Source : THE AGE NEWS
WiseTech Global and its co-founder Richard White have confidentially settled with the company’s customs compliance executive who made claims of inappropriate conduct against the billionaire and his wife.
Christine Kontos, who was in a long-term relationship with White between 2016 and 2023, has been on leave since early October 2024, and announced her exit from WiseTech on Tuesday morning.
Richard White and Christine Kontos in January 2022.Credit:
White has reached settlements with three other women who have raised allegations against him, two of which were in the Federal Court.
According to sources who asked for anonymity to speak freely about the confidential agreements, Kontos made a complaint against White and his wife, Zena Nasser, as part of a board review into the WiseTech founder’s conduct. The source said both WiseTech and White have agreed to settle the workplace complaint.
White is currently executive chair and chief innovation officer of WiseTech, which develops logistics software, and has a market capitalisation of $35 billion.
“Today marks my final day at WiseTech Global, as I bid farewell to the company where I had the privilege of inventing and developing the global customs compliance suite of products from initial concept to worldwide implementation,” Kontos posted on LinkedIn.
Richard White with his wife, Zena Nasser.
Kontos, White and WiseTech declined to comment.
Kontos was integral in the building, launch and growth of BorderWise, the group’s international trade compliance software, in 2017. One executive close to WiseTech who spoke on condition of anonymity, given the confidentiality of Kontos’ agreement, said BorderWise “is one of the most profitable” products in the company.
In her LinkedIn post, Kontos thanked her colleagues. “I want to acknowledge the incredible contributions of our development specialists, compliance experts, and implementation professionals who helped refine and enhance these products.”
When her relationship with White ended, Kontos received a $7 million four-storey house in Melbourne’s waterside Docklands area, which had been purchased as a home for the pair when they were together.
According to her friends, Kontos lived with the billionaire at his house in Sydney’s south, and there was talk of marriage during their seven-year relationship. The friends said Kontos had no idea about the drama being played out with White’s other lovers.
One of those other lovers turned out to be Nasser, whom White began seeing in 2020 and married in Texas last year.
Kontos was in a relationship with White when he purchased two apartments in the Eliza luxury tower near Sydney’s Hyde Park and a Palm Beach residence.
Nasser is now a co-owner and joint tenant of the Palm Beach property and a penthouse in the Eliza luxury tower, along with White, according to property title and mortgage documents dated January 7 this year. They show the WiseTech billionaire transferred the holding for free.
White purchased the penthouse in December 2021 for $15.5 million and the Palm Beach residence in March 2022 for $27.5 million. Palm Beach was purchased via a trust, and the trustee had Nasser as its director and shareholder.
The properties were the subject of alleged demands from Nasser. An investigation by The Australian Financial Review, The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age in February revealed White had attempted to break up with Nasser in 2022. She had demanded $50 million to settle the break-up.
Nasser allegedly responded to the break-up with White by lodging caveats on the Palm Beach property and two of White’s Eliza tower apartments in March and April 2022. When White finalised the purchase of the Palm Beach residence in August 2022, it was done in his name.
In White’s legal documents that were never sworn, he said: “I never promised” either the Elizabeth St or Palm Beach properties to Nasser, “nor did I ever make any statement that it was purchased for, or on trust for, her.”
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