Sydney // An Australian television crew accused of aiding a mother in the botched kidnapping of her two children in Lebanon arrived in Sydney on Thursday amid reports of a multimillion-dollar deal struck with the father to drop abduction charges.
Brisbane mother Sally Faulkner and the Channel Nine team were arrested and charged last week after Ms Faulkner’s son and daughter were snatched in broad daylight on a Beirut street.
But they were released on bail on Wednesday after the father, Ali Al Amin, decided not to pursue the charges in court.
Star reporter Tara Brown and her producer, cameramen and sound recordist from Channel Nine's 60 Minutes news team left on the earliest flight out of Beirut after their release from custody.
They arrived in Sydney on Thursday night and were mobbed by a large media scrum as they left the airport via a private exit, and were whisked off in waiting black vans.
“I’m just so glad to be home,” Brown said as she was escorted to a van.
Sound recordist David Ballment said he was looking forward to “a shower and seeing my wife”.
Ms Faulkner remains in Beirut for a custody hearing with her estranged husband.
Ms Faulkner’s lawyer Ghassan Mughabghab said a deal had been struck granting Mr Al Amin full custody of the children in line with Lebanese law.
The commercial Nine network did not mention any deal they were reportedly behind, but announced a full inquiry into the bizarre episode.
The Australian newspaper said "a multimillion-dollar deal was struck to drop abduction charges".
"Nine pays dad to win freedom for crew and mum," Sydney's Daily Telegraph headlined, adding that "a massive sum of cash" had been paid in compensation.
The Sydney Morning Herald said it had cost several hundred thousand dollars, but that an exact figure could not be confirmed.
The crew and Ms Faulkner still face potential charges by Lebanon’s public prosecutor, but they can be sentenced in their absence.
Mr Al Amin’s lawyer Hussein Berjawi said he had not dropped charges against two Britons and two Lebanese allegedly involved in the abduction through a child recovery agency.
It was a disastrous end to the news story they had planned.
“They intended to get away in a boat captained by a member of a private child recovery agency,” a Lebanese security source said.
The crew were arrested April 7, a day after Ms Faulkner’s children were grabbed.
Video shows them walking with an elderly person said to be their grandmother before several figures jump out of a car, shove the adult aside and carry the children off in the vehicle.
Police later found Ms Faulkner with the children, reportedly a six-year-old girl and a four-year-old boy, at a home in Beirut. They were handed back to their father through the courts.
Ms Faulkner accused him of taking them for a holiday to Beirut and then refusing to return them to Australia.
The channel’s handling of the coverage has proved controversial in Australia and prime minister Malcolm Turnbull issued a warning.
“We are very pleased they [the television crew] are on their way home,” he said, “and we want to thank the Lebanese authorities for their cooperation.”
But he added: “All Australians, regardless of what they do or who they work for, should recognise that when they are outside of Australia, they must obey the laws of the country in which they are visiting.”
Nine Network chief executive Hugh Marks pledged to “ascertain what went wrong and why our systems, designed to protect staff, failed to do so in this case”.
"It is important to reiterate that at no stage did anyone from Nine or 60 Minutes intend to act in any way that made them susceptible to charges that they breached the law or to become part of the story that is Sally's story," Mr Marks said. "But we did become part of the story and we shouldn't have.
“What has happened to Sally happens all too often and affects thousands of Australian families,” he said.
“It is a story that not only is profoundly in the public interest but also one the public is interested in.”
The scandal has been a public relations disaster for Channel Nine, which has faced intense backlash in Australia from the public and the media. Many have questioned the station’s ethics for involving itself in a criminal act and over accusations the channel funded the child-snatching operation.
“60 Minutes” has a long history of paying sources for interviews, but the head of the child recovery agency said Channel 9 went much further in this case, directly paying his company to finance the operation. Nine has declined to comment on the allegation.
* Agence France-Presse with additional reporting from Associated Press
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Place of birth Bury, United Kingdom
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Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
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“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
MATCH INFO
Uefa Champions League semi-final, second leg result:
Ajax 2-3 Tottenham
Tottenham advance on away goals rule after tie ends 3-3 on aggregate
Final: June 1, Madrid
Brief scores:
Day 1
Toss: India, chose to bat
India (1st innings): 215-2 (89 ov)
Agarwal 76, Pujara 68 not out; Cummins 2-40
New Zealand 21 British & Irish Lions 24
New Zealand
Penalties: Barrett (7)
British & Irish Lions
Tries: Faletau, Murray
Penalties: Farrell (4)
Conversions: Farrell
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