Christopher Skase

Christopher Charles Skase
Born	18 September 1948 Melbourne, Australia
Died	5 August 2001(2001-08-05) (aged 52) Majorca, Spain
Spouse(s)	Jo-Anne Nanette "Pixie" Skase

Christopher Charles Skase (18 September 1948 – 5 August 2001) was an Australian businessman who later became one of his country's most wanted fugitives, after his business empire crashed spectacularly and he fled to Majorca, Spain.

Skase was born into a wealthy Melbourne family. His father was Charles Skase, 1948 winner of the Melbourne Sun-Aria, and prominent radio 3DB (now KIIS 101.1) on-air personality, including his role as star of the live-to-air radio programme, The Happy Gang in the 1950s.

He was educated at Malvern and Caulfield Grammar Schools.

He began his career as a stockbroker, but soon became a finance journalist instead, working at The Sun News-Pictorial. In 1975 he purchased Qintex, a small Tasmanian company.

Skase slowly developed Qintex and, over several years, turned it into one of Australia's larger corporations. By the late 1980s, the Qintex group was worth A$1.5 billion. Skase owned five resorts as well as interests in the Seven television network and the Brisbane Bears football club. On the eve of the 1990 economic recession, his two "Mirage" resorts in Queensland were among the largest in the country and one of them, the Sheraton Mirage Port Douglas Resort, played a key role in putting the formerly small town of Port Douglas on the international tourist map.

Skase became known for his displays of wealth, with a lavish 40th birthday party in 1988, and a company Christmas party that cost $450,000. In one particular incident, he had his private jet fly from Port Douglas to Melbourne to pick up a dress for his wife, Pixie.

By 1989, interest rates had risen, an attempt to buy the MGM film studios fell through, and Skase was forced to sell half of his resorts to Japanese investors. In the months that followed, it became clear that Skase and the Qintex group had overextended themselves.

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