanned over 30 years. In December 1985, Rene Rivkin was voted Business Review WeeklyBusiness Review Weekly
BRW is an Australian weekly business magazine published by the Fairfax Media group. It regularly compiles lists which rank corporations and individuals according to various criteria, similar to Fortune magazine in the United States.BRW provides news and commentary on the economy, business and...
magazine's Stockbroker of the Year. Later, Rivkin gained recognition with his publication of the Rivkin Report, in which he would advise what stocks to buy and sell, and provide market analysis. He became famous in the Australian media for his entrepreneurial flair and wealth. He was associated with all of the leading political, media and business figures in Australia between 1982-1999 and became a household name.
Rivkin sold his share of stockbroking firm Rivkin James Capel after an operation to remove a tumour and the 1987 stockmarket collapse
Black Monday (1987)
In finance, Black Monday refers to Monday October 19, 1987, when stock markets around the world crashed, shedding a huge value in a very short time. The crash began in Hong Kong and spread west to Europe, hitting the United States after other markets had already declined by a significant margin...
. He was the Chairman and chief investor in the plant that was destroyed in the Offset Alpine fire
Offset Alpine fire
The Offset Alpine fire was a 1993 fire that destroyed a Sydney printing plant owned by the company Offset Alpine Printing Ltd. Investigations of the incident by the police and by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission spanned over ten years, amid suspicions that the printing plant was...
on 24 December 1993. He owned and part owned many businesses during his lifetime, including a half share of John Singleton Advertising between 1986 and 1991 with his friend John Singleton (Australian entrepreneur)
John Singleton (Australian entrepreneur)
John Desmond Singleton AM is an Australian entrepreneur. He built his success and wealth in the advertising business in Australia in the 1970s and 1980s...
. He subsequently founded another stockbroking firm.
Conviction for insider trading
In April 2003, following a long-running investigation by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission
Australian Securities and Investments Commission
The Australian Securities & Investments Commission is an independent Australian government body that acts as Australia's corporate regulator...
(ASIC), he was found guilty of insider trading
Insider trading
Insider trading is the trading of a corporation's stock or other securities by individuals with potential access to non-public information about the company...
after having purchased 50,000 Qantas
Qantas
Qantas Airways Limited is the flag carrier of Australia. The name was originally "QANTAS", an initialism for "Queensland and Northern Territory Aerial Services". Nicknamed "The Flying Kangaroo", the airline is based in Sydney, with its main hub at Sydney Airport...
shares after being made aware of information in relation to an impending merger of Qantas and Impulse Airlines
Impulse Airlines
Impulse Airlines was an independent airline in Australia which operated regional and low cost trunk services between 1994 and 2001. It was acquired by Qantas in 2001 and later formed the basis of Qantas' low-cost airline Jetstar...
. He was charged with using confidential and market-sensitive information, having purchased – on behalf of Rivkin Investments – 50,000 Qantas shares on 24 April 2001, just hours after speaking to the executive chairman of Impulse, Gerry McGowan. The trade resulted in a profit of $2,664.94.
Rivkin was convicted and sentenced to nine months periodic detention on weekends. His sentence was delayed so he could undergo urgent surgery for a meningioma
Meningioma
The word meningioma was first used by Harvey Cushing in 1922 to describe a tumor originating from the meninges, the membranous layers surrounding the CNS ....
. His period of custody was punctuated with time served at Long Bay Psychiatric Hospital
Long Bay Correctional Centre
Long Bay Correctional Complex is located in the suburb of Malabar in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. Long Bay comprises six institutions, four maximum security and two minimum security.-History:...
. After serving two days of his sentence at Sydney
Sydney
Sydney is the most populous city in Australia and the state capital of New South Wales. Sydney is located on Australia's south-east coast of the Tasman Sea. As of June 2010, the greater metropolitan area had an approximate population of 4.6 million people...
's Silverwater Correctional Centre
Silverwater Correctional Centre
Silverwater Correctional Centre is a minimum security Australian male prison facility, located in Holker St, Silverwater, west of the Sydney central business district in New South Wales, Australia.-Notable prisoners:...
, Rivkin collapsed and was hospitalised.
Death
Banned for life from having a stockbroking licence following the serving of his sentence, Rivkin lived quietly in his Point PiperPoint Piper, New South Wales
Point Piper is a small, harbourside eastern suburb of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. It is located six kilometres east of the Sydney central business district, in the local government area known as the Municipality of Woollahra....
mansion and retired from business life. He was suffering from mental illness during this period. He later moved to the Darling Point home of his elderly mother where he took his own life on 1 May 2005. His funeral was widely attended by many notable people from Sydney's business community at Eastern Suburbs Memorial Park
Eastern Suburbs Memorial Park
Eastern Suburbs Memorial Park is a cemetery and crematorium at Matraville, in the eastern suburbs of Sydney, Australia. Land was dedicated as a cemetery site in 1888, with the first interment recorded on 21 August 1893. Since then, more than 65,000 people have been buried there...
where his body was cremated on 6 May 2005. He was survived by his wife and five children.
Further reading
- Main, Andrew (2005) Rivkin, Unauthorised: The Meteoric Rise and Tragic Fall of an Unorthodox Money Man, HarperCollins, Sydney, ISBN 0-7322-8089-3
- Chenoweth, Neil (2006) Packer's Lunch: A Rollicking Tale of Swiss Bank Accounts and Money-Making Adventurers in the Roaring '90s, Allen & Unwin, ISBN 9781741145465.
- Littlewood, Nigel (1999) Rivkin's Rules, Information Australia, Melbourne, ISBN 1 86350 264 5.