When business and crime collide

The dramatic arrest of Australian businessman Paul Douglas Peters on charges that he broke into the home of Sydney schoolgirl Madeleine Pulver and attached a fake bomb around her throat has sent the media into overdrive.

While the unusual nature of the case meant the arrest of any suspect was likely to command plenty of column inches, there’s an extra buzz here because the suspect is… wait for it… a businessman!

Peters, who has been charged with kidnapping, aggravated breaking and entering with intent to commit a serious indictable offence and demanding property with intent to steal, is a former executive of the collapsed financial engineering firm Allco.

According to reports, he worked in the Hong Kong office in 2006 before moving to Malaysia to set up a joint venture with a local firm to run a fund that would lend money according to Islamic law. But the agreement was never signed and Allco collapsed under billions of dollars worth of debt.

Exactly what transpired between the collapse of Allco and Peters arrest isn’t really clear – it appears Peters attempted to pursue his Islamic lending venture in Malaysia on his own, but had little success.

How Peters goes from a failed business venture to being allegedly involved in a high-profiled and complex crime is really not clear. The Pulver family says there is no connection between it and Peters and so far no direct link has emerged.

It will be fascinating to see how the Pulver case plays out from here, but there’s clearly extra spice added to a crime story when a businessperson – and one from the very white-collar world of high-finance – is involved.

We also saw it last year when property developer Ron Medich was charged over his alleged involvement in the murder of fellow property developer and colourful identity Michael McGurk.

There are a few things at play here. There’s the idea of “clean” business people getting their hands dirty in the underworld.

But for entrepreneurs used to the combative world of business, there’s also a macabre fascination with the concept that tensions could spill out of the boardroom and turn into something very ugly.