28 Facts About Alan Bond

Alan Bond was an English-born Australian businessman noted for his high-profile and often corrupt business dealings.

Alan Bond is remembered for bankrolling the successful challenge for the 1983 America's Cup, the first time the New York Yacht Club had lost it in its 132-year history.

Alan Bond is the founder of Bond University, Gold Coast, Australia.

Alan Bond was born on 22 April 1938, the son of Frank and Kathleen Bond in the Hammersmith district of London, England.

Alan Bond extended his business interests into fields outside property development including brewing, gold mining, television, and airships.

Australia's first private university, Alan Bond University, was founded by the Alan Bond Corporation in 1987.

Alan Bond purchased QTQ-9 Brisbane and settled an outstanding defamation dispute the station had with the Queensland premier, Joh Bjelke-Petersen by paying out A$400,000.

Alan Bond said in a television interview several years later that he paid because "Sir Joh left no doubt that if we were going to continue to do business successfully in Queensland then he expected the matter to be resolved".

However, the purchase was funded by a substantial loan from the auctioneer Sotheby's, which Alan Bond failed to repay.

Alan Bond became a public hero in his adopted country when he bankrolled challenges for the America's Cup, which resulted in his selection in 1978 as Australian of the Year.

In 1987, Alan Bond paid $1 billion to purchase the Australia-wide Channel Nine television network from Kerry Packer's PBL.

In 1992, Alan Bond was declared bankrupt after failing to repay a $194 million personal guarantee on a loan for a nickel-mining project.

Alan Bond feigned brain damage to avoid answering questions during bankruptcy trials, a charade he saw no need to keep up afterwards.

Alan Bond was forced to sell Glympton Park in England.

In 1997, Alan Bond was sentenced to seven years in prison after pleading guilty to using his controlling interest in Bell Resources to deceptively siphon off A$1.2 billion into the coffers of the Alan Bond Corporation.

Alan Bond was stripped of his 1984 honour as an Officer of the Order of Australia.

Alan Bond was released from Karnet Prison Farm in 2000, having served four years in various Western Australian prisons.

In 2003, Alan Bond was inducted into the America's Cup Hall of Fame.

Since 2003, Alan Bond had worked closely with his son Craig and longtime business partner Robert Quinn through Strategic Investments Ltd.

In 2007, the Federal Court rejected an attempt by Alan Bond to sue freelance journalist Paul Barry over an article Barry wrote about his dealings in Africa with the Lesotho Diamond Company.

Alan Bond had claimed that the article had several false statements.

In 2008 Alan Bond appealed but this, too, was rejected by the same court which found Alan Bond's claims had no reasonable prospects of success.

In 1955, Alan Bond married Eileen Hughes, a member of a prominent Catholic family in Fremantle.

Alan Bond, who had been raised Protestant, converted to Catholicism for the marriage.

Alan Bond married Diana Bliss, a public relations consultant and theatre producer, in 1995.

On 2 June 2015, Alan Bond underwent open-heart surgery at a private hospital in Perth to replace and repair his heart valves.

The Australian TV miniseries House of Alan Bond is a heavily fictionalised account of Alan Bond's life.

In real life, Alan Bond was represented by criminal lawyer Andrew Fraser, notable for representing Australian underworld figures and other unsavoury elements.