REMEMBER WHEN

GOLD COAST BULLETIN Tuesday, Nov 23, 2004

THE fugitive businessman Christopher Skase’s widow returned to Australia — but creditors were told not to get their hopes up.

Pixie Skase’s bankruptcy trustee Max Donnelly said Mrs Skase was down to her last $1 million – a payout from Mr Skase’s life insurance policy, which was untouchable.

Mrs Skase landed at Melbourne airport and was whisked off in a chauffeurdriven car to Mount Macedon, a retreat for the city’s wealthy.

It was not clear whether Mrs Skase would return to the Gold Coast where she and her husband were socialites during the heady 1980s.

Mrs Skase helped to plan the Sheraton Mirage, putting her stamp on its interior design. Her father, Keith Dixon, had lived at Mermaid Waters.

Mrs Skase’s failed tycoon husband died in Spain in 2001 after fleeing there 10 years earlier with personal debts of $170 million and corporate debts of $1.7 billion.

With the reappearance of the notorious businessman’s widow, the Federal Government flagged that the investigation into Skase’s missing millions could be reopened if Mr Donnelly said it was warranted.

“It is open to the trustee for bankruptcy ... to review the circumstances now Mrs Skase is back in Australia,’’ said a government spokeswoman.

However, Mr Donnelly said: “I don’t propose to do anything with what I know now. The government has already spent a substantial amount of money on this case.”

Ultimately the government chose not the pursue the remaining funds.