Australia whisky CEO quits after 'extortion' video shows him smoking meth pipe

Lark Distilling

16/02/2022 05:30

By Byron Kaye
    SYDNEY, Feb 16 (Reuters) - The CEO of Australia's largest
listed whisky-maker quit on Wednesday after video shared with
the media showed him apparently smoking methamphetamine, part of
what he claimed was a years-long extortion plot.
    Geoff Bainbridge said he resigned from Lark Distilling Co
Ltd  LRK.AX  after learning media had obtained the content
"showing me engaging in illicit drug use" years earlier, even
though he had almost no memory of the events.
    The Australian newspaper reported the one-minute video
showed Bainbridge smoking what appeared to be a glass
methamphetamine pipe while "fondling himself in skimpy black
underwear".
    The newspaper did not publish the video or reveal how it
obtained it.
    In a statement issued through his lawyer, Bainbridge
confirmed it was him in the video and said it was taken overseas
before he started at Lark when he attended a gathering of people
he did not know.
    He said he realised he was the victim of a "shakedown" after
seeing the footage the next morning. Since then, he said he had
been the subject of a "sophisticated, continuing and recently
escalated extortion".
    He said the video was shared with media after he took advice
to stop responding to ongoing extortionists' threats after
paying them.
    "Ultimately, I put myself in a situation I shouldn't have
been in. I'm a victim of extortion but that wouldn't have
occurred without my poor judgement." 
    News of Bainbridge's departure sent the company's shares
down 21% by late afternoon, hitting their lowest level since
July 2021. 
    Bainbridge oversaw a 333% rise in the stock since joining
the distiller in October 2019. He holds 5.5% of Lark, making him
its third-largest shareholder, according to Refinitiv data. 
    In a statement, Lark said Bainbridge had left the company
"to enable him to manage a personal matter". 
    It installed an interim managing director while the company
looked for a permanent replacement. 

 (Reporting by Byron Kaye; Editing by Lincoln Feast.)
 ((byron.kaye@thomsonreuters.com; +612 9171 7541; @byronkaye;))