The Exporter Players

· In early 1979 Semmens (then a practicing Accountant and Member of the Australian Society of Accountants) with a number of his accounting practice clients created about nine (9) 'Export Partnerships' to export South Australian made Sheepskin Car Seat Covers to the US, and these Export Partnerships became clients of my two (2) Export Consulting companies.

· Semmens included five (5) Trustee Companies as part of the 'Partnership Structuring', however that was no concern of mine.

· Semmens together with other accountants/consultants (Jon Noolan, John Konstas and others) did careful financial projections and Semmens submitted this information to the (then) Export Development Grants Board before embarking on the venture.

· Semmens got the green light in principle from Tom Roberts of the Adelaide Office of the Grants Board and mistakenly believed Roberts’ encouraging words.

· Believing Fraser, Anthony and Roberts, the Semmens Group speedily opened up four or five retail Sheepskin Shops in the US to enable them to sell shopfuls of stock to credit-worthy Americans.

· In late 1979 the Grants Board had employee strife and also the then Treasurer, John Howard, did not budget sufficient money for the Grants Scheme.

No Grants were paid to the Semmens Group, so the budgeted cash income for the opening export market promotion was missing. To this end, Semmens went into ‘Fire Sale Mode’ and all parties involved licked their wounds and got on with their lives.

For Guestbook and My Blogs (Web Log) go to http://freedomsolution.zibycom.com/site/default.asp

Next: The Administrative Appeals Tribunal – Layton, Davies