The redemption arc of A-list insider traders – MASHAHER

It isn’t quite Shawshank, but the redemption of Australia’s two headline-grabbing society A-listers and once-convicted insider traders has taken another turn.

Remember Oliver Curtis, whose publicist wife Roxy Jacenko became a Prada-wearing social media sensation during his trial, as he and his co-accused John Hartman were painted as an allegory of greed, youthful excess and cavalier attitude to wealth?

Well, his financial resurrection has reached Lazarus proportions, courtesy of the latest deliverer of large and fresh fortunes, the artificial intelligence (AI) boom, and his investment in Singapore-based Firmus Technologies – which is in the business of keeping data centres cool and helping reduce their carbon footprint.

Curtis became involved with Firmus in 2019 – three years after walking out of Cooma Correctional Centre – and his $250,000 punt has struck gold (metaphorically speaking), with his stake now valued at $81 million, as reported by The Australian Financial Review.

Meanwhile, Curtis’ partner in crime and former classmate at the elite St Ignatius College, Hartman, also landed on fertile ground having been scooped up three months after his release from prison by Australia’s richest man, iron ore magnate turned environmental evangelist Andrew Forrest.

As Forrest’s right-hand man, Hartman now oversees one of Australia’s largest private fortunes with $35 billion in assets under management across agri-food, energy, resources and property.

Forrest, who also employed former National Australia Bank executive Andrew Hagger after he left the bank when the “fees-for-no-service” scandal rocked the industry, has been dubbed the patron saint of second chances.

While many of Forrest’s lieutenants have not survived his particular management style, Hartman has notched up a lengthy tenure and is a Forrest loyalist. And for an executive with such a big job, he maintains a fairly low profile having settled in the west with his young family.